With Arsenal doing so well in the Premier League this year, it’s only fitting to go down memory lane and look back at some statistics from the last season the Gunners won the Premier League.

Defensive solidity

You don’t go a whole season undefeated without a strong and organized defense. While central defenders the likes of Kolo Touré, Sol Campbell and even Martin Keown come to mind as obvious contributors to that fearsome back line, Arsenal’s defensive heat map shows how important players on the wings were for Arsène Wenger’s team. Much of the Gunner’s interceptions, tackles, blocks and pressure on the ball came deep on the sides of the pitch suggesting the critical role Ashley Cole and Lauren held in stopping crosses and breaking the opponent’s attacks.

Defending deep also had the secondary effect of drawing in the opposing teams. The average defensive heat map for teams facing Arsenal is much more central and pushed towards the middle of the pitch. This allowed for space in behind to exploit with the speed of Arsenal forward, and in particular Thierry Henry.

Cole and Lauren did have a helping hand or two in defense in the form of one of the best midfield partnerships in the Premier League. While Gilberto Silva and captain Patrick Vieira are remembered as a highly complimentary physical duo in the center of the park, their duels show how their presence was felt throughout the width of the pitch.

Devastating going forward

Making the next heat maps made me miss the good old 4-4-2. The figures below show the density of shots, passes, ball carries, dribbles and foul won by the Invincibles’ famous front four. Robert Pires on the left and Freddie Ljungberg on the right were true outside wingers, feeding both Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp up front. Bergkamp’s responsibility as a playmaker as much as a second striker had him much closer to the halfway line, serving as the relay between the Vieira/Gilberto Silva and Henry.

Strength in depth was also an important feature of Arsenal’s season, which had its fair share of injuries. In fact, the starting XI that would be remembered by most to represent the Invincibles only began a match together on TWO occasions!

Sylvain Wiltord in the first half of the season, and later Jose Antonio Reyes who was bought in January provided an important boost to the team, both having an even better xG per 90 minutes played to their names than Robert Pirès. Other notable mentions on the list include Edu and Ray Parlour who reinforced the midfield several times.

The King of Highbury: Thierry Henry

A post about the Invincibles would not be complete without a special mention to Thierry Henry. The French striker scored 30 goals in the Premier League guiding Arsenal to the historic title. Still, Henry was clearly not afraid to test the keeper (or miss the target!) from outside the box, even trying his luck from the halfway line on a couple occations…come on Titi..

The all time top Arsenal goalscorer has countless elite performances to his. The picks of the bunch that season have to be his season-defining hattrick at Anfield, which was followed less than a week later by 4 goals against the the French marksman’s favorite victim, Leeds. Henry at his unplayable best.

• The data used in this article are available for free from StatsBomb: https://statsbomb.com/
• The figures were created in R using the ggsoccer package: https://github.com/Torvaney/ggsoccer/