Rio Ferdinand reveals Arsenal ‘superstrength’ after Chelsea win

Rio Ferdinand has identified the Arsenal ‘superstrength’ that is likely to power them to back-to-back Premier League titles.

The Gunners laid down a marker on Sunday, sweeping Chelsea aside and underlining their status as the team to beat this season.

After falling behind to an early Morgan Rogers strike, Mikel Arteta’s side, who have often been accused of being too conservative, were forced out of their collective shell.

Led by Martin Odegaard, who appears to be returning to his best form, Arsenal demonstrated the attacking threat some accuse them of lacking and turned the match on its head with goals either side of half time from Kai Havertz and their captain.

Only several impressive saves from Emiliano Martinez prevented the home side from extending their advantage and with the clock running down, Arsenal began to lean into their defensive strengths to successfully see the game out and extend their 100% start to the new season.

‘I just think you guys look strong. You’ve got the experience now as well. even that foul that Declan Rice did on Morgan Rogers with about 10 minutes to go, just shows you that steely understanding of game-management and when to do the big fouls and slow the game down.

‘You don’t have to dominate, you don’t need to look good at times but you’re always in the game.

‘That’s one thing I’ve noticed with Arsenal over the last year, they don’t care about having to dominate a game of football.

‘We’ve been in an era guided by Pep Guardiola and everything was about systems and dominating areas, overloads and making sure you dominant possesion of the ball.

‘Arsenal do want to do that at times but they don’t rely on that solely, they can win games in numerous different ways and that’s probably their superstrength.

‘They don’t just have one way to win a game, they can do it multiple ways which I think makes them a really, really hard team to prepare for.’

Arteta, meanwhile, was delighted with his team for showing different attributes to the ones which helped them secure last season’s title after a 22-year wait and believes there is even more to come from a squad pack with so much quality that the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Eberechi Eze, Cristhian Mosquera, Jurrien Timber and William Saliba didn’t even feature yesterday.

‘I think it’s an indication for us that we’re capable of performing even higher than we did last season,’ he said.

‘It depends on whether we maintain that desire, that humility, and continue every day to find a greater version of myself and the team.

‘We still have a lot to grow and a lot to offer, and that’s the ambition of the team.’