The defence has been the fulcrum of Arsenal’s success over the past two years. Last season, they conceded 29 goals. No other Premier League team has managed that. This season, Arsenal have added Riccardo Calafiori, who had an outstanding EURO 2024. In addition, Jurrien Timber has also recovered from a long-term injury and has been nothing short of a new signing for Mikel Arteta this season.

Calafiori is a great deal for Arsenal as he plays well at both full-back and centre-back.

In the recent match against Man City, the Spanish strategist surprisingly left Ben White on the bench. Calafiori played on the left wing and Timber was pushed to the right wing, replacing White.

In theory, Arsenal are playing with a defense of 4 central defenders. None of them are under 1m88, except Timber (1m79). However, the former Ajax player is thick and has the ability to dribble extremely skillfully. Even former player Gabbriel Agbonlahor thinks that this is an irreplaceable piece of Arteta’s puzzle.

“Calafiori scored, but Timber was a rock. The stats in the match, which say he didn’t have a single pass on target, don’t matter,” said Agbonlahor .

In fact, Man City had success in their Champions League winning season by deploying all four centre-backs in defence. Pep has swapped inverted full-backs for pure centre-backs.

This season, Man City have sometimes played with three centre-backs and that tactical imprint is no longer strong. Meanwhile, Arsenal’s defence is really interesting.

They have good communication between positions. In the second half against Man City, Arsenal suffered 28 shots from their opponents but there was no sense of the defence collapsing or having moments of confusion.

Arsenal’s defence was tested in the second half against Man City.

Not counting the meeting with Man City, they have played 5 matches this season and conceded only once, against Brighton. That was also the match in which Arsenal took the lead but were one man down from the start of the second half, after Declan Rice’s red card.

In short, a big match like Man City will teach Arsenal players many lessons. They are still young and have the ability to develop further in the future. They only lack the defensive philosophy to become a super strong defense in the Premier League. From this season, Arteta seems to have found the ‘truth’. Let’s wait and see from now until the end of the season, how Arsenal’s back four will play when they have overcome the psychological threshold of “fear of Man City”.