Arsenal's block party: How the Gunners defensive line stops shots before they reach goal at exceptional rates

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If there is a moment to define this new Arsenal -- a team that ought to have convinced the footballing world that they can win the Premier League and/or Champions League titles -- it might not be one of Kai Havertz's burgeoning number of goals, Declan Rice's thunderbolt at West Ham or any one of the dozens of others brilliant moments in the attacking third. It was Gabriel Magalhaes, roaring with delight as he had blotted out Joao Pedro's shot in the 91st minute of a 3-0 win over Brighton that was long since decided. In the grand scheme of things it meant nothing other than a goal difference one better than it might have been, another staging post on David Raya's march towards the Golden Glove. To Gabriel and his team mates, however, this meant everything.

Packing the penalty area, hurling any and everybody in front of shots: this might be the sort of defense that is more readily associated with those scrapping at the bottom of the table, but Arsenal are more than willing to throw a block party for any team that visits the Emirates. Their raw output of 85 blocked shots does not look all that remarkable when compared with the rest of the Premier League -- certainly not with the 172 that makes Manchester United, the leading side by this particular metric -- but then again the qualities of their backline are such that opponents tend not to take many shots on David Raya's goal.

Indeed it is an awfully quiet life between the posts for Raya, who had fewer saves to make against Manchester City and Luton Town than his defenders had shots blocked. While it may be true for most clubs that they have more blocks than saves, indeed Fulham and Aston Villa are the only two where their goalkeepers are doing more than their defenders, the proportions for Arsenal are staggering. Raya and Aaron Ramsdale have saved 46 shots. Their outfield players have blocked 85, nearly 60% more.

A staggering 32.8% of shots on the Arsenal goal have been snuffed out by their defenders. That is a tally bettered by only one team this season, a Nottingham Forest side who tend to back their penalty area with center backs, and only one more since the start of the 2020-21 season. Anyone who saw them in action will not be remotely surprised that it was Sean Dyche's Burnley in 2021-22, their final campaign before going down to the Championship.

Surrounding them in rankings for the decade so far are a sizeable clump of the sort of teams you would expect to be flinging themselves in the way of shots: Antonio Conte's Tottenham, Dyche's other teams as boss of Everton and Burnley, a David Moyes era West Ham. There is the odd intriguing outlier such as last season's Manchester City, but for the most part you are getting the teams you'd expect to be blocking a lot of shots. Anyway, that side, where Pep Guardiola leant into a four center back system, is not a bad one to share a few defensive hallmarks with.

For this season's rankings (see top 10 below) Arsenal sit alongside a clutch of robust teams who tend to have bodies back whenever required and a few other teams who are just so bad at keeping away shots that it stands to reason they should block a few. Here's looking at you, Erik ten Hag.

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Block busters: Best shot-blocking sides

The Premier League sides who are hardest to get a shot against

Team	Shots faced	Shots saved	Shots blocked	Proportion of shots blocked
Nottingham Forest	435	88	145	33.3%
Arsenal	259	46	85	32.8%
Everton	429	94	137	31.9%
Manchester United	556	120	172	30.9%
Chelsea	424	103	131	30.9%
Wolves	438	100	134	30.6%
Brighton	385	115	87	29.9%
West Ham	531	135	153	28.8%
Luton	543	119	154	28.4%
Burnley	495	125	139	28.1%
Premier League average	429	100.3	122.5	28.3%

For opponents it must be like eating glass. It is hard enough getting to the Arsenal penalty area when you have to consecutively break through a Martin Odegaard led press, Declan Rice to mop things up and the combined efforts of Gabriel and William Saliba. Even if you do get around them, you'll find someone or other has scrambled back in time to hurl themselves at a shot anyway.

The training ground work off the ball is clearly paying off for Arteta. "We do work on that," he told CBS Sports, "but hopefully it tells you about the players' nature as well. You cannot just allow players to shoot at your goal.

"We have to prevent every possible scenario that occurs before that and when it gets to that stage, it's the [last] opportunity before our goalkeeper makes an intervention. So [we] try to control everything that happens in that chain."

Memory block: Best shot-blocking sides since 2020-21

How Arsenal compare with the Premier League since 2020-21

Team	Season	Shots faced	Shots saved	Shots blocked	Proportion of shots blocked
Burnley	2021-22	605	129	211	34.9%
Nottingham Forest	2023-24	435	88	145	33.3%
Arsenal	2023-24	259	46	85	32.8%
Tottenham	2021-22	492	98	161	32.7%
Manchester City	2022-23	294	60	95	32.3%
Everton	2023-24	429	94	137	31.9%
West Ham	2021-22	548	116	175	31.4%
Burnley	2020-21	571	126	180	31.5%
Wolves	2022-23	557	119	175	31.4%
Brighton	2021-22	478	104	150	31.4%

Why Arsenal are blocking so many shots is an intriguing, perhaps unanswerable question. Compared to years gone by their appetite for defending shines through, while it might also be true that their organization and sheer defensive power compels the opposition to settle for whatever shot they can get, the average xG value of a shot on the Arsenal goal this season is 0.083, by far the best mark in the league and 21% better than Brentford in second place.

It also helps no end that Arsenal have the sort of big, tall defenders who can blot out a fair chunk more of the goal than anyone else. Four of their players have more than 10 blocks this season and at full back Ben White is particularly effective at getting in the way of shots when wingers try to take the ball inside on their right foot.

There is no debating the Dikembe Mutombo, Hakeem Olajuwon, Tim Duncan of the Arsenal backline though. Considering how few shots are taken on his goal, it is simply remarkable that Gabriel should rank sixth for Premier League blocks this season, his 28 shots level with Virgil van Dijk from a lower number of minutes played and shots faced. That figure means the Brazil international has kept 60% as many shots away from the Arsenal goal as Raya; it is no surprise that that is the highest number in the Premier League this season. Nor is it any great shock that he has blocked the highest proportion of shots faced by his team in 2023-24.

Still it is remarkable that 10% of efforts on the Arsenal goal have hit their No.6 and rebounded to safety. Even man mountain James Tarkowski, whose Premier League career has been built on blotting out opposition strikers, can't match that tally. No wonder Gabriel Jesus finds it such a challenge to line up against his compatriot and William Saliba in training.

"It's hard, they are tough," he said. "They are strong. It's hard to get past them... but sometimes we do. I don't want to kill their confidence for the game!"

Defensive block: Players with the highest percentage of blocks

Premier League center backs who have blocked the highest proportion of shots faced, 2023-24

Player	Team	Minutes	Shots blocked	Shots blocked vs. goalkeeper saves	Proportion of opponent shots blocked
Gabriel	Arsenal	2445	28	60.9%	10.8%
James Tarkowski	Everton	2789	43	30.9%	10%
Craig Dawson	Wolves	2211	39	39%	8.9%
Virgil van Dijk	Liverpool	2548	28	32.5%	8.3%
Lewis Dunk	Brighton	2377	32	36.8%	8.3%
Fabian Schar	Newcastle	2714	32	29.1%	7.4%
Jan Paul van Hecke	Brighton	2188	26	29.9%	6.8%
Ben White	Arsenal	2409	17	37%	6.6%
Ruben Dias	Manchester City	2197	16	25.4%	6.3%
Jarrad Branthwaite	Everton	2520	26	18.7%	6.1%

All this might have the feel of ephemera but it matters. Arsenal find themselves at the business end of a competition where the surest sign of a potential champion in waiting is an elite level defense. They are about to be exposed to their great nemesis in Harry Kane, a man doubtless desperate to win his first major trophy at club level. If they are going to overcome both Bayern Munich and one of Real Madrid and Manchester City they are not going to have four games without penalty box danger. The signs are that when those shots come, Raya's bodyguards will hurl themselves in front of danger.