Arsenal's Preseason: The Debrief

Breaking down the numbers from Arsenal's five matches to get ready for the 2025/26 season

Arsenal wrapped up their five-match preseason Saturday and they look mostly fit and ready to take on what will be a grueling 10-month test starting next weekend.

My general view is that I don’t put too much stock into preseason nor the overall results and even really the performances don’t get me too high or low. I think you can get some information from these matches, but these aren’t games that should drastically move our opinions given the goals/preparation/flow/lineups are just so different than you’ll see starting next week.

In case you need a recap, here is how the preseason played out for Arsenal.

Arsenal in Singapore played Milan and Newcastle:

Arsenal then moved on to Hong Kong playing Tottenham:

Arsenal were then back in England for two matches against Spanish opposition at the Emirates Stadium:

Overall, Arsenal went 3-0-2 in preseason scoring 9 and allowing 6. We will break this down in a bit more detail below.

Before preseason started, I had hoped that we would be able to get some visibility into how some of the key position battles might play out and we didn’t quite leave with things too much clearer.

With Jurrien Timber recovering from injury we didn’t get to see too much of him at right back to see the contrast between him and Ben White. It was the same story at left back, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Riccardo Calafiori.

The striker battle was complicated by a niggle that kept Kai Havertz out of the Villarreal match and Gyokeres was delayed joining by his transfer dragging on beyond when the team left.

It’s not the end of the world; it just means that we will see how things play out over the opening couple of months of the season with the stakes higher rather than in the preseason environment.

Here is how the overall minutes usage looked for Arsenal in preseason:

No real surprises here for me. The first few matches saw the whole squad getting used and as things progressed, players that we expect to be major contributors in the first team ramped up closer to a full load.

Arsenal’s Preseason Attacking Numbers

1.2 - Non-penalty goals per match

1.14 - Non-penalty expected goals per match

11.0 - Open play shots per match

0.076 - Arsenal’s average xG per shot

38.6 - Touches in the box per match

3.27 - Touches within 25 yards of goal needed per shot

The shooting numbers in preseason haven’t been the prettiest. The volume of shots has been pretty good but until the final match of preseason they had been generally pretty low quality on average. This didn’t calm any nerves given that this was also an issue for stretches last season, especially when the team was dealing with a front line that wasn’t full strength.

Some of the copium here is that the team was still often mixing and matching lineups (against a slate of strong opposition as well) and that defensive solidity is often ahead of attack and the dependence on a bit more intricate patterns and understanding.

Looking now at some of the buildup numbers.

107.7 - Buildup passing efficiency

39.4 - Final third entries per match, on 74.8% completion percentage

35.2 - Progressive passes completed per match

44.2% - The percentage of Arsenal’s matches that were forward, 24.8% backwards, 30.9% square.

10.6% - The percentage of Arsenal’s passes that were long, completing 58.6% of them

42.2% - The percentage of Arsenal’s passes that were medium distance, completing 89.4% of them

47.2% - The percentage of Arsenal’s passes that were short, completing 86.3% of them

You can see in the overall team radar that the small sample of just five matches really can skew things. Overall, Arsenal fill things out pretty amazingly but in the preseason, it didn’t turn into the most important stuff of clear chances and goals.

Arsenal’s Preseason Defensive Numbers

0.8 - Arsenal’s non-penalty goals allowed per match

0.32 - Arsenal’s non-penalty expected goals allowed per match

2.8 - Arsenal’s open play shots allowed per match

0.10 - Arsenal’s average shot quality allowed

11.0 - Touches in the box per match allowed by Arsenal

2.56 - Arsenal’s opponents touches within 25 yards of goal needed per shot

Arsenal’s biggest problem in preseason was that they were a bit sloppy, they had a number of errors that gifted chances to the opposition but that was largely the extent of the threat that was created against them. This has been an issue at times in the past with Arsenal’s level of comfort and philosophy of playing out from the back but it is not generally something that leaves me too worried about the defense headed into the season.

Overall, the defense looked quite strong.

8.5 - Passes allowed per defensive action

98.4% - Buildup passing efficiency allowed (this is lower than expected and shows good effectiveness at limiting team’s ability to pass against the Arsenal defense)

8.2 - Touches allowed per match within 25 yards of goal

9.4 - Final third entries allowed per match

There was some hot finishing against Arsenal and that will happen over five match runs but the overall numbers continue to back the belief that Arsenal are an elite defensive team.

It’s nice to come away from preseason without any major issues and it does look like while it didn’t go perfectly to plan, the team looks to have ramped up effectively to take on the tough early season schedule.