Arsenal: 5 improvements under Arteta this season

2. Less Left-Sided Bias With Kieran Tierney

This is a very new alteration to how Arsenal play as the Granit Xhaka pass to Kieran Tierney down the left channel and cross tactic has already been painfully overused this season.

The most painful rendition of the Tierney one-pronged trident was that horrific away defeat to Tottenham where he flung in 5,329 crosses to Alexandre Lacazette’s unavailable head, with Arteta continuing to utilise this route to goal for too long after that.

There were inklings of this changing against Norwich which blended into the games since where Nicolas Pepe was receiving the ball deeper on the right and seeking to build play with a more balanced attacking approach. Away at Arsenal a host of subpar performances meant Arsenal barely had the ball to even consider attcking.

Yet, what is visible now is the fives lanes of attack. They’ve so clearly defined and Arteta has evidently put a lot of work into it.

This is aided by Martin Odegaard’s permanent arrival and Arsenal have far more balance and threat coming from every direction than they’ve had before: Tierney’s overlaps, Smith Rowe’s left half-space, Odegaard’s centrality and Saka’s effervescence on the right.

It ensures that the Gunners are less painfully predictable and with the Norwegian glue in the middle and the Ghanaian Rolls Royce just behind they can find those lanes of attacking with greater fluency and speed.

Continued…