Welcome to the Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a mix of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know stories from up and down the Premier League. This week:
🍿 Gabriel, Saliba and Haaland to fight again 🔥 Iraola's defensive innovation in Bournemouth🔍 an in-form player to view this weekend
Gabriel, Saliba and Haaland to fight again
Erling Haaland told Mikel Arteta to remain “modest”, was the more head-length moment of the fiery fairs that followed the 2-2 draw of September between Manchester City and Arsenal in the Etihad Stadium. But his fight with Gabriel was where it all started.
Haaland was shown that the ball threw in the back of Gabriel's head after the stop-time equalizer by John Stones, with the couple again clashing with the kick-off. On Sunday, live on Sky Sports, they will renew their “war”, as Gabriel called, at the Emirates Stadium.
Haaland scored the opener in the last meeting, racing on Savinho's pass and finished cool. But few centerback pairs have made life more difficult for him than Gabriel and William Saliba.
His goal in the September match came after three meetings without even a shot at goal, including last season's community Shield.
Since the start of the last term in the Premier League, Haaland has compared on average 0.33 goals per 90 minutes against Arsenal compared to 0.91 per 90 minutes against other parties. He has made fewer shots and those he has made have registered lower on the expected target scale.
Gabriel and Saliba have shown the ability to suppress him, in other words, because they have so many others. Arsenal has a superior defense record for any other Premier League side since the start of the 2022/23 season. The importance of their center backs is clear.
Arsenal has given only 0.8 goals per match on average, with Gabriel and Saliba start compared to 1.4 per game without them. The difference in their points per match and profit percentage is grim in the same way, from 2.3 to 1.8 and 73 percent to 47 percent respectively.
Even in the context of the difficulties of Arsenal, the couple has been particularly effective this season, which limits opponents to a meager 0.71 goals per match when they start together, just before Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk at 0.78 .
Of course they know very well how devastating canland can be.
Haaland-inspired by 4-1 thrashing from Arsenal of Manchester City came in April 2023 with Rob who held the injured Saliba, but both were present for their 3-1 loss two months earlier, in which Haaland also scored. His goal in the Etihad Stadium came in September when he exploited a gap between them.
Haaland is also in good shape in this meeting. After a dip between September and December, he scored six goals in his last seven games. He will be just as fired as those who have to stop him on Sunday. Expect more fireworks to follow.
Gray filling holes for traces
Micky van de Ven came through the Europa League victory of Tottenham on Elfsborg on his return to action, but an injury to Radu Dragusin, his second half replacement, means that there is little prospect that Archie Gray will get against Brentford on Sunday.
The 18-year-old started with 14 consecutive matches for Spurs in the midst of their injury crisis. The fact that he has shown so clearly during a gloomy form in front of the side of Ange Postecoglou is even more impressive considering the number of roles that he was asked to fulfill.
Gray started as Spurs' right-sided center-back against Elfsborg and played on the left in their previous two games, against Hoffenheim and Leicester. Before, against Everton, he started in the central midfield, after he had only been their left-sided central back against Arsenal a few days earlier.
The circumstances would be sufficiently demanding for a young player, even without the positional changes. But Gray has taken it all in his card, and shows extraordinary versatility and comes from a scorching run for traces with his own reputation.
Iraola is tearing up defensive Rulebook
Andoni Iraola's Bournemouth-Gastheer Liverpool on Saturday and had extended their unbeaten run to 11 games with the 5-0 Thrashing van Nottingham Forest last weekend. A point of the Champions League spots, they continue to defy the opportunities, despite a long injury list.
This season they do it with one of the youngest parties in the Premier League. But what is really unusual about Bournemouth is that their youthfulness is concentrated in defense.
In the middle of the back, a position in which experience and know-how are traditionally crucial, Iraola uses the 22-year-old Illia Zabarnyi and 19-year-old Dean Huijsen, a combination of about six years younger than the Premier League average season.
Not that you would know to view them. The couple has developed an excellent concept and has a level of certainty to distribute their years. The Iraola side has only lost one of the 12 Premier League matches that they started together and held them in five clean sheets.
The preference of Iraola for young people is not limited to its center backs. On the left there is the 21-year-old Milos Kerkez. On the right back, Julian Araujo, 23, was generally preferred before his injury, with James Hill, also 23, then as a second choice as fit.
In the case of Huijsen it is partly a story of circumstance, with Marcos Senesi not available due to injury. But it is also a stylistic choice. The dedication of Iraola to throw bodies forward in attack requires defenders with the dynamics to offer the head when the ball is reversed.
“There are probably times when we suffer, in terms of experience, because many of them are very young,” he explained to Sky Sports in an office in the Vitality Stadium in October. “But they give us the opportunity to defend large spaces and deal with those situations.”
The club has recruited with Iraola's high intensive approach in mind, making young people a priority. “You have to play your strengths,” Iraola added. “That is why it helps to have a young team with players who can play with a lot of energy, in a high rhythm.”
Continue like this and it can be difficult to keep their defensive unity together. Huijsen, a bargain £ 12.8 million signing from Juventus, will certainly attract interest. Kerkez is a reported target for Liverpool.
But don't expect Iraola to change tack. In the case of Kerkez he may already have a successor in Julio Soler, the 19-year-old signed earlier this month from the Argentinian club Lanus. Bournemouth and their head coach continue to do things in their own way.
Comments