As was the case last year, Arsenal needed to evolve coming this season. They had notably improved from their first title race under Mikel Arteta in 2022-23, developing additional ways of playing and earning points. Even with that development, which took them to within two points of champions Manchester City, the 2024-25 season was always going to present different challenges.
Arteta knew this, with the scheduling of matches a particular area of interest. In a club interview in the summer, he said: “Sequences of matches, I always look at the type of opponent we’re going to play; what kind of formation, what kind of managers, can we have some consistency over a few weeks?
“That (the opposing team’s styles) is very important for game preparation. In the Champions League group stage last season (in the competition’s previous format, with clubs divided into four-team groups), we were repeating matches — this season that is not going to happen (as clubs play eight different opponents once each). So our analysts and ourselves as coaches are going to have very different demands.
“We’re going to put things in place to be more efficient, to simplify the messages. Because the preparation of games is going to be really short, we’re going to have to maximise that time, to give as much clarity and belief to the players to go and execute what they have to do to win the game.”
Although Arsenal have won seven and drawn three of their 10 games this season across the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup, not everything has gone to plan.
In some ways, it has made that open-minded approach from the summer even more important, as Arteta has found consistency by dividing matches into distinct sequences of games in more volatile circumstances than expected.
Sequence A: Matches one to three
Arsenal’s first ‘sequence’ of games was their opening three league fixtures, against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Brighton & Hove Albion. With these matches coming once a week on Saturdays as opposed to being broken up by midweek fixtures, preparation would not have been as short as Arteta mentioned above.
In these early weeks, there appeared to be more focus on Arsenal carrying a stylistic continuity that worked for them last season into this one. For instance, Kai Havertz returned to the centre-forward position after he and Gabriel Jesus were given chances to lead the line in pre-season. The German scored twice in those first three games and was an effective focal point to open Arsenal’s 2024-25.
Kai Havertz has continued as Arsenal’s main starting striker (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
Continuity continued in midfield too. Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey and Declan Rice started the final five games of last season as a trio (all Arsenal wins) and resumed their roles for the first three fixtures of this one. Performances were not as straightforward, with their display in the 2-0 away win against Villa particularly mixed, but it was at least a unit who knew each other well.
Left-back was the one position where the type of opponent seemed to play a part in Arteta’s selection choices during these three matches. Oleksandr Zinchenko started there on the opening weekend at home against Wolves — unsurprisingly, considering Arsenal were expected to dominate possession and he had been first-choice for most of pre-season.
Jurrien Timber was preferred at Villa and for Brighton’s visit, however, which could have been rooted in how well both those teams attack in wide areas. Arsenal were made to pay for Zinchenko’s defensive frailties home and away against Villa last season, so Timber provided extra defensive solidity. Not ready to complete 90 minutes at the time having missed almost all of his 2023-24 debut campaign through injury, it was even more telling that new signing Riccardo Calafiori replaced the Dutchman at Villa Park to make his Premier League debut and help see out the win before Zinchenko picked up his most recent calf injury.
Arteta gave a glimpse into his decision-making at full-back last month when asked if those players each bringing slightly different qualities to the table is helpful. He said: “They have to have one in common — they have to love defending first.”
Sequence B: Matches four to 10
Rice’s red card against Brighton, alongside the injuries to Odegaard and new signing Mikel Merino, did force Arteta to be more reactionary in Arsenal’s second block of games. They played seven times between the September and October international breaks, with those absentees and the arrival of midweek football on the schedule for the first time this season complicating matters.
Rather than viewing all seven matches as one big block, Arsenal seem to have split them into two sequences, with an intermission, when looking through the lens of Arteta’s words in the summer.
The first set consists of three successive away matches against Spurs, Atalanta (their first Champions League tie) and Manchester City. A much-changed side’s comfortable 5-1 Carabao Cup win at home against Bolton Wanderers of League One, English football’s third tier, served as a nice chance for Arsenal to catch their collective breath, and the visits of Leicester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Southampton formed the second sequence of fixtures.
Odegaard suffered an injury playing for Norway in September (Mateusz Slodkowski/Getty Images)
Not only were the contexts of the Spurs and City games similar — going away from home against a big rival without their creative hub Odegaard — but both teams wanting to dominate the ball would have helped Arteta find “clarity and belief” in a game plan for that week.
The goalless draw at City back in March served as a precursor to the type of approach Arsenal could deploy to get a result on their return to the Etihad Stadium on September 22. The slight difference was that Arteta opted to use Havertz and Leandro Trossard as an interchangeable front two this time, a possibility The Athletic had raised pre-Spurs the previous weekend because it worked well last season.
Well-versed in defending as a structured unit away from home, Arsenal were happy to concede possession and look to capitalise either on the break or via a set piece.
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville said the 1-0 win against Tottenham came “by design”, which would have instilled more belief heading north to face City. Arsenal managed to survive in a more extreme setting that day, especially after Trossard’s first-half dismissal. The plan did not change much — they just had to be even more disciplined in how they defended. Despite the gut-punch of John Stones’ late equaliser as it ended in a 2-2 draw, the result extended Arsenal’s unbeaten away record in the Premier League this year to 12 games.
More freedom was given to those who started against Bolton three days later, with four academy players given their first starts and another two brought on for debuts off the bench.
Arteta reinstated the Havertz and Trossard partnership against Leicester and PSG over the next six days, but the focus was very different.
Those two were able to roam across the width of the pitch, combining with wingers and midfielders, which helped Arsenal become more dominant again. While Gabriel Martinelli took most of the attention with his goal and assist against Leicester, it was the movement of that front pairing that set things off stylistically. It is why their combination for the opening goal against PSG should not have come as a surprise, nor how Havertz influenced the game against Southampton before the 58th-minute equaliser.
After the Southampton match, Arteta said of Havertz: “He’s an attacking midfielder, he’s a nine; you don’t know where he is. That’s his football brain.” There is no doubt his and Trossard’s intelligence played as big a role in Arsenal’s recent results as the consistency of Bukayo Saka and the energy of Ethan Nwaneri.
Sequence C: Matches 11 to 17
Arsenal’s next block of matches will see them play another seven times before the November international break. Five of those are away, including four in a row, and two at home (Shakhtar Donetsk and Liverpool back to back on October 22 and 27).
How they develop their game further in this run will be particularly interesting, given the return of Merino, who made half-hour substitute appearances against both PSG and Southampton, and the potential availability of Odegaard. Whether or not Merino’s readiness to start dictates a change in shape, back to a midfield three, before Odegaard is fit is something to look out for, but the Spain international does seem equipped to partner Rice in a two there if Arteta wants to keep using Havertz and Trossard together.
Mikel Merino’s recovery from injury means he can use the next block of matches to try to establish himself in the starting XI (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Similarly to the previous block, a Carabao Cup tie against EFL opposition presents a natural halfway point, with three games before it and three after. After travelling to Preston North End, currently 19th in the 24-team Championship, on October 30, Arsenal stay on the road with visits to Newcastle United, Inter Milan and Chelsea.
GO DEEPER
Bukayo Saka has passed one Marcus Rashford milestone. Can he reach a different level?
How Arteta and his staff go about finding stylistic consistency, efficient ways of communicating, and even more clarity and belief will remain an essential part of his job with the grind of winter approaching.
(Top photo: Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
