Jermain Defoe says Arsenal’s attacking style of play reminds him of Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles after their 5-2 win against West Ham on Saturday evening.
Mikel Arteta’s side delivered another impressive first-half performance with defender Gabriel Magalhaes opening the scoring with a header from a corner after just 10 minutes.
Leandro Trossard rounded off a well-worked move to double Arsenal’s lead before Martin Odegaard added a third from the penalty spot. Kai Havertz then made it 4-0 as he raced onto Trossard’s excellent through ball to score past Lukasz Fabianski.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka and an Emerson free kick restored some pride for West Ham but Bukayo Saka scored Arsenal’s fifth from the penalty spot in the fifth minute of first half added time.
The win puts Arsenal second in the Premier League table and six points behind Liverpool, although Arne Slot’s side could extend their advantage if they beat Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday.
‘The way Arsenal are playing at the minute it reminds me of the Invincibles, when you had that Thierry Henry, Ashley Cole, Robert Pires where they always vacated that left-hand side of the pitch, very unselfish,’ Defoe told Premier League Productions.
‘You’d see a lot of the Arsenal goals back then where they’d get into positions, players would pass it across goal and tap it into the empty net, it’s really unselfish.’
Defoe also believes that Arsenal possess the self-belief required to help them pounce on any mistakes Liverpool make in the title race.
‘Liverpool at the minute are flying, playing some good football, winning games,’ Defoe said.
‘But I think Arsenal just focus on themselves winning games. When you’re scoring a lot of goals and playing like you’re playing you can’t wait until the next game, and it doesn’t matter who you’re playing against because you just believes you’ll get to the next game and you’re just going to win.
‘They [Arsenal] seem to have that vibe at the minute where they’re scoring a lot of goals, everyone’s playing well, everyone’s contributing. So I could imagine that it doesn’t matter who they’re playing against next, they’ll believe that they’ll just keep winning.
‘I think Arsenal have been like that for the last few seasons, they’ve had little blips here and there, which is normal throughout the course of the season, but I think in the main you’ve seen with Arsenal on their day can score five or six goals because in the forward areas they’ve got so much quality.
‘The way the manager wants to play, his attention to detail, from what you hear he loves coaching, spends hours and hours on coaching, he ticks all the boxes, so you expect them to be like that.’
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