>That innocuous one-two out to the winger and back? That tiny third-man pattern at the corner of the box? These are the subtle hallmarks of Arsenal’s suffocating new style.
>This is the part of the story where pass pairs come in. By clustering every two consecutive passes in the same possession from the last six seasons — more than a million pairs in total — into 300 broadly similar types, we can break teams’ possession patterns down to tiny fragments to take their tactical fingerprint.
>Out of the 300 types, Arsenal have done some version of the short up-and-back pattern near the right corner of the box 110 times this season, for 0.9 per cent of their total pass pairs. That’s not all that much in the grand scheme of things, only about four times a game, but it’s way, way more than most teams — over five standard deviations from the Premier League average.
>If you had to forge Arsenal’s signature from pure passing data, it would look like a cramped little scribble on their right wing.
the only thing i can figure out is that Arsenal and City are much more controlled in possession, while Liverpool are much more transitional now. Which confirms the eye test. Also, seems interesting that Liverpool were much like City in 18-19, and 19-20 even though they felt a lot more transitional even then. Though I guess, now we move the ball much quicker through the centre by employing Trent’s, while earlier Wijnaldum was the chief controller by moving it around, until it reached Firmino or the Fullbacks.
Enjoying that last year for Arsenal the plan was “just get the ball to Saka”. More rounded now.
![[The Athletic] Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City's signature pass pairs](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/t9u8ibyz5jrc1-1080x1024.png)
7 comments
The Athletic trying to be cool again I see
I have no idea what this is trying to show
This is one way to demonstrate how Pep and Arteta are very much aligned on how they want to control games
Source: [The signature passing moves that explain why this Premier League title race is so close](https://theathletic.com/5374699/2024/03/28/premier-league-title-race-passing-pairs/)
>That innocuous one-two out to the winger and back? That tiny third-man pattern at the corner of the box? These are the subtle hallmarks of Arsenal’s suffocating new style.
>This is the part of the story where pass pairs come in. By clustering every two consecutive passes in the same possession from the last six seasons — more than a million pairs in total — into 300 broadly similar types, we can break teams’ possession patterns down to tiny fragments to take their tactical fingerprint.
>Out of the 300 types, Arsenal have done some version of the short up-and-back pattern near the right corner of the box 110 times this season, for 0.9 per cent of their total pass pairs. That’s not all that much in the grand scheme of things, only about four times a game, but it’s way, way more than most teams — over five standard deviations from the Premier League average.
>If you had to forge Arsenal’s signature from pure passing data, it would look like a cramped little scribble on their right wing.
the only thing i can figure out is that Arsenal and City are much more controlled in possession, while Liverpool are much more transitional now. Which confirms the eye test. Also, seems interesting that Liverpool were much like City in 18-19, and 19-20 even though they felt a lot more transitional even then. Though I guess, now we move the ball much quicker through the centre by employing Trent’s, while earlier Wijnaldum was the chief controller by moving it around, until it reached Firmino or the Fullbacks.
Enjoying that last year for Arsenal the plan was “just get the ball to Saka”. More rounded now.
Liverpool has the chaotic lil bro vibes