Arsenal are the best team in the Premier League right now. Four points clear at the summit, Mikel Arteta’s squad are so steely in defence, so well organised and so well oiled across the park.
However, they don’t have Erling Haaland at the front of their system, and the Manchester City centre-forward seems set on challenging the Gunners almost single-handedly for the league title this season.
But this is an elite outfit, and no mistake. Arsenal also sit second in the Champions League, four wins from four and the only side left in the competition to have maintained an impregnable defence.
But Arsenal have an unfair reputation, in a way. They are not just strong protectors of the goalmouth, but among the most dynamic and intelligent when on the ball too.
Arsenal
1st
40
Liverpool
8th
36
Man United
7th
35
Man City
2nd
33
Aston Villa
6th
30
No team has played more successful through balls than the Emirates side in the Premier League this season, and this underrated progressiveness stems from the centre of the park, with Declan Rice proving – again – that he is the main man.
Why Declan Rice is Arsenal's main man
When Arsenal paid West Ham United a club-record £105m fee for Rice’s signature in 2023, some felt it was excessive. For sure, that’s a lot of money. But Rice has repaid the faith and finances invested in him.
You might even say he’s spearheading Arteta’s side in their bid for the Premier League title, having been described as “the best of the best” by statistician Statman Dave.
A big improvement he has made this season is his accuracy in progressing play, not only with his body but his feet too. As per FBref, Rice actually ranks among the top 10% of Premier League midfielders for progressive passes, the top 18% for shot-creating actions and the top 5% for touches made per 90.
He also ranks among the top 1% for progressive carries per 90, unsurprisingly, and has notched seven goal contributions across all competitions, his ability to produce a show-stopping strike as firmly intact as it has ever been.
Many players comprise a brilliant team in north London, and Arsenal absolutely have what it takes to lift that elusive title this season. Rice is the cream of the crop, though, the driving force in the centre.
However, having finished as runners-up for three years in a row, it was crucial that technical director Andrea Berta got it right this summer, and he has succeeded in bringing in a player who is now rivalling the Three Lions superstar as the best addition in recent years.
The best Arsenal signing since Rice
Rice was once a centre-back. He has also played plenty of football in a deep-lying midfield berth, but a roaming, off-the-leash midfield role is where he finds his most fruitful form.
That’s where Martin Zubimendi comes in, welcomed in July to sit at number six and organise Arteta’s ball-playing vision. The Spain international arrived with a weight of expectation, and he has not let the club’s fanbase down thus far.
Arsenal signed Real Sociedad’s Basque star for about £60m. He rejected Liverpool last summer, but was won over by the Londoners’ vision, and made the move to England, where he has since been thriving at the heart of a title-challenging project, hailed as the club’s “signing of the summer” by content creator Adam Keys.
It is perhaps a marker of Rice and Zubimendi’s connection in the middle of the park that captain Martin Odegaard has now missed four Premier League matches (and more across tournament fronts) due to the knee injury sustained against West Ham United in October, and yet Arsenal remain
That’s good coaching, but it’s also an illustration of the effectiveness of the midfielders. Each Premier League manager has an understanding of how he wants his team to play, but the symbiosis between coach and player doesn’t always click in a fluent manner.
The 26-year-old is among the most intelligent deep playmakers of his generation. In this, he is “world-class”, as has been acknowledged by Spanish football writer Alexandra Jonson.
Zubimendi is not a player who is defined by statistics, but he has still shone on the data front at Arsenal this season, dominant in the air and composed and active on the ball, at the heart of the Gunners system.
Sofascore record that he has actually won 67% of his aerial duels thus far, completing 89% of his passes and averaging 1.9 tackles per game.
It is the deeper meaning behind Zubimendi’s role that suggests he is the best signing in recent years. His influence and control in the centre of the park has seen him occupy those spaces and feed through those surgical passes, which have added a dimension to Arteta’s tactics, keeping things fresh, maintaining progression and evolution.
The likes of Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres are welcome additions to a high-flying Premier League team. But neither has enjoyed the same impact as Zubimendi across the past several months.
Perhaps we should draw attention to David Raya, or maybe Mikel Merino or Riccardo Calafiori. Fantastic players, the lot of them. But if Arsenal manage to get their mitts on the Premier League title this season, with Zubimendi orchestrating from the middle, the loudest praise must surely fall onto Zubimendi’s back.
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