It hasn’t always been like it is under Mikel Arteta. Arsenal fans are all too aware of that.
Cast your minds back to the final days of Unai Emery and a bleak image can be painted. Covid wasn’t yet upon us but the Emirates Stadium was virtually empty as the Gunners were downed by Frankfurt in the Europa League.
It was a very bleak night and Emery didn’t last too much longer after that. Freddie Ljungberg was put in interim charge and then entered Arteta. The rest is history.
That history could look pretty special once the Spaniard leaves the club, provided he can finally topple the juggernaut that is Manchester City.
The Londoners have gone close – to within two points last term – of winning the title but what’s the reason for the resurgence? They’ve been better in the transfer market, Arteta’s principles have taken over the football club and importantly, their defence is a great deal better than it was.
The numbers behind Arsenal's defence
Gabriel and William Saliba. Phwoar, now there’s a duo. The Brazilian and Frenchman (we promise this isn’t the start of a joke) have been utterly astonishing in Arsenal colours and have formed a partnership that could go down as one of the best we’ve seen in English football.
Only a few weeks ago Jamie Carragher wrote for The Telegraph that ‘Saliba and Gabriel are on the threshold of joining great centre-half pairings’ alongside the likes of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho, and Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Fine words indeed.
Saliba vs Gabriel. League stats for the 2023/24 campaign.
Last term they kept the highest number of clean sheets in the division. Saliba had 18 to his name while Gabriel was part of 15 shut-outs. The next best away from Arsenal was at Everton where Jordan Pickford and James Tarkowski kept 13.
They cannot do it all by themselves, however. The magnificent David Raya has taken their backline to a new level. From that wonderful save to keep out Ollie Watkins’ header at Villa Park to his jaw-dropping double stop against Mateo Retegui in the Champions League, he’s now one of the finest goalkeepers around.
They’ve now also been boosted by Riccardo Calafiori’s arrival and Jurrien Timber’s return from a devastating ACL injury.
The Dutchman signed from Ajax in the summer of 2023 but his debut campaign was curtailed after the first Premier League match against Nottingham Forest. Timber hobbled off and wouldn’t be seen again until the dying stages of the season.
He’s now back and proving to be a wonderful asset, starring from both left-back and right-back.
The £90k-per-week earner is a ray of composure. He’s intelligent, capable of playing out from the back amazingly well and is also a phenomenal creator, supplying an assist and registering seven key passes in the win over Leicester recently.
Oh isn’t a huge far cry from those final days under Arsene Wenger and Emery? Arsenal’s defence is now unrecognisable from those days, days when players like David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi would throw out error-stricken displays on an all too regular basis.
Mustafi's career in numbers at Arsenal
The name Shkodran Mustafi is enough to send shivers down the most staunch of Arsenal fans. His career in north London was not a successful one and he left having been a “horrendous signing” in the words of journalist Charles Watts.
It could have been so very different though. That same summer Manchester City went out and signed John Stones for £50m from Everton. The Express rated Pep Guardiola’s actions in the window as a 6/10. Remarkably, Mustafi – who cost an initial £35m fee – was given an 8/10 rating with it described as a “great piece of business”.
Stones is still a key cog at the Etihad Stadium and coincidentally, was the man to break Arsenal’s hearts in that last-gasp draw between the two sides last month.
Mustafi, on the other hand, has now retired after failing to ever find his best form in north London. As the outspoken Ian Wright once noted, “he is not good enough” and truth be told, he was never good enough for the Gunners.
‘Another great piece of business, Mustafi joined late in August missing Arsenal’s opening 4-3 defeat to Liverpool but has since formed a formidable centre-back pairing with Laurent Koscielny. Recently sidelined with injury as Arsenal crumbled away at Everton and Manchester City, Arsene Wenger will be desperate to see Mustafi back. The German looks to have helped solve the Gunners’ age-old defensive frailties.’ – The Express in December 2016
From a period from the beginning of the 2017/18 season to September 2019, Arsenal had made a remarkable 29 individual errors leading to goals in the Premier League. Petr Cech had six errors, Granit Xhaka five and Mustafi three.
One of his worst days came towards the back end of 2018/19. Arsenal were hunting a Champions League spot but the German defender had other ideas as Emery’s men tasted defeat to Crystal Palace.
Signed for
£35m
Games
151
Goals
9
Assists
5
Trophies
x2 FA Cups
Weekly Wage
£98k
Yearly Wage
£5.1m
Arsenal lost 3-2 and it was largely thanks to the centre-back whose attempted challenge on Wilfried Zaha got him nowhere and left him one-on-one with Bernd Leno. Bizarrely, Mustafi tried deflecting the blame on Leno but his fellow German was having none of it.
We’d be here all day if we spent time analysing every mistake but he has to go down as one of their worst signings of the last ten years. Arsenal’s defence has changed considerably now and for the better. Financially, things are better too.
During his time with the club, Mustafi took home €118k-a-week (£98k), meaning that he was only £2k-a-week shy of Gabriel’s earnings. For further context, he took home a larger weekly salary than the likes of Leandro Trossard and the aforementioned Timber.
In all, the error-strewn defender bled the club of a staggering £56m. That’s £370k-per-game and a remarkable £6.2m-per-goal. Not good business at all.
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ByEthan LambOct 12, 2024