Former Liverpool and Spurs midfielder Danny Murphy believes Arsenal are only going to get stronger as the season goes on, with the Gunners currently leading the Premier League table.
The BBC’s Match of the Day 2 programme on Sunday highlighted a few stats surrounding Arsenal’s defensive performance, pointing out that the Gunners are the best in the league for clean sheets, goals conceded, shots faced, shots on target faced, and xG against.
The underlying stats seem to suggest Arsenal’s strong defensive record is no accident, and the Gunners have earned those clean sheets. Reflecting on the statistics, Danny Murphy was impressed.
“These stats are phenomenal really,” Murphy said. “You work on it in training but you need to have a group of players who are on board with it.
“And that means the ones who were disappointed they didn’t play midweek. Or the ones who are coming off the bench at 64, 68 minutes when they need the same intensity. I mean, Martinelli has been a great example of coming off the bench this season and doing lots of good things.
“When you have a foundation like that you can afford not to score that many goals.”
As a former Liverpool and Spurs player, Murphy would obviously prefer one of his old teams to win the Premier League over Mikel Arteta’s side. But the 48-year-old admitted he’s concerned by the fact Arsenal may not even be at their best just yet.
“The other thing for Arsenal as well, the players they’ve got to come back,” Murphy added. “They’ve got players who are going to come back and give more competition for places.
“And when you get more competition, you get a higher level of performance. It’s a tad worrying to be honest!”
It’s true that Arsenal have some big players to come back. Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, and Noni Madueke would make any Premier League squad stronger, including the current league leaders.
At the same time, there will be concerns about the potential for the absentee list to grow after this weekend, with Gabriel Martinelli, Riccardo Calafiori, Declan Rice, and William Saliba all going off injured against Crystal Palace.
The hope is that all of those four cases turn out to be minor injuries, but just as getting the likes of Odegaard and Madueke would make Arsenal stronger, losing starters like Saliba and Calafiori would have the opposite effect.
So whilst Arsenal can be pleased about their league position and excited for the potential injury comebacks over the next month or so, there are also reasons to avoid getting carried away.