A new Arsenal mural popped up last week in the Highbury area of north London. Adorning a boarded-up corner building on Blackstock Road, a short walk from the club’s Emirates Stadium, it is by the local street artist Northbanksy.
Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Jakub Kiwior are lined up, staring intently and menacingly, silently eyeing up the opposition. It is a strong impression, a moody, monochrome image from the tunnel.
Arsenal: The Wall. Blackstock Road, London N5. @arsenal #StreetArt #Arsenal 🧨🧨🧨 pic.twitter.com/LqBQQcUVZK
— @Northbanksy (@northbanksyafc) March 21, 2024
Is this image of intimidation a coincidence? Hardly. Not only has manager Mikel Arteta beefed Arsenal up physically in recent seasons, he and his staff also pay attention to the kind of details that can impact on a player’s mindset. Whatever it takes to help create an environment of intensity is another ingredient to add to the recipe.
And one of these ingredients is the order in which Arsenal line up in the tunnel pre-game — with the aim of creating a first impression that will send a clear message to the opposition. And, for the first time in a while, as a group they feel big and stand that bit taller.
These players are no longer soft touches or pushovers. Martin Odegaard leads the team out, followed by David Raya — not the most brutish of figures but the captain and the goalkeeper. Then the line is loaded with towering players who mean business — the four centre-backs, with Declan Rice and Kai Havertz behind them, make for a formidable group. They are all well over 6ft (183cm), all look powerful and all appear to have been working on their glaring. And, on top of this, they are all in the kind of form that allows them to project confidence just by standing there.
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Quite often, when lining up, the shorter players, such as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli (who bring up the rear) haven’t even made it out of the dressing room by the time their colleagues at the front have reached the edge of the tunnel. This way, all the big guns are visible and in position. These may seem like small details, but it is part of a bigger change.
There has unquestionably been a shift in both physical and psychological attitude when you compare this version of Arsenal to the one Arteta inherited almost four and a half years ago.
Back then there was a prevailing understanding that the squad needed more power. It has taken a while, and several transfer windows, to address that. Not all important signings have been giants (Leandro Trossard, Jorginho and Raya, who is small for a goalkeeper, are among the newer recruits who are not notable for their size). But last summer’s additions of Rice and Havertz and the recent promotion of Kiwior at left-back have brought more physical and aerial influence across the team — from defence, through midfield, to attack.
Think back to what Arteta said of Rice when he signed. “He’s got the physical qualities we have been missing for a while, and that’s why we had to get him.” And he had this to say on Havertz: “He gives us something very different with his quality and size.”
Put simply, Arsenal have got bigger. And in trying to compete with a team as physically and technically intimidating as Manchester City, they needed to.
Arteta’s team have played eight matches this season with an average height of more than 184cm — just over 6ft. To give that some context, they only used a team with a comparable average height once in the previous five seasons.
The average height of Arsenal teams has grown over the past few seasons (Opta’s data was crunched to exclude goalkeepers and filtered only for players who were used for over 30 minutes, to avoid being skewed by short cameos for Pablo Mari or Cedric) and this season the team is taller than in any previous Arteta campaign.
Looking more broadly at the notion of power, it is interesting that even the shorter players are far from shrinking violets. Saka’s strength, Martinelli’s velocity, Odegaard’s engine and Gabriel Jesus’ stocky aggression all help to bring different types of physical intensity.
This team are similar to Arsenal’s last title-winning side, in 2003-04, in terms of the confidence and size they project before kick-off.
The Invincibles of those days developed a routine for lining up — captain Patrick Vieira first, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann next, and then on through a side who were physically as well as technically charismatic. Vieira would turn and look at Lehmann and nod, without a word, and then the nod would be passed down the line. Lauren, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure, Ashley Cole, Gilberto, Robert Pires, Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry… it was known to intimidate. The opposition players felt it. Arsenal’s players sensed it.
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The team changed towards the 2018 end of Arsene Wenger’s tenure, with the Frenchman prioritising the signing of delicate playmakers. As a result, he had half a team of No 10s, who were dexterous and artistic but hardly known for bludgeoning their way around a football pitch. It was in homage to the Barcelona of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi, who proved so beautifully that size wasn’t everything. But it didn’t work the same way for Arsenal.
Arteta has not created a squad with more powerful components by accident. And with a few of their key players sitting out this week’s internationals, Arsenal are focused on finishing this season in much stronger fashion than they did the previous one.
Their manager knows that they need as much collective strength as possible for the run-in.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
