While it is a perfect start to the new season, three league games are far from sufficient in determining how good the new Arsenal will turn out to be.
They have won all three league matches (scoring 6 goals and conceding only 1) as well as the Community Shield against Manchester City, giving them 4 wins from their first four competitive matches, with 9 goals scored and only 1 conceded.
The stats aren’t lying.
The more interesting thing to talk about, however, is why Arsenal have been so hard to beat.
There are some clues as to why that is.
They are very limited in what opportunities they are giving to the opposition to counter into.
Their press is designed to stop passing options rather than chasing down their opponents.
They have brought quality in their attack.
But there are also questions.
Can teams get through the press? What happens when Arsenal have to chase? And perhaps most importantly, will the recent change in referee rules concerning holding and blocking at set pieces impact their biggest weapon?
We can’t answer those questions with only three games.
We can, however, identify a few things to be on the look out for.
Arsenal’s shape when they have the ball
One of the first observations to make is what happens when Arsenal start building up from deep.
Declan Rice frequently drops into the box, allowing the centre-backs to move out wider, providing an extra man in the first line of construction.
It gives Arsenal a simple advantage.
If the opposition send one forward to try and press, they have multiple options at the back, meaning they can switch the ball around the first line, rather than looking to beat the player with the ball right away.
In front of that first line, Arsenal typically keep a player in the middle while the wide players and fullbacks operate in pairs.
One player can be drawn in on the touch line while the other swings inside, and then those positions can be swapped.
That creates a problem for defenders.
If they follow the player coming inside, the space can be exploited outside.
If they keep up with the wide player, Arsenal can find the player inside.
Martin Ødegaard’s movements make this even harder.
He will generally move into the side where Arsenal have the ball, presenting a further passing option in the area of the opponent’s block.
That can create a numerical advantage for Arsenal around the ball.
When the opposition move across to deal with that, the ball can be switched into the space on the other side.
Why Arsenal are difficult to counter
There is one other thing to note, which is easily overlooked.
When Arsenal attack, they are not leaving six players behind the ball.
They tend to keep six players behind the ball.
It gives the protection should possession be lost.
This is an important point since a good attacking structure is not necessarily just about attacking chances.
If a team is going to lose the ball, it needs to have the players in positions to recover it.
The position Arsenal adopt means there is typically little space for the opposition to work in.
That means, even when Arsenal’s attack fails, they can be in a position to recover possession straight away.
This is why their structure and their press are so interconnected.
Arsenal don’t always press the player
Another good thing to watch is their defensive work.
Against Aston Villa, Arsenal’s forwards didn’t necessarily simply sprint towards whoever had the ball.
They took up positions to deny passing options.
By approaching the ball at an angle, a forward can deny a defender the chance to pass to another centre-back.
A second player can also deny the route to the fullback.
Meanwhile, the striker can set himself up in a way that makes it difficult for the holding midfielders to receive the ball facing goal.
It means Arsenal don’t necessarily need to win the ball straight away, but they can make the next pass difficult.
It is important to note that a team can appear to be not aggressively pressing because the man with the ball has time.
But if three or four of his options have gone, the pressure is still working.
Arsenal are often pressing the pass as well as the man.
The new attacking question
There has been an interesting change in Arsenal’s attacking options.
Gabriel Martinelli’s departure has meant they have lost a player who threatened to get behind the defence and attack the space.
But Christos Solis’ arrival provides a different attacking profile.
Rather than staying wide, he is more comfortable coming inside, and working between the fullback and centre-back.
It means the relationships around him change.
A midfielder may come inside with him, opening up a different passing lane if the ball is played quickly forward.
It isn’t about whether Solis is better or worse than the player he has replaced.
He is different.
And that can have an impact on the entire structure of an attack.
It is far too soon to make judgements on the basis of the few games we have seen, but his positioning is worth watching as the season progresses.
