Mikel Arteta believes that the excellent defensive record of Arsenal in the Champions League can offer them a springboard for European success this season.
Arsenal visits PSV for the first stage of a last-16-drawing game on Tuesday, after he finished third in the 36 team League phase of the Champions League, behind competitive favorites Liverpool and Barcelona.
They gave only three goals in their eight games in that phase of the competition, with only Inter (one goal against) with a better defense record.
However, the Nerazzurri performed enormously about their underlying defensive figures, after they have admitted opportunities worth 7.48 expected goals against (XGA).
Arsenal's total of 5.82 XGA was the lowest registered in the competition phase, while they were also confronted with the slightest shots on Target (19) of each team, with five clean sheets kept.
While injuries to Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz have ran Arsenal in attack and have derailed their Premier League title, Arteta feels that solid can make the difference in European knockout tires at the end.
“We had played very differently at home in the past year and gone, especially in Europe,” said Arteta.
“We have been much more consistent, we have scored many goals, we have hardly admitted anything, I think we have admitted three goals and have the lowest expected goals in the group stage, which is great.
“So that's a large platform, so we have those resources available to the team, it's something the team has already done and now we have to keep doing it.
“If you look at the history of the teams that have been very successful, the defensive record is crucial.
“Then we have shown that we have the capacity to score many goals in the competition, of course the options are different, but the team still has many means to do that.”
Arsenal walks for 57% of their minutes on the scoreboard and played this season in the Champions League; The highest percentage on each side.
The men of Arteta have only followed 65 of their 770 minutes of match time in the competition this period (8%).
They also held a clean slate in 63% of their matches in the 2024-25 edition, which only do this in a higher percentage of their matches in 2005-06 (77%, 10/13), when they made their only Champions League-Laatste appearance.
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