How Arsenal Have Got Even Better Than Last Season
Mikel Arteta has Arsenal playing at a level that should terrify the rest of the Premier League. After beating Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday, Jacob Horsfall is here to look at Kai Havertz movement, Myles Lewis-Skelly's genius and the exact ways in which Arsenal have got even better than last season. arsenal football premierleague Buy the latest FourFourTwo magazine here ➡️ https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/FourFourTwo/author/B0GSRRXJWK?ref=srnttsrchlnk1&qid=1786984945&sr=8-1&shoppingPortalEnabled=true ⚽ FourFourTwo - At the heart of football since 1994 - in print - online - on video ⚽ 📰 SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/3ErE4ai 💻 WEBSITE: https://bit.ly/3GFXMC0 Follow FourFourTwo on: Twitter/X: https://x.com/FourFourTwo?lang=en Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fourfourtwouk/?hl=en TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fourfourtwoofficial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FourFourTwo/?locale=enGB 📥 Sign up below for 𝗘𝗫𝗧𝗥𝗔-𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘 @FourFourTwo's FREE weekday newsletter 🤝: Transfers 🛒: Deals 🎥: Videos 💡: Quizzes ✍️: Opinion ➕: 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 👇 https://t.co/Yn3AQUt7b6
Transcript
This is massive. Arteta's new look attack has made the best team in the country >> [music] >> look even better. But how's he done it? What has Big Mick done this time? Well, I'm Jacob Ospol 442's resident tactician and this is how the best just got a hell of a lot better. >> [cheering] >> In the summer, there was a lot of discourse around Miles Lewis-Skelly. Will he stay? Will he go? Is it time for him to move on? Well, let me tell you, he's staying and not only is he staying, ladies and gentlemen, Miles Lewis-Skelly is a key cog in Arteta's Arsenal this season. Here, Arsenal are in a really sticky situation. Palmer is in close proximity to the ball and if it's set for Kalafiori, then you expect the Chelsea players to converge and turn it over high. The only safe solution really is to poke it down the line or this little magician can receive on the half turn, step across Palmer with that half turn, and begin to not only progress Arsenal up the pitch, but if we just skip a frame or two, look at where the Chelsea attention is. Four players ahead of the ball are fully occupied by Skelly, meaning Trossard and Ødegaard can be on the outside of Chelsea's midfield block and get beyond it two passes later and all of a sudden Arsenal are 3v2 on the halfway line. And that is sensational. But if we've watched Miles Lewis-Skelly for the years that we have done, then you know that that's what he's all about. And Arteta building that midfield of Skelly, Rice, and Ødegaard gives them such a nice balance and is giving Martin Ødegaard serious freedom to operate how he needs to be operating. Rice here as almost the third center half and Lewis-Skelly operating through the middle are sort of the anchor players of this midfield. They have more fixed zones than someone like Ødegaard who has shifted to this right-hand side here, creating that overload and splitting the Chelsea center halves on the back line, which is why to me we're seeing Ødegaard have some of the best performances he's put out in a long old while, especially after his poor run last season. But ultimately, as good as I think Odegaard has been, and you know, when he's getting beyond the opposition's midfield line, being able to receive on the half turn, and make those incisive passes, that's him at his best. But it's not possible without Marsch Lewis Skelly. His presence through the middle, his driving runs to occupy opposition defenders. And he, as we've seen, has been key to unlocking Odegaard's. However, Marsch Lewis Skelly isn't alone in this because we've got the false fullback, Riccardo Calafiori. >> [cheering] >> Now, by false fullback, I don't mean he's lying to us. He's not He's not telling little porkies about where he's supposed to be playing. No, what I mean is, look at where he is here, and this isn't brand new for us, though, but Calafiori this season seems to be taking it to a new extreme. He's actually the only box presence Arsenal have in this phase of play right now, and he's got a sort of supporting network of three behind him to allow him to do that, which is common practice for this 2026-27 Arsenal side. Marsch Lewis Skelly and Calafiori seem to rotationally operate around one another. I think Lewis Skelly's positioning is a real reference point for Calafiori to know what he's supposed to do at certain times. Against Chelsea, you constantly saw them engaging with one another. Quick pop one-twos and go to get Calafiori in behind, which is another interesting dynamic that affects Arteta's side in all thirds of the pitch. Because we know Arsenal want to overload that right-hand side. 51% of their first half attacks came down that right-hand side against Chelsea. Doing this allows for quick combinations, then, as Havertz did for his goal, counter movements back in front of the opposition defense to cut out and shoot. But it also leaves gaps in the opposition's defense, which Calafiori is key to exploiting. But that can also open channel space both on the inside and outside of Arsenal's right defense. So, having someone who broke into the Arsenal first team by playing as a left-back, in my opinion, gives you not only the flying Italian who gets in the final third, has a brilliant shot on him, looks really handsome when he does it, but also gives you this sort of hole-filler in my Lewis Skelly. Now, on paper, I'm well aware that may seem like the basics, a midfielder who's sort of a plug-and-play, you know, can drop out in a different areas of the pitch, and a full-back getting into the final third. But, this