Operation Arteta: The Four Dribblers

avatar
(Edited)

Today, without players who can dribble nothing can be done. Attacking a team that is stuck in its own goal, without players who dribble, who do not get you superiority with moves into spaces, is impossible.

The quote above is attributed to Pep Guardiola. Mikel Arteta's view on the matter isn't that different.

Mulan

On the 23rd of October last year, Daniel Zeqiri wrote an article in The Telegraph titled, Arsenal have dribbled their way to the top of the league – and this is why it matters. In his analysis, Zeqiri alerts to an important yet obvious point that no one talked about, dribbling was actually's Arsenal's most improved field.

In the 2020-2021 season, Arsenal was ranked 17th in the league regarding completed dribbles. In the season that followed, Arsenal was the 14th. This season, Arsenal is ranked 1st in teams with the most completed dribbles. Number two, three, and four on that list are actually Wolverhampton, Crystal Palace and Southampton, three teams that are completely different from Arsenal, which makes Arsenal's excelling in that field more important.

The reason it is more important is that those three teams are more defensive and find a lot of space when counter-attacking. Arsenal, much like 5th place Manchester City when it comes to completed dribbles, has much less space available in front of its players.

To understand the significance of this aspect, we need to compare it to previous Gunners, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who both average 1.5 completed dribbles per game, that's almost 1 dribble less than Gabriel Martenili and Gabriel Jesus each this season as each player averages 2.4 successful dribbles this season.

Having dribbling players like Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, and Gabriel Martinelli made an instant and obvious impact as soon as they joined Arsenal. Around this time last month, Arsenal had a 48% success rate when it came to dribbles, second only to Manchester City who had 51%. By the way, 51% is a scary number.

After 17 games in the Premier League this season, Arsenal's successful dribbles came as the following:

  • Gabriel Martinelli: 30
  • Gabriel Jesus: 27
  • Bukayo Saka: 21
  • Martin Ødegaard: 20

If you take the total and divide it by the number of games, you will find that Arsenal's front four alone completed 5.7, almost 6 successful dribbles per game. Aubameyang once had only one successful dribble every five games in contrast. Of course, the number without any context means very little, but the difference remains too big to ignore.

Art de Roché from The Athletic divides Arsenal's front four based on the application of its dribbles:

Gabriel Martinelli - The Outlet

When Arsenal's defence and midfield are trapped, Gabriel Martinelli often represents their way out. Many times, Gabriel Martinelli would receive the ball all the way from Aaron Ramsdale and would turn it into an attacking opportunity in the least amount of time and least number of passes.

Bukayo Saka - The All-rounder

It doesn't matter if he receives the ball whether he is wide or near the half-space, or whether he is marked by one player or two. Saka's ability to receive the ball under pressure, his good first touch, his ability to turn around with the ball before going through the opponent with his pace, his ability to get rid of his markers, and his ability to dribble in tight spaces, gives him an advantage of having something of everything. Where this matters the most is that when he is on his day, he's basically unstoppable.

In fact, Saka's most important contributions this season came after he was marked by two players and Arsenal's game against Tottenham last season is a clear example.

Arsenal's first two goals came after Saka was marked by two players. While the first one was a simple pass to White who then passed it to Thomas Partey who scored a beautiful goal, the second one is where we see Saka's greatest contribution as he managed to keep the ball against two markers before creating a shooting opportunity for himself, from which Jesus scored after the rebound. A similar thing happened in Arsenal's 3-2 win against Manchester United.

Saka is also strong compared to his size. I am not calling him Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime or something, but strong in terms that you can't easily get off balance.

Gabriel Jesus: The Leader

Jesus is the point of reference. Jesus has a mixture of affective dribbling on one side, and hold-up play on the other, both are rare trades. This is why when Jesus drops to the midfield to receive the ball often means something big is about to happen. Before his World Cup call-up and injury, Jesus held the record of being Arsenal's player with the most dribbles that led to a shot on goal with 9 times in the 14 matches before the World Cup. The second was Martinelli with only 3.

What makes Jesus special isn't just his ability to dribble and carry the ball, but also the places where he receives the ball. By the end of September, Jesus had the most progressive passes received. Jesus always made himself available in deep and crucial areas of the field. What's more important is his teammates' trust in him that he can keep the ball or at least get a could. This is what put Jesus in such a high place.

A look at the first chance from this game against Crystal Palace paints a clear idea of what makes Jesus so special and dangerous.

