It’s difficult to read too much into any team’s fortunes after only three Premier League games, but there’s one statistic in particular that offers real room for encouragement for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. They may not have been hammering them in down the right end of the pitch, but they’re definitely keeping them out at the other; three games in, no goals conceded.
For a team that has produced so many great defenders over the years, it seems remarkable that Arsenal have had a reputation of being more than a little bit soft at the back in recent years. Gunners fans have gone from watching the likes of David O’Leary, Tony Adams and Sol Campbell galvanize the Gunners to league silverware, to seeing their team routinely wilt against the more physical sides in the league. Fitting then, that one of their defensive legends is back in the squad to sort things out.
Steve Bould has of course been retired for near on 12 years, but his high-publicized promotion to that of assistant manager seems to be doing something right. Indeed, at this stage last year the North London club had already shipped in ten goals. Supporters will be loathe to see another article building up their defense at such an early stage in the season, but from what we’ve seen far, Bould’s approach seems to have been just what Arsenal have needed.
As the Gunners made their way out for the season’s opener against Sunderland at the Emirates, you might not have thought that the selected back four would go on to receive such plaudits after three games. Arsenal started with the ever-reliable Thomas Vermaelen at centre-half but the pairing with Per Mertesacker and Carl Jenkinson and Kieran Gibbs at fullbacks didn’t necessarily scream systematic defensive solidity.
Yet as every minute’s passed, the foursome seem to have grown in both stature and confidence and it’s not been any fluke, either. A clean sheet at home to Sunderland didn’t represent the most fearsome of examinations, but trips away from home at Stoke and Liverpool were a different prospect altogether. Last season saw Arsenal concede goals in all three of the corresponding fixtures from last term. They only difference in points was their 2-1 victory over the Black Cats at home, but considering the time of the season, Arsene Wenger must be pleased with how things have gone.
It seems that the most prominent change in their defensive set-up has been as much in mentality, as it has been in some form of revolutionary tactical change. Bould has brought in his own ideas, in terms of defensive drills and training, but it seems as if the Arsenal back four are defending collectively and efficiently as a unit – a value that’s not exactly been praised from the rooftops at the Emirates in recent years.
And for Wenger, the work of his new number two hasn’t gone unnoticed, either:
“He is doing a good job. We continue our training regime. He has taken over from Pat Rice [who has retired] for the defensive job, where he is doing very well.
“Will we finish with the best defence in the league? I hope so.”
Understandably, Wenger has been quick to heap praise on the work already done by his former number two and all round club legend, Pat Rice. Because as well as Bould is currently doing, let’s not forget the credentials of the man who spent an accumulative 44 years at the club as a player and coach. Things might not have gone Arsenal’s way in recent years, but it’s hardly as if Arsenal haven’t been previously able to defend under Wenger and Rice’s tutorship. Two league and cup doubles and of course, the immortal Invincbles season, were all part of their legacy.
Another thing that hasn’t helped the Gunners, especially during the last couple of seasons, has been a real absence of stability. The club have spent the past three consecutive seasons blooding new centre-halves in Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, a feat which is never particularly easy and both full-back positions have been seemingly cursed with the plague of injury.
For example, the signing of Per Mertesacker was always going to demand a season of adaptation. Patience is shorter than ever in this league, but as much as both he and Arsenal are benefitting from Bould, they owe as much gratitude to simply getting his initial season out the way with. To a lesser extent, the likes of both Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson are more mature products than what they were this time last year. Bould is working with a set of defenders who have grown from this time 12 months ago.
But sometimes, it appears, that simply a fresh set of ideas and a new sense of direction can help a club as much as anything else. It’s been said that a change can do you good and maybe for Arsenal, that’s exactly what we’re witnessing at the moment.
Whether anyone will be singing “1-0 to the Arsenal” again any time soon, is perhaps a little far-fetched, but Steve Bould’s certainly brought something of the old-school and that fabled George Graham back four back to the club. Hard-work, graft and cohesion is what binds great defenses. And if both Arsenal and this back four in particular, continue to work and develop as a unit under Bould and Wenger’s stewardship, there’s no reason why they can’t continue to keep clean sheets throughout the rest of the term.
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