LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 27: (EDITORS NOTE: Image was altered with digital filters and was shot on a mobile phone) A general view outside the stadium prior to the UEFA Europa League round of 32 second leg match between Arsenal FC and Olympiacos FC at Emirates Stadium on February 27, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

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The evolution of Arsenal’s playing style

May 21, 2024

Arsenal have returned to being one of the major forces in the English Premier League after many years of being the butt of rivals’ jokes. They have now been involved in the title race in back-to-back seasons and that’s mainly because of how Mikel Arteta has transformed the team.

Years back, Arsenal was a team focused on aesthetically pleasing football. Their philosophy under Arsene Wenger was to hold possession and try to work the ball neatly into the opponent’s goal. The goal was not just to win, it was to also play beautiful football while winning. And that was why guys who are known for their excellent passing like Cesc Fabregas, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil, and Jack Wilshere excelled under Wenger.

Playing this brand of football, Arsenal surely enjoyed some success, but towards the end of Wenger’s managerial career, it proved to not be very effective anymore, and you could argue that it was one of the reasons that the French icon left the club when he did.

And you could say that Unai Emery, who succeeded him, sort of wanted to continue in that path, and yes, it got them to a European final, but in general, it didn’t yield the results the fans wanted.

So, Mikel Arteta came in and turned things around, bringing in a more contemporary and pragmatic approach. It took him a little while, but the Spanish gaffer has been able to build a team that can excel playing different types of football.

Now, this Arsenal team has the ability to play you out of the park; dominating possession, stringing together multiple successful passes, creating an unbelievable number of chances, and scoring a truckload of goals.

But they are also about to set up in a mid or low block when needed, making sure that they don’t concede too many goals. And you could even say that it was their defensive solidity that took them so far in the 2023-24 season. They were the team that conceded the least number of goals in the league and it was their goalkeeper David Raya who won the Premier League Golden Glove after keeping the most clean sheets in the league.

Arteta also decided to take set-pieces more seriously, and those, too, yielded great results. Arsenal were the team that scored the most goals from set-pieces in the just-concluded Premier League season, and on a number of occasions, those brilliant set-piece routines were enough to win points for the Gunners.

So yeah, it’s pretty obvious that Arsenal’s style of play has evolved. They went from an aesthetically-pleasing style to a more effective and result-oriented style, and with the way things have progressed under Mikel Arteta, it feels like only a matter of time before the reward for this evolution in the form of trophies begin to pour in. But even before they do, it is important to note that the fact that Arsenal are back to being a top team is testament to how necessary this evolution was.