After their season-ending match at Crystal Palace, Arsenal won the Premier League trophy. Despite criticism of their style of play this season, the Gunners have won the top division. Arsenal is a deserving champion despite its detractors, and for this reason…
A happy moment. In moments that will define a generation and an era for the football team, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard grasped the Premier League trophy and lifted it.
Fans, commentators, analysts, and experts have all expressed their opinions regarding Mikel Arteta’s team this season.
Their style of play has been branded ‘unwatchable’; they have been given the tag ‘Set-Piece FC’ – yet none of that matters when you get your hands on the trophy.
Arsenal have faced their so-called critics despite being consistently top of the table since October.
Earlier this year, Paul Scholes said they would be the “worst Premier League title winners ever”. The notion that Arsenal do not have a clear enough ‘Premier League Player of the Season’ winner has been used as a stick to bash the Gunners with.
It included Liverpool head coach Arne Slot having a thinly-veiled dig at Arteta’s Arsenal this week. “Congratulations to them,” he said. “But for me they have been a different champion than the last 10 seasons. It is the first time in 30 years that 40 per cent of goals have come from set pieces.”
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None of that will matter to Arteta, his players and staff – nor the Arsenal supporters whose title celebrations will carry on all summer.
Yes, they did not always show the attacking verve of Manchester City or have the crucial goalscorer at the top of the Golden Boot rankings. But they did enough in front of goal to win the league – especially when the criticism of their style of play has not been entirely their own fault.
All season, opposition teams have gone to great lengths to stop Arsenal from getting their way in the final third.
The numbers help show how guarded opposition teams have been against Arsenal. This season, Arsenal have taken the most open-play shots in the Premier League, where the opposition has nine or more players in the penalty box at the time.
Even Manchester City were forced into this approach. The Gunners forced them into a low block, a back five and a record-low 33.2 per cent possession when Pep Guardiola’s team came to the Emirates in September.
And what happens if you open up against Arsenal? The Champions League is a good example of that. Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid have all tried to play ‘their way’ against Arsenal, and all of them lost.
