Arsenal are currently in sensational form, and have broken several club and Premier League records in recent weeks as they continue to win games in style.
Mikel Arteta’s side have scored more goals than any Arsenal team in Premier League history by this stage of the season, including the Invincibles, who were the last side to win a title for the Gunners in 2004.
The Invincibles are arguably the best team in Arsenal’s history, as well as Premier League history, and it speaks volumes that the current side are now drawing comparisons with them.
Ian Wright, who left Arsenal a few years before the Invincibles season, has claimed that they are doing one thing better than that incredible side, as they look to win the title 20 years on.
Ian Wright compares Arsenal’s current side and the Invincibles
Speaking on the Wrighty’s House Podcast, the former striker claimed that whilst the Invincibles were also able to blow teams away like the current side are, the defensive organisation of Arteta’s side is on a different level.
“I remember when you used to watch the Invincibles, the fluidity once you got into the last third, you could be watching and in 25 minutes, that team was capable of scoring four, but not with the same organisation as what you’re seeing with this team, and the way that this team are doing it,” he stated.
“It is relentless. It’s different, you get the ball to Thierry (Henry), you get the ball to (Robert) Pires, you get the ball to these guys and they make things happen, they do things.
“But from back to front, even (David) Raya, even when they (Sheffield United) were offside and we were saying ‘please save it’, he saved it, then the amount of time between him getting the ball…and bam we’re on the attack again.
“I say watching the Invincibles was exciting, but watching this team, and what they call us like ‘set piece FC,’ then we’re just dropping six goals on people.”
Arsenal’s incredible defensive organisation
Whilst the individual quality of Arsenal’s defenders now compared to their Invincible counterparts is debatable, right now the defensive unit as a whole is one of the best in Europe.
This comes as a result of both the physical quality of the back four, with Gabriel Magalhaes a particularly strong figure at the back, but their ability on the ball, which defenders would not have had during the early 2000s.
William Saliba and Ben White, as well as David Raya in goal, help Arsenal push higher up the pitch, with the average defensive line now 30 metres from goal, the highest it has been under Arteta.
Against Sheffield United, the deepest member of the Arsenal back four was still very advanced within the opposition half at times in possession, with no worry that they would concede a chance on the counter, and this is perhaps the biggest difference between the current side and ones of old.
Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox
