At a Glance:
- Arsenal rank top of the Premier League in a physical metric.
- This reflects Mikel Arteta’s team’s hard-working ethos.
- However, it might just have cost the Gunners.
Arsenal have developed a reputation for being a physically robust and resolute team under Mikel Arteta over the last few seasons, and while this has helped lead them close to Premier League glory, it might actually now be costing them.
The Gunners currently sit three points clear of Manchester City at the summit of the English top flight, although Pep Guardiola’s men have a game in hand over Arteta’s outfit. Thus, there is a world where the title is decided on goal difference, with the intensity of the run-in starting to hot up.
To even be in this position speaks to Arsenal’s excellence throughout the campaign. That said, given the consistent late-season fall-offs the North Londoners have experienced, it is reasonable to start questioning why they are struggling so much to get over the line come April and May.
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Arsenal outrun their opponents in almost every game
While you can fault the quality of some of Arsenal’s individual players, you can never fault the application, hard work and industry that every single member of Arteta’s squad puts in every single week. The Spaniard has built a team of workhorses who consistently outrun their opponents.
Data revealed on Sky Sports after the conclusion of Chelsea’s game against Brighton on Tuesday night shows just how much work goes into every Arsenal performance. The Gunners have run more than their opponents in 32 of their 33 league matches this term.
For context, the team next in the outrunning of the opposition table is Leeds, who have covered more ground than their counterparts in 28 of their 33 league matches.
This stat is such a huge indictment of Slot’s setup.
— Dominic Trout (@dominic_trout) April 21, 2026
The polar opposite of what made us successful. pic.twitter.com/gtd4BBY4XN
As shown by the table above, there isn’t necessarily a strong correlation between running more than your opponents and winning matches. Chelsea and Liverpool, both of whom have endured difficult periods but remain in the top seven, are bottom of the league in this metric.
However, with Arsenal and City both in the top three, it’s clear that this metric at least takes on some level of relevance.
Arsenal’s hard work might actually be costing them
In recent months, Arsenal have looked severely fatigued. While competing on all four fronts until early April has likely played into this, the running data also has to be a contributing factor to this growing exhaustion.
Arteta demands so much of his players, and arguably runs them into the ground. By the time they get to the latter stages of the season, they don’t have the energy to keep producing at the high level they did previously, and this is compounded by the divisive manager’s reluctance to rotate.
What makes this more concerning for Gunners supporters is that it’s a running theme. Across every season Arteta has been in the Emirates dugout, Arsenal have generally fallen short in April, as shown by the results in the post below.
Clearly, the Gunners boss needs to reevaluate the physical demands he places on his players. That said, this situation is complex, because this hard work has obviously helped Arsenal get where they are in the first place, allowing them to overcome some technical deficiencies by focusing on their physical side of the game.
It’s a difficult aspect of the game for Arteta to approach, but a review should be conducted over the summer.
