Claudius
This analysis is a nice corroboration, but the renewed emphasis on organised pressing and compact defending across all Premier League clubs has been a feature of our discussions here for years … since 2021–22 at least I reckon.
Some of us more or less came up with it back then to rationalise why Arteta and Edu kept shelling out huge sums on defenders.
We also observed Arteta was leading a wave of managers with these preoccupations, and there were fewer and fewer easybeat clubs in the whole league. Next came the recognition the mid block was the tactical kryptonite of dynamic counter-attacking football, which we've been talking about since at least 2022.
Some of the complaints of the past few years, let's say the rhetoric of the "horseshoe of death", have failed to account for these changes. Sometimes we've spoken as if we Arsenal could just sign the right striker and it would teleport Arsenal's football back 20 years. This season everyone's finally figuring out that isn't the case.
I personally don't mind it when football goes through these phases, the sport's got to evolve and I appreciate the amazing physicality, focus and intensity of the current version. Looking forward to the next thing though.
