Arsenal have an impregnable new backup plan

This Arsenal team is attracting admiring glances from many corners of the football world previously numb to their approach. Mikel Arteta has had this team playing some of the blandest football seen in north London for years. Now it’s some of the most invigorating.

Built around positional play with space, who occupies it, and where everyone should be at any given time, it’s resulted in a more fluid, dominant and attractive style of play.

Add to that a young team bursting with their own electric qualities and the result is performances seen recently, including for 60 minutes against Aston Villa.

But football can be glorious in more ways that one. Just like a flowing move from back to front is considered the pinnacle of the game, a perfectly timed tackle that wins the ball cleanly and leaves one in on the opponent can also be cherished.

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Arsenal have an impregnable new backup plan with Rob Holding and the famous 5-2-3 defensive block a valuable tool to have

While attacking football is what all want to see, there is an unquestionable beauty in defending, too. Specifically, this Arsenal team’s defending.

The 1-0 win over Aston Villa handed the Gunners’ their fifth straight away win in the Premier League, the first time they have achieved that feat since 2015. Those victories haven’t always been pretty in the sense of comfort, but they have been pretty resolute.

Front and centre of that is Rob Holding and the now renowned 5-2-3 shape.

When the game appears to be leaning in favour of the opposition, Arteta doesn’t hesitate. While Arsene Wenger used to throw on ten variations of Kieran Gibbs, the current boss turns to Holding. And when he does, we know what’s coming.

In all three of the past away wins the Englishman has been introduced. He doesn’t even need to be told what the do, his remit is clear: sit in between White and Gabriel, and clear everything away that crosses your path.

He’s doing a terrific job of it. An excellent reader of the game and resolute in his own box, in the six matches he’s played this season as a substitute Arsenal have conceded just one goal – in the last second of the Man City game when Arsenal were down to ten men.

Other than that he’s come on against Southampton, Wolves, Watford, Aston Villa and Liverpool and kept a shutout. At Molineux in particular he made nine headed clearances in the space of just 19 minutes, four more than anyone else on the pitch.

There is a secret storyline somewhere deep in the All or Nothing documentary where Arteta has individually been coaching Holding for the last 18 months to lead the grittiest low block in the Premier League. Extra sessions on weeknights. Everything.

It isn’t just him, though, as the team on a whole has shown outstanding resilience and discipline when dropping into their 5-2-3 block. There isn’t as much effort to tackle or close down possession; it is pure, unadulterated defending of the most textbook way: cross it in and we’ll head it out, take a shot and we’ll block it.

The shape of the team is magnificent with spaces kept touch tight, and whether it’s 5-3-2 or 5-2-3, the narrow midfield in front of the back five are indomitable in their positioning.

Having flirted with back five/three systems before, it’s now being mastered. It’s as if the team wears this elegant mask for most of their time on the pitch but can whip it off at any minute and resort to good old fashioned clear-ball.

Having this trick up the sleeve in times of need is a hugely valuable commodity. Yet to be overcome this season, Villa Park is certain not to be the last time we see it.