Arsenal's Defence: The Best in Europe?

I would like to start this article by issuing an apology to Laurent Koscielny. Back in November, I dedicated a paragraph of an article to dissecting every mistake he had made during a time when the jury was out regarding his ability. Since then, he has proved me and several other doubters wrong with masterful performances against Everton, Wolves and...um...oh yeah, Barcelona. Mr. Koscielny, I am sorry.

Arsenal's defence is no longer an Achilles’ heel

With the help of Koscielny, Arsenal now has one of the best defences in Europe. The question is: Is it the best?

In years gone by, Arsenal's defence has often let them down, with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool having far superior defences than Arsenal. This season, whilst Arsenal still have a worse defensive record than the Manchester clubs and Chelsea, their defence is currently better than all three.

In 2011, the defensive trio of Johan Djourou, Koscielny and Sczezny have conceded only one goal, and that was Louis Saha's blatantly offside goal, which is a mere statistic, and reflects the competence of the linesman, rather than that of Arsenal's defence.

Alex Song and Bacary Sagna have also picked up where they left off last season, both being unbelievably solid and making literally no mistakes, whilst Gael Clichy is re-discovering the form he had between 2006-08 which led to him being voted the league's best left-back—ahead of Evra and Cole.

For those of you who have been living under rocks for the last couple of days, Arsenal's best performance of the season came against Barcelona, where the crux of the victory was their defence. Yes, Barcelona scored, but Arsenal limited them to just the solitary goal, something that Real Madrid and Manchester United have failed to do against this generation of Barca players.

Laurent Koscielny won virtually every challenge, whilst Gael Clichy expertly allowed Dani Alves as much space as he wanted, forcing Barca's play wide, which would then result in a cross which Johan Djourou could use his height to intercept every time.

Let's not forget that on top of this, Arsenal were missing Sagna, their most solid defender and Vermaelen, their most dynamic, and Song was effectively playing with a ball and chain around his ankle courtesy of an early booking, and Barcelona could still only score off a cheap mistake from the otherwise imperious Gael Clichy (who made up for it with an assist which any other left back would struggle to emulate).

Before this match, Arsenal played against Wolves, who had beaten Manchester United seven days earlier. Even at 0-0 and later 1-0, the fans at the Emirates—including me— were completely at ease as Arsenal intercepted every long ball and marshalled every attack before it had time to develop, rather than being forced into goal-saving sliding tackles.

So what has changed since last season and, indeed, the beginning of this season?

First and foremost, the players. Koscielny, Szcezny and Djourou played a combined total of 28 minutes for Arsenal last season, with Almunia, Gallas and Vermaelen making up the spine of the defence. Sczezny is a fantastic prospect, and already immeasurably better than Almunia.

Djourou and Koscielny add an element of calm to the back line, which the hot-headed and positionally unaware Gallas lacked. On top of that, they both seem to enjoy sitting back and laying the ball off immediately after winning it, and only attack set-pieces—as opposed to the ridiculous antics of last season's centre-backs, who tried to go on Maradonna-esque dribbles constantly (it's ok for one of them to do it, but not both!).

Secondly, Arsene Wenger has stopped playing Sebastien "Inspector Clusoe" Squillaci, who really sucks. The Newcastle and Tottenham games showed that, when Squillaci is on the pitch he makes everyone around him worse—in fact, that is probably why I initially thought Koscielny was so bad.

Finally, Arsenal have realised that the best way of defending the opposition is not with immaculate tackling or show-stopping saves, but rather by not letting the attack take place. The midfield presses high up the pitch, the defenders rarely let the ball bounce in and around the goal, the back four play a high line, which congests the midfield and does not allow opposition strikers near their goal, and the goalkeeper is so quick off and across his line that he can claim the ball without the opponent taking a shot.

Is there room for improvement?

Arsenal has the best defensive record in 2011, but of course there are areas where they can improve.

First of all, their offside trap is not perfect. Against both Newcastle and Barcelona, they had three players playing a striker offside but one playing him onside, both times the opponent had the ball in Arsenal's net (although in Newcastle's case it was wrongly disallowed). As mentioned earlier, the highline has helped Arsenal this season, but it is so risky that anything short of perfection will cost them, particularly against quick strikers.

Those of you who have done some sort of chemistry lessons at school will know that the molecules of a solid are packed together and do not move, the molecules of a liquid do move but maintain a general shape, whereas those of a gas move totally randomly. Last season, Arsenal's defence was a gas (a fart, at that), with no shape being maintained and players simply running towards the ball with no anticipation of where the ball would go next.

Conversely, Internazionale's now legendary display against Barcelona at the Nou Camp was solid as a rock. This season, Arsenal have been liquid, meaning that whilst they have improved, players are still too attracted to the ball and more of a shape can be maintained, having said that, they do seem to be getting more solid game by game, so what started the season as water is gradually freezing into ice.

Perhaps most encouraging is that Thomas Vermaelen will return next month for crunch-time, adding not only defensive ability to the team, but also competition for places, forcing every defender to further up their game.

Who else can claim the title of Europe's finest defence?

Manchester City have the best defensive record in the Premiership; however, they play with three holding midfielders and sometimes even use fullbacks such as Kolarov as wingers on top of the fullbacks they already have! Because of this, they cannot claim to have the best defence, as any team who plays with between seven and nine defensive players will have a good defensive record and as a result their attack suffers. This is certainly not the case in North London.

Chelsea are always solid at the back; however, on current form their defence is not as good as Arsenal's. John Terry is not the defender he once was and seems to be getting worse game by game—though his leadership qualities remain undeniable. David Luis looks very, very good; however, he cannot be judged on two games, especially when Chelsea lost the first one and he gave away a penalty in the second one. As an Arsenal fan, the only Chelsea defender I would want in our team is Ashley Cole—and let's not forget where he learned his trade in the first place.

As for Manchester United, they seem to rely too much on Vidic—when he does not play they seem to suffer, such as when they were mauled 4-0 by West Ham. Before you say that Arsenal would also be worse if they were without their best defender, remember that they have been without him since August! Rafael is a good prospect but is still a liability when it comes to red cards, whilst Ferdinand's persistent injuries mean he has dropped a level, he also seems to be skipping training to practice Twitter-ing and he appears to spend more time with a keyboard at his fingers than with the ball at his feet.

On the continent, I feel that only Barcelona can match Arsenal's defence, and they employ a similar ethos of congesting the midfield, high-pressing and employing the offside trap. However, they are painfully susceptible to the counter-attack, as was proven on Wednesday, while they are also not tested as often as Arsenal due to the bigger gulf in class between them and virtually every other team in Spain aside from Madrid.

To conclude, I'm not saying Arsenal's defence is undoubtedly the best in Europe, but on current form I fail to see one that is better, if you disagree, please comment.