The game that saw Ronaldinho dance across the pitch to cheekily lob the goal keeper, before a toothy smile and a Samba at the corner flag. The game that saw Zinedine Zidane and Kaka dissect defences with perfectly timed, placed and weighted passes.
The game that saw Steven Gerard and David Beckham pick out goal-side strikers with crosses from their own halves, while they weren’t finding the top corner with strikes from similar ranges. The game that saw Arsenal legend Thierry Henry single-handedly tear through defences to score against all odds.
That game is now characterised by a cascade of choreographed corners and scrupulous “game management”, that’s scoreline or opponent agnostic and punctuated with deliberate risk aversion.
And that’s the formula that handed the Gunners their 14th league title; while making ‘1-nil to the Arsenal’, the norm, rather than a catch phrase. The Champions of England found the back of the net from corners 19 times, breaking their own record from the previous season. 11 of these broke the deadlock in games.
Of the 71 goals that the now 14-time champions scored, only 42 have been from open play. That’s the lowest number of goals scored by any teams that’s lifted the coveted Premier League trophy. And speaking of goal margins, 15 of Arsenal’s 26 victories were secured by a single goal margin.
The beautiful game has been dying for a while. And this iteration of Arsenal F.C. under Mikel Arteta is to football what Marcus Junius Brutus was to Julius Caesar — the final blade that brought down the legend.
But this isn’t a bad thing. As it is said, ‘The King is dead; long live the King!’ In fact, it’s exactly what the Gunners needed and it’s also become football’s latest incarnation – the latest in the many guises it has taken since a leather ball was first kicked into a goal.
A hat trick of runner-up medals, gave the former Arsenal captain turned coach, 2 options – another second place decorated with performances that personified poetry in motion or a League title built on systemic, regimented, ‘boring’ victories. The Spaniard’s call to implement the latter has turned out to be a multi-million dollar triumph.
To say that Arsenal’s success was predicated on its stone-wall defence would be an understatement. With only 27 goals conceded and 8.2 shots allowed per game, it’s no wonder that Arsenal’s back four was touted to be impenetrable.
And interceptions and tackles were the not-so-secret ingredients to this success. Over 160 key tackles and interceptions guaranteed that the defensive line allowed less than 20 clear and obvious chances. To put that in perspective, the second team on that list is Brighton with over 30 chances allowed. Interestingly, despite Arsene Wenger’s reputation of “free-flowing football”, his first title win was in a similar vein.
The back line that featured Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Nigel Winterburn and Steve Bould conceded only 17 goals, the second fewest in league history, drawing 12 games to secure “only” 78 points. In fact, despite a reputation for “favouring the dark arts”, Arteta’s squad controlled 62.4% of possession in the final-third.
Man-management, was another building block in Arteta’s landmark triumph.Seasons hampered by injuries prompted the manager to bolster each position with a regiment of replacements. This guaranteed continuity and competition in the squad, key requirements to lift any silverware.
The previous season saw 36 injury incidents where 6-7 first team players, on average, were unavailable every week. Although this campaign wasn’t nearly as bad, Arsenal’s flurry of summer signings ensured that long-term injuries to Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, to name a few, did not hinder either their exploits in Europe or England.
This constant turnover in personnel mandated the need for formulaic success, which corners & overt risk-aversion provided. So, Arteta had no choice but to strangle the beautiful game to achieve this now legendary feat. In fact, it’s likely that the result-oriented, bottom-line obsessed game, will reward such an approach more as the years go by.
But having achieved the completion of his much-touted ‘process’, Mikel Arteta has the opportunity to resurrect the beautiful game once more. Something we saw glimpses of in the last game of the season against Crystal Palace. So Arteta’s much-scrutinised and villified tactics, may continue to be questioned. But scaling this particular pinnacle of English football has given the Arsenal veteran, space in the box to redefine the definition of beauty in football.
