Has Arsenal swapped 'bottlejobs' for 'boring' this season?
Arsenal are unbeaten in recent weeks, sitting on seven clean sheets in 11 matches in all competitions before the Everton win, and yet a growing feeling among supporters is that something about this Arsenal side feels different to the one that won the Premier League title last season.
That is the view put forward by Liam Harding in an opinion piece for JustArsenal, which questions whether Mikel Arteta's side have sacrificed some of their attacking identity in favour of defensive solidity this campaign.
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A different feeling to last season
Last season, Arsenal won their first Premier League title in 22 years and reached the Champions League final for the first time in two decades. According to the piece, that run brought a sense of confidence and belief that simply is not there in quite the same way this time around, despite Arsenal not playing badly.
The article points to Arsenal's 3-0 win over Lille in the Champions League, when they scored three goals in seven minutes, as evidence the attacking quality is still there when it clicks. But it argues that, overall, teams appear to have worked out how to deal with Arsenal's approach play, forcing the side into tighter areas of the pitch where the gaps exploited so effectively last season are harder to find.
Solid at the back, slower going forward
Defensively, Arsenal are in good shape. David Raya had kept seven clean sheets in 11 games before Saturday's 2-0 win over Everton, and the club also has strong depth with three options for one defensive position, a problem few managers would complain about.
The trade off, the piece suggests, is a more cautious approach designed to stop Arsenal being caught on the counterattack, something that hurt them at times last season. The concern raised is that this has slowed the side's attacking rhythm, drawing comparisons to the more conservative Arsene Wenger sides that were once labelled boring by their own supporters.
The Everton win was still a positive result, but the broader point stands that Arsenal's style this season looks noticeably different from the free flowing, counterattack vulnerable version that won the title.
Plenty of season left
With three quarters of the campaign still to play, the suggestion is that Arteta and his players need to find a way to rediscover their attacking spark while keeping the defensive improvements that have made them hard to break down.
Balancing that solidity with the attacking verve that made Arsenal champions last season will likely define how this campaign is remembered, and there is still plenty of football left for Arteta to find that mix.
