Arsenal Analysed: Continuing our goalscoring spree

Six goals without reply at Bramall Lane saw us extend our impressive goalscoring form to 21 goals in our last four Premier League matches.

To find out what made us so prolific in front of goal in our 6-0 win against Sheffield United, Adrian Clarke has gone through all the footage and stats to discover some things you may not have spotted.

Total domination

Playing with extreme confidence right now, we were expected to control matters at Bramall Lane, and that is exactly how the match panned out.

Pinning Sheffield United into their own half, we monopolised possession with an extraordinary 80.7% share, making a season-high 825 successful passes.

Showing real authority, this comfortably surpassed our previous best of 693 against Nottingham Forest on the opening weekend.

Our longest sequence was a 34-pass first half move that saw us keep the ball for one minute, 15 seconds.

No Premier League side has strung ten or more passes together more in a single match than Mikel Arteta’s side managed on Monday, as they made the hosts chase the ball for long periods.

At no stage did we pass the ball for passing's sake.

Moving it quickly and at a sharp tempo, there was always a desire to be progressive with our distribution.

A ‘build up attack’ is a move containing ten or more passes that either ends with a shot or touch inside the box, and in this respect we equalled our best tally for the campaign so far.

You will note from the table below that the four matches where we produced the greatest number of build-up attacks have all come since Christmas.

Declan's adventure

It was interesting to see Declan Rice deployed as an advanced left-sided No.8 against Chris Wilder’s side.

In our thumping victories at West Ham United and Burnley he was our deepest lying midfielder, but Jorginho occupied that spot instead, affording our record signing more attacking freedom.

It’s fair to say Rice made the most of the opportunity, regularly taking up positions ahead of the ball.

For our opening goal he stood in a centre forward’s spot to a create a 2v1 against a Sheffield United defender.

Jorginho spotted the overload, bouncing a pass into Gabriel Martinelli, who played in Rice to cross for Martin Odegaard .

Later on in the first period, Rice found himself in another advanced area on the edge of the home side’s box.

Like a striker he ran towards Odegaard to show for the ball, but once our skipper slipped a pass down the side for Bukayo Saka, he spun into the danger zone.

From the cutback he despatched a crisp shot into the corner that saw Arsenal go 5-0 up on 39 minutes; the fastest any away side has held a lead that big in Premier League history.

Rice now has five goals and five assists, the highest tally of his career so far.

Jorginho targeted space down the Blades’ left

In-form Jorginho was outstanding once again in the heart of the Gunners midfield.

Constantly recycling the ball swiftly – while playing exclusively between the width of both penalty boxes – the experienced Italian was always eyeing up opportunities to make a telling forward pass.

The Blades really struggled to contain us down our right, with the pace of Saka tormenting them before half-time, and two of Jorginho’s best passes were pre-assists that exposed their weakness in that area.

Early on he showed for a 1-2 before splitting the Sheffield United defence with a superb through ball for our number 7, who in turn forced an own goal from Jayden Bogle at the far post.

The 32-year-old also played a key role in our record-breaking 10,000th goal to make it 6-0.

Ben White’s horizontal run across his marker opened up an avenue for Kai Havertz to sprint into, and Jorginho flighted one of his trademark lofted clips over the defender.

The German’s control on the run, turn, and lay-off for White were all sublime, teeing up our right back to claim that historic landmark goal with a left foot screamer.

All-action Odegaard

While Rice largely stayed to the left of centre, it was interesting to see captain Martin Odegaard roam freely around the final third looking to make things happen.

Flitting about, looking to knit moves together with a bright air of bubbliness (and pressing with intensity when needed) the Norwegian set the tone for another high tempo performance.

This Touch Map showcases the varied positions he took up, which made him a difficult player for the Blades to shackle.

At times he has been restricted to operating on the right of centre, but not at Bramall Lane.

In total Odegaard made 115 touches, 93 passes (43 of which were inside the final third), three successful dribbles, four shots, and four key passes.

He also scored his 17th away goal for the club since the start of 2021/22 to make that crucial breakthrough after just five minutes.

On top of all this, it was Odegaard’s fabulous supporting run for Havertz that opened up a 4v2 opportunity for Martinelli’s goal (see above) that was eventually laid on by a no-look Jakub Kiwior pass.

He also sliced Sheffield United open with a well-weighted through ball for Saka in the move that led to Rice’s strike.

Desire aplenty

For all the outstanding football we produced with the ball on Monday evening, this handsome win would not have been possible without the right work ethic and mentality.

On the rare occasions we lost the ball, everyone worked hard to regain it as quickly as possible, and our off-the-ball runs were sharp throughout.

Without the efforts of Jorginho, Havertz and Martinelli to press Oli McBurnie and Anel Ahmedhodzic, we also would not have scored our fourth goal courtesy of our German number 29.

This was a contest we were expected to win, but there was no sign whatsoever of complacency.

Our determined attitude played as big a part in the record-breaking victory as the sumptuous pass and move football that provided such rich entertainment.

Have a go at your analysis by digging deeper into the numbers or building your own chalkboard with our revamped Stats Centre.