Arsenal’s biggest weapon may be the one teams cannot prepare for easily
Set pieces have been crucial to Arsenal’s attacking success.
Last season they scored 19 Premier League goals from corners (according to the numbers in the analysis) with the focus on movement, blocking and timing.
The most recognisable feature of their corner routines is a group of Arsenal players getting close to the ball before suddenly spreading out in different directions.
It means the defenders must make quick decisions about who they follow, who stays and who tracks their striker.
That can open up space for Arsenal.
Declan Rice has been involved in taking a number of their corners.
The issue is that the rules and emphasis around set piece holding and blocking have changed.
Premier League referees have been instructed to take a stricter approach to these situations and penalties will be given if the specified offences occur inside the penalty area.
It could impact Arsenal more than most because set pieces have been so important to their attack.
Once again, we can’t really make any definitive statements about that based on the few matches we have seen.
That is something we’ll only be able to assess after a lot more games.
There is another Arsenal question: the bench
The strength of the Arsenal squad could become a factor.
They have invested heavily this summer and added players who can change games from the bench.
That gives the manager options that weren’t necessarily available to him last season.
The entire nature of a match can change depending on the substitutions made in attack.
A fresh winger can stretch a fatigued fullback, a midfielder can alter the tempo, and a player comfortable receiving between the lines can give Arsenal another option to get into the box.
This is important because Arsenal haven’t really had to chase a game yet.
They have been behind for only around 23 minutes of their matches, all at Chelsea.
That is such a small sample size.
We really haven’t seen what this version of Arsenal is like when the game plan isn’t working and they have to force the issue for an hour or so.
There are already small weaknesses
The clean sheet record looks fantastic, but Arsenal have given teams a couple of glimpses.
Chelsea’s goal came early.
A free kick was cleared but the ball dropped around the edge of the penalty area, where Arsenal’s midfield structure was high and narrow, leaving space.
Chelsea were able to attack it.
They also found themselves in a similar situation later in the match, with an effort hitting the post and forcing a save.
Then there was Aston Villa.
Despite the early goal, they managed to get behind Arsenal’s press with a long ball into a wide area.
For a few seconds, Arsenal were exposed because the winger was wide and high while Saka had come forward to press.
Villa briefly had a four-against-four situation.
But Arsenal recovered quickly and they weren’t able to replicate it.
That may be the key takeaway from those moments.
The vulnerability is there, but the question is whether teams can exploit it.
The unanswered questions
We don’t know a number of things.
William Saliba hasn’t played a minute this season, yet Arsenal have only conceded once.
Rice and Lewis-Skelly have done a large portion of the midfield work, while one of the most important players they bought in the summer has yet to establish himself in the XI.
And Arsenal have not had to chase a match for any length of time.
That last point is particularly significant.
A team can be very different when it has the lead and can play with time to think, compared to when it is 1-0 down in the 70th minute and the opposition decides just to sit and defend.
We haven’t really seen that Arsenal yet.
So, can Arsenal be stopped?
Of course they can.
Every team can, but the early signs suggest that it will require opponents to solve a number of issues simultaneously.
They have to find a way to get around the press.
They have to deal with the way Arsenal rotate in possession.
They must prevent Arsenal from controlling the space behind the first press.
And the need to defend set pieces without getting drawn all over the pitch.
There are problems there as well.
The space left behind an aggressive press can be exploited with accurate long balls, as Chelsea demonstrated.
There can be space around the edge of the box, as Arsenal showed.
And the new rules around set pieces could force them to modify some of their routines.
But four competitive matches are far too small a sample to make any definitive statements.
Arsenal have had a perfect start and so have Manchester City (who have also won their first three league matches), and right now City are above Arsenal on goal difference.
The real test will come when teams have had more time to study these patterns, injuries change things, and Arsenal have to adapt to a difficult game.
For now, the early signs are encouraging.
Arsenal are not simply winning, they are forcing their opponents to work very hard to find a way in.