sort of rotational fluid movement isn't just limited to those sort of players. Arteta now has his whole team moving relatively freely within his structure. Sort of like planets orbiting the sun. And Arteta's the sun, I suppose. >> KAI HAVERTZ! >> Kai Havertz, to me, feels ready-made and a perfect fit for this sort of rotational fluid movement Arsenal side, because he's never really been a certain type of striker. He's scored one-on-ones, but he isn't a channel-running forward. He's scored headers, but he isn't a box-dominant poacher. And yeah, he is a really good playmaker who plays as that sort of second striker number 10 sort of role. But, he's not a out-and-out false nine type, is he? So, this position is perfect for the German. He begins the move as the furthest forward Arsenal player, and a Chelsea center-half is man-to-man with him. Now, with a midfielder getting up to play a pass, Lacazette last season would have probably hit the channel here, sucking in the center-back and hoping for the ball to go wide before eventually finding him in the box. Instead, Havertz does nothing. He doesn't follow the ball line and actually drops below it. That's important because this center-half is still worried about him, and this winger doesn't want to drop into the back line because they're wary of Havertz arriving on the edge of the box. So, Bukayo Saka can make that diagonal run through and get a shot off, which is obviously something that Trossard is for the the pass and the ability to create that separation will get credit for. And because Saka will get a lot of credit for that move and the speed in which he gets his shot off. But Arsenal don't create that chance without Kai Havertz. Because Chelsea really struggled to find the marking patterns when Havertz was moving because he never once made sort of the same movement twice in a row. He might pin one of their center halves, then he'd maybe peel onto the furthest center half away from the ball, then he'd come into feet and try and receive it. He was constantly moving. There's a reason he ranks second for sprints so far in the Premier League this season. Because genuinely, from what I've seen from Kai Havertz so far, the bloke hasn't stopped this season. And the same thing was shown against Aston Villa and in my books that largely comes down to IQ. Because in this 3 V 2, Kai Havertz has every right to demand Saka plays this ball in front of him into his path so he can get onto it facing goal, get his own shot off. Instead, [music] you see he takes a little glance and sees that the two center halves are both marking him and Eberechi Eze is on that far side completely unmarked arriving in the box. So he actually pulls out of that back line, goes to go around Bukayo Saka, which drags the center half with him just enough, keeps the attention just enough that Eze can get into the box still unmarked, opening up that back post cross and it it's a nice situation for Arsenal to be in. Which is a bit of a change up compared to some of the things that we saw from Arsenal last season. Specifically, some of the stuff that we saw from Viktor Gyökeres last season. This Swede was Arsenal's top scorer by a considerable distance last season. And he did the job he was supposed to do, which was score goals, win them the title. But even in preseason when Arsenal turned Real Betis round here, you sort of see this area where there's this player arriving in the box who has a nice space, a nice way to get across his marker. And instead of Gyökeres going on the outside to pull this center half away from the ball, he wants to get into the box. His natural instincts are to attack the space in the box to try and get onto it, get his own shots off. And in the end, he ends up jamming up the box a little bit. It becomes a little bit more difficult for Arsenal to get a clear-cut chance, but that's his job. That's fine. That's what Jorginho was supposed to do. And I think now without the pressure of trying to win the Premier League, like having [snorts] to get it done over the line, Arsenal are able to potentially go in with Kai Havertz as the main man. Not only the main man, but the star man because he brings so much more than just the goals and he'll still get you eight. He'll still get you 10 goals, won't he? And for this Arsenal side, that'll be big. Those fluid rotations in that front line, Havertz coming deep, Saka going beyond, it's beautiful to watch. And it's sort of the opposite of what everyone's criticized Arsenal for. That's what people have wanted Arsenal to sort of do, and now they've got the pressure off them, they can. And they've still got the best out of possession gaffer in Europe. That is terrifying. But, it is much needed for this Arsenal side. A side who I think, as much as they got the job done, all credit to them, >> [music] >> at times last season, they got a little bit predictable. And how sustainable the way they ended that season could really be, I'm not 100% sure. Now, I know against Chelsea, they weren't unpredictable really. These wide 4v4s with Ødegaard arriving into that little pocket were rinsed. Understandably though, they were great. They were good to watch. They they hurt Chelsea every single time down that right-hand side. And it does just feel as sort of a a vibe that almost like a weight has been lifted off that really solid foundation that they've already got. So, we should all be deeply deeply scarce. Arsenal are entering an era of dominance, I feel like, and they are constantly evolving with the tactical matter in the Premier League. Low possession, quick dynamics, rotations. Tiki-taka is dead, and Arsenal are the ones who are putting it in its grave. And we're going to be here for the whole journey of Mikel Arteta's dominance in the Premier League. So, drop a like and subscribe, stick around for a bit, and we'll see you all next week.