Arsenal were supposed to be tired and faltering – instead they look reinvigorated

A lot can happen in a week. Seven days ago, Arsenal had just been knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich, having only just had their Premier League title chances dented by Aston Villa at the Emirates.

The external view, understandably, was that Arsenal were shot. Focus was switching to them falling short once again in April. At that point, it was the month in which Mikel Arteta had performed worst in as Arsenal manager (with a 31.8 per cent win rate from 22 games). The manner of their tame performances at the Allianz Arena and in the second half against Villa suggested at least some fatigue. Shades of those performances bled into the first half in the 2-0 win at Wolves, but one moment changed that.

Leandro Trossard’s opener restored an energy in the team that had been sapped away by the events of the previous two matches. Before that toe-poke flicked in off the far post, players were thinking too much about what passes to make and when to step forward defensively, and it gave the sense of a team without its usual thrust.

That changed immediately, as Bukayo Saka was soon hounding Toti Gomes by the Wolves corner flag to win the ball and kickstart another attack. The triangles between himself, Martin Odegaard and Ben White re-emerged, the distances between players tightened defensively and the side looked much more like their usual selves.

Chelsea have crumbled 😳

Ben White bags a 5⃣th for Arsenal 🔥

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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 23, 2024

Arsenal were energised. They took that energy into the second half at Molineux, then into Chelsea at home, and punished both teams. They now have four league wins out of five this month, taking Arteta’s win rate in April to 37.5 from 24 games. That is still his worst win percentage for an individual month, 46.2 per cent in January being the next-worst, but those wins have ensured this was not a total repeat of last year’s April collapse.

Asked whether winning is the best antidote to fatigue, Arteta said: “That’s for sure. For the energy and the spirit of the team. In the second half (against Chelsea) we kept growing physically. What these boys have done in the last 10 days is unbelievable, physically. When you look at some of the numbers, it’s unreal but they can do it and they can improve themselves because they want to. They have the mentality that they really want to win it (the Premier League).”

The physical demands of this season on Arsenal have been viewed as part of the reason for their mid-April slump.

Before kick-off against Chelsea, when Arsenal had played just one game more than Manchester City instead of two, they had five players in the top 50 for minutes used in the Premier League (nine of those 50 are goalkeepers). Ranked from highest to lowest, William Saliba was fifth (2,970 minutes, the most-used outfield player in the league), Declan Rice was 22nd (2,775 minutes), Odegaard 35th (2,644 minutes), Saka 41st (2,582 minutes) and White 46th (2,560 minutes).

Only Aston Villa and West Ham had as many players in the top 50. In the context of the title race, Virgil van Dijk (27th with 2,727 minutes played) was Liverpool’s only player in the top 50, while Manchester City’s most-used players were Julian Alvarez (59th on 2,450 minutes) and Phil Foden (60th on 2,448 minutes).

Some of this will be down to injuries Arsenal have suffered throughout the season. For example, Thomas Partey only made his first league start in midfield with Odegaard and Rice against Chelsea, while Takehiro Tomiyasu has been struggling with minor injuries since the winter. Had they been fit more often, that may have eased the load on Rice and White.

Despite the volume of their workload, the benefits of having so many key players consistently available shines through in matches like the 5-0 win over Chelsea. Even at 1-0, the tone that was set by Arsenal’s midfield early on allowed them to generate enough momentum to hit Chelsea with waves of attacks. The home fans cheered when Chelsea players cleared the ball from their box as they knew it would land at the feet of either Saliba or Gabriel to start the next attack.

Although it took until the second half for the floodgates to truly open, the spring was back in the players’ step. Saka, for instance, was confident enough to take on Marc Cucurella around the outside and on the inside. Rice showed how physically imposing he can be when carrying the ball, while still managing to cover ground defensively. White’s off-the-ball movement came to the fore again, and was key to both his goals. As for Odegaard, he was still pressing with remarkable intensity when Arsenal were 3-0 up on the hour mark.

“(It was) great for the confidence and the belief that we can do it,” Arteta said on the mental side of the win. “That we can come to these stages against big teams and perform and win games the way we’ve done it tonight. Enjoy it and then it’s back to work tomorrow because we have a big one on Sunday (at Tottenham Hotspur) and we’re going to have to prepare really well to beat them.

“Just face the reality, that’s it. The margins are so small and sometimes you cannot be better than your opponent. You might not have the luck when you need it in certain moments but you need to react and face the moment. That moment is beautiful. We’ve been working for it for nine months, so we have to face it in the right way. Value what we have, and especially believe. If you are able to believe for nine months, you are able to win it. But you have to believe it first, and consistently do what you have been doing. Nothing else.”

Arsenal showed belief in the second half at Wolves, and throughout their thrashing of Chelsea. As mentioned at the start of the month, beating Chelsea could generate even more energy going into such an important game and make the fact Tottenham had two weeks to ‘rest’ less relevant.

The past 11 days have said a lot about this maturing Arsenal side. They are very much still a work in progress, but they are continuing to grow and the psychological impact of ‘magic moments’ are key to that growth.

It should also help that alongside Partey and Tomiyasu’s returns to the starting line-up, Arteta was able to make a quadruple change after 72 minutes against Chelsea to bring on players who can all feel they ought to be starters (Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Jorginho). With just five games to play, being mentally locked in and physically ready can be what decides Arsenal’s season.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)