Arsenal lift Premier League trophy: Why Mikel Arteta’s side are deserving champions despite criticism of style of play | Football news

A moment of joy. Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard got his hands on the Premier League trophy and lifted it in scenes that will define a generation and an era for the football club.

Throughout the season, fans, experts, analysts and experts have given their opinion about Mikel Arteta’s team this season.

Their style of play has been labeled “unwatchable”, and they’ve been given the tag ‘Set-Piece FC’ – however that’s irrelevant when you’re holding the trophy.

Arsenal have faced their so-called critics even though they have been sitting at the top of the table since October.

Earlier this year, Paul Scholes said they would be “the worst Premier League title winners ever.” The idea that Arsenal do not have a clear winner for ‘Premier League Player of the Season’ has been used as a stick with which to whip the Gunners.

It follows criticism throughout the season of their style – Fabian Hurzeler’s comments about Arsenal’s time-wasting in March appear to echo those complaints. Arteta replied sarcastically: “Stop being surprised” – a sign that he was getting tired of his club’s criticism.

Even days after it was confirmed that they won the title, there were a lot of comments on social media about how ‘VARsenal’ won the title because of the luck of the referee’s decisions.

It also includes Liverpool head coach Arne Slot having a small hole in Arteta’s Arsenal this week. “I congratulate them,” he said. “But for me they were different champions in the last 10 seasons. It’s the first time in 30 years that 40% of the goals came from set-pieces.”

None of this will matter to Arteta, his players and staff – or Arsenal fans whose title celebrations will continue all summer.

Of course, they didn’t always feature Manchester City’s attack, even if they had a key goalscorer at the top of the Golden Boot list. But they did enough in front of goal to win the league – especially when criticism of their style of play wasn’t entirely their fault.

All season, opposition teams have gone to – or fallen – great lengths to prevent Arsenal from breaking into the bottom third.

The numbers help show how the opposition guarded against Arsenal. This season, Arsenal have taken the most open shots in the Premier League when the opposition have nine or more players in the penalty box at the time.

Even Manchester City was forced to go this route. The Gunners forced them into a relegation zone, a back five and a poor record of 33.2 per cent when Pep Guardiola’s side arrived at the Emirates in September.

And what happens when you open against Arsenal? The Champions League is a good example of that. Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid have all tried to play ‘their way’ with Arsenal, and all have failed.

Those players in the penalty area couldn’t stop the Gunners – they scored 12 goals from those players’ 112 open shots, which is the most in the league. The last of those goals was Leandro Trossard’s crucial winner at West Ham, arguably the most important goal Arsenal scored en route to the title.

That Trossard goal came from Odegaard’s ability to filter through bodies and create space for the Belgian. Arsenal’s captain – who is so important to the team’s formation and attacking combinations – has played 45 minutes or more just 12 times in the league this season.

If Arsenal had Odegaard fit for more games, perhaps their attacking numbers would be higher. And the point in Norwegian can be spread on a wider level.

Arsenal have struggled to form a cohesive attack due to injuries plaguing the squad. The longest run Arsenal’s front four have managed in all competitions is three seasons. Arsenal’s most successful trio of Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyokeres and Trossard – who are yet to lose a league game when all three have started – have started on the pitch together just 14 times out of 38.

This week, Arteta even referred to two key moments when he thought the title was almost lost. “One was before Christmas when we were in the front with a lot of wounds.

“It was during the international break in March” – which is when Arsenal saw a number of players withdraw from international duty due to injury, including Saka who was suspended for a month.

With so much offensive fluency lost to injury, why should not Are Arsenal looking at all possible advantages elsewhere?

“I don’t think you have to be too smart,” Arteta said, addressing the issue of playing style. “Can we score 100 goals? Today? With the resources we have, the players that haven’t been there? The answer is no.

“Can a player score 35 goals? No. So how are we going to win 40 games to get what we want?

“That is our greatest strength [skill] we need to be the best in the world at this. And others, we have to get closer to each other to be the best in the world. Only for that [original skill]we won’t do it. our greatest strength, if we do that – the chances of winning the game are very high.”

Arteta here may be talking about defensive intensity, but he may also be talking about set-pieces – with the Gunners being called ‘Set-Piece FC’ as another criticism, despite setting new records for dead balls this season.

It also includes claims that ‘tackling’ and ‘shoving’ in corners is a form of cheating, although it’s hard to blame a team for being ‘tainted’ by tactics when that side are the only Premier League side without a red card or penalty to their name all season.

Of course, some will not sympathize with Arsenal. The critics will remain. But what Arteta’s side have done is win this Premier League title in classic Arsenal fashion.

The ‘One-nil’ for Arsenal has gone down in the club’s recent history and that the points have been outstanding this season.

The Gunners have won by that margin seven times – the only result that has happened more often in the Premier League this season than Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Man City 3-0.

This was heard during George Graham’s time at the club. It caused frustration for opposition and neutral fans alike – when Arsenal went 1-0 up, it was accepted that they would win the game.

As for corners and defensive solidity, is that the right stick to beat current Arsenal with? Or rather, should that be praised?

After all, since the defeats by Bournemouth and Manchester City in April, no team has beaten Arsenal in an open match. That’s a six-game run including two Champions League semi-finals and a play-off for the title.

An often quoted line this time of year is ‘offense wins games, defense wins titles’. Arsenal are living proof of that.

Arsenal are not the best Premier League title winners in history. Of course they are not. But they don’t say they are.

One of the biggest criticisms thrown at Arteta’s Arsenal in recent years is their inability to get over the line. Now they have done it.

Right now, they are the best team in the country. Their unbeaten campaign in the Champions League and the final, where other teams in England went down without a fight in this season’s competition, is another example of that.

So should they care what the critics think? Not at all.