Arsenal: Four goals is fun, but how about that clean sheet?

Arsenal turned up the heat against Newcastle, but while we’re all celebrating the four goals, how about yet another clean sheet?

Arsenal finally broke their four draw streak with a mammoth 4-0 win against Newcastle, and while it didn’t make much of a dent in the Premier League table set-up, it had a huge effect on the confidence of the team as a whole, as can be attested to by the sheer joy on all their faces.

But amidst all the goal-scoring extravaganza, there was something else happening—another clean sheet, and another clean sheet anchored by supposedly hapless Shkodran Mustafi and David Luiz, no less.

I understand why we’re celebrating the four goals. We haven’t scored that many goals in… ever? Probably ever. But clean sheets have become such a rarity these days that even two in a row is something to celebrate.

Not just that, but it’s clearly been the top priority of Mikel Arteta in fixing this side. We’ve all heard the stat by now about how the goal surrendered total was halved when Arteta took over. Since that stat came out, we’ve had two clean sheets.

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Meaning that the goals surrendered is getting even smaller and smaller.

In the ten matches since Arteta has been in charge, Arsenal have surrendered just eight goals. For those of you not gifted in math, that’s less than a goal a match—0.8 goals surrendered per match, to be exact.

This is the same Arsenal club that, prior to Arteta, surrendered two goals to Standard Liege, Norwich, Brighton, Eintracht Frankfurt and Southampton. That’s ten goals in five games against opposition we should not be surrendering those kinds of goals to.

And in steps Arteta, now running with a defensive pairing that would have been met with scorn and mockery were it not for the results they’re producing.

Newcastle came close to scoring a couple of times, I get that. Luiz and Mustafi weren’t perfect by any means. But the bad breaks seem to have given way to good breaks, and the bad defense to good defense. All because of something or another that Arteta has provided for this defense. A new philosophy, most likely, which is what we’ve been asking for these past couple years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m more excited about the four goals too. But the fact that clean sheets are so easily overlooked now is a sign of what’s to come.