Martin Ødegaard: The Conductor

Martin Ødegaard has something the other three simply don't. He attempts dribbling the least, but his rate of successful dribbles is the highest among Arsenal's front four with a 63% success rate. That ridiculous success rate makes him simply an agent of chaos, something he is better at than the rest. His positioning between the right side, half-space, and centre simply ruins the opponent's positioning.

Ødegaard is also the smartest among Arsenal's front four when it comes to manipulating the opponent with his body movement and feinting. Ødegaard has the ability to gather opponent players around him, often freeing both wingers in the process, or at least one of them to either cut inside or receive the ball wide.

Because of the last two specifically, Ødegaard and Jesus, Arsenal top the list of open play chances percentage in the Premier League from the middle third. Just like in terms of successful dribbles, the teams below Arsenal are Crystal Palace, Southampton, Brentford, and Tottenham Hotspur are different teams from Arsenal as they depend on counterplay.

The fact that those teams depend on counterplay makes it easier for them to create chances from the middle. So, the idea isn't that Arsenal is just the best team at creating chances through the middle third. Achieving that while playing like Arsenal makes it a more difficult task than when you're playing like Crystal Palace and Southampton.

That's why dribbling is Arsenal's most important technical trait when it comes to Arsenal's transformation into its current form. It's not the only one, but the most important one, in my opinion. It is a trait that appeared almost out of nowhere, the team went from being almost unable to act in that area to being able to excel in a variety of ways. Not even Manchester City and Liverpool have Arsenal's versatility. Not any other team in the Premier League, in the last few years at least.

Manchester City and Liverpool definitely have excellent dribblers, but not as versatile as Arsenal and not four different players able to cause as much chaos to the opponent's positioning and lines. Bear in mind, that chaos only exists on the field, but more on that in the next post.

Previous Parts Of The Series

Operation Arteta: Arteta, The Leader
Operation Arteta: Arteta, The Fireman
Operation Arteta: Pressure
Operation Arteta: Absorbing The Style
Operation Arteta: 300,000 Passes
Operation Arteta: Control
Operation Arteta: Dynamic



0
0
0.000
8 comments
avatar

Alex Scott would be a good addition to Arsenal’s squad. My dad is a Bristol City supporter so I’ve watched a fair bit of him. He’s like a right footed Odegaard.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=47o55RW5YR4

I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t playing Premier League football next season and it won’t be long after that until he gets into the national team.

Only Vinius Junior has been fouled more times this season of footballers playing in the top 2 tiers of their relevant league.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Alex Scott seems very good at the job but I doubt Arteta will be looking for a 38 female sports commentator to fill that position.

On a serious note. He does look impressive and Arsenal do chase players with stats similar to what you mentioned. Hopefully, we do see him in the prem either way.

0
0
0.000
avatar

And here I was making a sensible comment when every bone in my body said that I should just post that if that's the case, Arteta really should invest in 4 of these.

https://arsenaldirect.arsenal.com/Kids/Baby-%280-3yr%29/Arsenal-Baby-Bib-and-Burp-Cloth-4-Piece-Set/p/N04490?glCountry=GB&glCurrency=GBP&utm_source=Awin&utm_medium=ShopForward+CSS&awc=15460_1679854504_2a5862697dd45748c35b7ca2de043187

0
0
0.000
avatar

If it will make him less obnoxious on the touchline, I wouldn't mind paying for them myself.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I like the quote about dribbling. It's on point. Teams that do not have dribblers or teams who have players that are afraid to dribble tend to have no luck breaking down low blocks like a Sam Allardyce team.

This is a very underrated stat you have here. It never even crossed my mind and to think city is 5th in dribbling, wow.

The recruitment done by Arsenal in the summer by getting Zinchenko and Jesus in have been nothing short of brilliance and maybe he was the missing piece after all. One can only think these stats will improve with someone like Trossard cos he is a good dribbler as well.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It never even crossed my mind and to think city is 5th in dribbling, wow.

It should be pointed that City's style doesn't require or has space for much dribbling, so it's a weapon used when needed.

One can only think these stats will improve with someone like Trossard cos he is a good dribbler as well.

They already have actually but not long enough for me to consider it a sizeable sample to treat as fact like with the rest I cited.

0
0
0.000
avatar

It should be pointed that City's style doesn't require or has space for much dribbling, so it's a weapon used when needed.

That’s true. They’re more of tiki taka.

They already have actually but not long enough for me to consider it a sizeable sample to treat as fact like with the rest I cited.

Oh okay. Let me go check that one out for myself.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @amirtheawesome1! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You have been a buzzy bee and published a post every day of the week.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out our last posts:

Hive Power Up Day - April 1st 2023
Happy Birthday to the Hive Community
The Hive Gamification Proposal
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000