There is the Arsenal way, which is Arsene Wenger’s way. It doesn’t include long balls.
Not that playing nice tidy, three-yard passes have done him much good either, but we admire a man who sticks to his principles regardless of changing circumstances.
The Arsenal manager, of course, doesn’t exactly have any strikers that you could lob a ball up to, a la Didier Drogba, so it’s no surprise that in a table compiled by Whoscored.com, the Gunners play the least amount of ‘long balls’ per game.
The Londoners are rock bottom of that table at just 50 per match, but they do play the largest amount of short passes at 511.
Premier League winners Leicester City like to mix it up, as they hoof the ball 72 times per match, while they also sometimes keep it on the deck, with the third lowest amount of short passes at 279.
Only West Brom and Sunderland play a lesser amount of short passes per game, at 256 and 269 respectively
But the team that you do not want two small centre-halves playing against is Watford, who lump it long a scarcely believable 80 times per game, and normally play just 306 short passes in any 90-minute spell.
Crystal Palace are the wing-kings, with 18 crosses per game, while Aston Villa, Palace, and weirdly considering Wes Hoolahan’s presence, Norwich, normally play no through balls in a match.
Most long balls per game in the Premier League this season pic.twitter.com/gORW9xtgJf
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) May 10, 2016
