"Thing about Arsenal is, they always try and walk it in"

It may be a footballing cliché so cliched it’s become a recurring catchphrase on a Channel 4 sitcom, but it’s also unquestionably true. Arsenal produced the third-most short passes and the joint-fewest long passes per game of any Premier League side last season, whilst scoring the joint-second most goals from open play and accordingly recording the second-highest ratio of open play goals throughout the top six after Manchester United, equating to 71.4% of their 77 nets in the top flight.

Of course, this is hardly breaking news for Arsenal fans or the wider Premier League audience. The Gunners have been accused of walking it in for years if not decades, such has been the potent definitiveness of Arsene Wenger’s possession-based, technically demanding philosophy.

Yet, Arsenal didn’t always used to be that way - and you don’t even have to span as far back as the George Graham era ever-accompanied by choruses of ‘one-nil to the Arsenal’ to find a time when the north London outfit weren’t quite so obsessed with the means justifying the ends. During the first portion of Wenger’s tenure, when silverware flooded into Highbury at incredible velocity, Arsenal possessed a perfect balance between style, flair, grit and physicality.

Take Marc Overmars’ goal at Old Trafford from the 1997/98 season for instance, the winner in a 1-0 win that proved to have an intrinsic impact on the title race as Arsenal claimed their first of the Premier League era having finished just one point above Manchester United. No doubt, the single-goal affair in Manchester wasn’t one for the neutrals, but it was a massive three points nonetheless - sourced by perhaps the most un-Arsenal goal of Wenger’s lengthy tutelage.

Rather than falling into the age-old Arsenal trap of trying to play the ball through the most delicate of spaces in the middle of the park, allowing the opposition to sit deep and sucker them in before launching passes into space out wide on the counter, Lee Dixon decided to bypass the midfield completely, pumping the ball straight to the forward line. A few rounds of head-tennis later and Overmars had trickled into the penalty area, speeding around the United defence to set up a simple pass into the bottom corner.

No rocket science, tactical ingenuity or world-class quality was required for Overmars to provide one of the most important victories of Wenger’s career, a goal that grabbed only his second win over Sir Alex Ferguson, his first ever win at Old Trafford and put Arsenal firmly on course for his first ever English title. Had Dixon not booted the long diagonal that the Dutchman eventually latched onto, that season and indeed Wenger’s entire Arsenal career could have panned out incredibly differently.

Of course, at this point Arsenal still contained traces of the old one-nil days, not least including their famous back four which - including David Seaman - was still intact. But fast forward five years to unquestionably Wenger’s greatest achievement as Arsenal manager, the Invincibles season, and the Gunners still had that unique mix of technical and physical qualities.

In fact, Patrick Vieira and Gilberto Silva formed arguably the most defensively resolute and physical title-winning engine room in Premier League history, until Jose Mourinho ushered in the era of three-man midfields the season after.

After finishing fifth in the Premier League last season, Wenger has sought to quell the growing tide of discontent by being one of the division’s more proactive managers in the transfer market this summer, snapping up Sead Kolasinac on a free transfer and Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette for a club-record fee. Yet, you have to wonder whether either addition truly addresses what Arsenal have lacked for the last decade; the physicality, aggression and grit to match their intoxicating style of play.

Amid a Premier League era in which every team has the quality to beat any other of the remaining 19 and therefore knows that overpowering the Gunners physically will always give them at least half a chance of victory, it could well be the same intrinsic flaws that undo Arsenal once again next season. Add in the kind of players who can help grab a few un-Overmars-esque goals, however, and there’s no reason they can’t win the league.

https://video.footballfancast.com/video-2015/lacazette.mp4