Arsenal keep on rolling and with Manchester United footballing the hell out of Liverpool, they will end the match round at the top of the table and things all in their hands again.
Before we start looking too far ahead let’s look at the stats from the game on the south coast.
Brighton 0-3 Arsenal: The Graphics
Brighton 0-3 Arsenal: The Debrief
10 - Shots for Brighton, at home this season they have averaged 17 shots
0.4 - Expected fgoals for Brighton, at home this season they have averaged 1.8 xG
2 - Shots on target for Brighton, at home this season they have averaged 6.4
21 - Touches in the box for Brighton, at home this season they have averaged 33
Coming into this match, this was a potentially nervy fixture. Brighton have been a good team at home causing teams and losing just once. With a big Champions League match on Tuesday, it was the type of match that could be a trap if the focus slipped at all.
Thankfully for Arsenal, it didn’t appear that way. They created a big chance early and from there had a number of chances to take the lead that just went begging. The hot finishing magic left Arsenal for a little bit but it was still a good day at the office for the attack.
19 - Non-penlaty Shots for Arsenal
2.5 - Non-penalty xG
0.13 - xG per shot
6 - Non-penalty big chances
51 - Touches in the box
On another day Arsenal convert a few more and make this a 4 to 6 goal game like they were doing earlier this year. the real positive for this match is that this was done in about 70 minutes with Arsenal moving down a gear or two in the final period looking to conserve energy with the game pretty well taken care of.
Kai Havertz quiets the doubters
2 - Shots, for 0.9 xG and 1 goal
4 - Key passes, for 0.6 xA and 1 assist
4 - Progressive passes received
8 - Touches in the box
1 - Tackle
3 - Fouls
0 - Yellow cards, meaning that he will not be suspended for his yellow card accumulation in the next match
After spending a lot of this season under the microscope for his performances Havertz has emerged as a player that has quieted the doubters with his play. Early the foundation for these types of performances were there and apparent if you looked for them but it was still very much in an adaption period to a new team and a new role.
Now it looks like he and his teammates have a better understanding of each other. He looks comfortable and like a handful as a forward but I would still feel like he can bring this new found threat even from his deeper starting position should he be called upon.
It is a great sign to see this happen for a player who has had so much criticism around him.
60 million down the drain, Kai Havertz scores again.
Zinchenko is solid but still in for criticism
There is something about Oleksandr Zinchenko that causes very strong and polarizing emotions.
It seemed to come out in force after this match and I struggle to fully understand why it is the case. There have been times Zincehnko has been a problem, I probably think there are less than others but given his tendency to take risks that will sometimes lead to matches where things are off.
This was just not the match at all where it was the problem but the same old talking points are brought out even when they don’t seem to apply here.
They targeted his side.
Often teams do target Arsenal’s left, when you look at the defenders Arsenal have that makes sense. Most coaches would probably not choose to pick on White, Saliba, or Gabriel if given the choice in most situations. Except Brighton didn’t do this in this match.
Brighton more often came down their left, Arsenal’s right in this match. Looking at where they got the ball into dangerous areas it wasn’t really from the areas that you would typically expect to see exploited by if they were attacking a fullback.
They worked the left but looked to switch and target him with long balls.
Again this is a tactic that sometimes teams will use against Arsenal. Luton did this a few times against Arsenal and one of the ways that Arsenal neutralized it was moving Gabriel really wide to challenge those aerial duels.
Against Brighton, there were a few of those but looking at the passes it doesn’t seem like this was a tactic to target Zinchenko exclusively, with a similar 3 switches out towards the right-back spot completed.
He makes too many mistakes
This one I think is just flatly wrong. He doesn’t make more mistakes, even with his passing being more risky. He is in a similar range to other Arsenal players and on the lower side for fullbacks.
In this game, it is again just not the case. Looking at the table above for plays that hurt Arsenal’s chances of scoring/boosted Brighton’s he had just one pass that was a negative. White had 2, Saliba had 3, and Gabriel had 6(!) in this match.
One of the actually true things is that if and when he makes a mistake he doesn’t have the freak athletic ability to recover on his own mistake like the other players in the back line. That is true but that doesn’t mean he makes more mistakes like you will commonly hear. I think this also is a positive because of the way Arsenal are set up, with elite defenders behind they can cover for when the mistakes happen and while it has danger and makes us nervous, it often doesn’t turn into dangerous shots.
Let’s go into his actual game stats a bit now:
41 - Pass Attempts on 87.8% Passing percentage and 108.2% Pass Efficiency (actual completion, compared to expected)
4 - Final 3rd Entry Passes
6 - Progressive Passes, 4 passes completed into the box
1 - Key Passes for 0.06 xA
1 - Progressive Carry
1 - Tackles
1 - Time Dribbled Past
1 - Blocked Pass
0 - Fouls committed
1 - Second ball won
248 - Progressive Pass Distance
120 - Progressive Carry Distance
3.35 - Fields Gained
One of the tweaks we have seen at Arsenal this calendar year is that the left full back has played a more traditional role. This was at first I think a response to Zinchenko getting injured and Jakub Kiwior looking out of his depth trying to play that role but it has also seen Jorginho blossom and given Declan Rice more freedom to push forward.
This hasn’t changed with Zinchenko coming back into the team. He will still invert at times and he has more freedom to move around but often he still out near the touchline with a role that is more similar to White’s on the right where he picks his spots to invert vs it being the plan A option.
This has seen him drop down the usage charts. He played just 70 minutes but even with that he was just the fifth most used passer for Arsenal. He is still a player that adds value with his passing but it does show that the team and the player can have a different way of playing.
This I think is the key insight.
So often last season Arsenal had just one way of playing and it was heavily dependent on having a few key players available to make it work. Zinchenko was one of those players; when he was out Arsenal’s ball progression and control suffered mightily. This year we have seen that but I think also an adaption with different ways to solve that problem with Jorgniho and White changing their roles and picking up the slack.
People will say that they are evolving away from him and I think that is partially correct, I think the team is adding resilience to be able to not be dependent on any single player and the team will still want to have his skillset but they won’t fall apart without him.
Top of the league!!!
Good stuff, Scott