Arsenal\u2019s credentials as serious contenders for the 2025\u201326 Premier League title rest heavily on the team\u2019s defensive form. Jurri\u00ebn Timber\u2019s emergence as an elite right back, combined with a variety of inverted left-back options, has made the prospect of facing Arsenal a daunting task for opponents.<\/p>\n
The conversation around Arsenal\u2019s back line has included comparisons with Chelsea\u2019s 2004\u201305 campaign, when Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s side conceded just 15 goals across 38 games. That Chelsea team lost only once on their way to the title and featured a central pairing that defined the era: John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho. They were often supported by Paulo Ferreira on the right and William Gallas on the left, with Petr \u010cech in goal.<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s defence has been markedly strong this season. By Gameweek 10 of 2025\u201326 they had conceded three goals, a return that underlines why talk of historic comparisons has begun. While the full season remains a long way off, the early numbers and the emergence of Timber have focused attention on whether Mikel Arteta\u2019s side can sustain such consistency.<\/p>\n
John Terry has been vocal in defence of Chelsea\u2019s record, sharing his view on social media. \u201cI recently got sent this list of the 15 goals we conceded in 2004\u201305, I can\u2019t help but be annoyed but also very proud to be part of a great team,\u201d he explained. \u201cGoing over the games and goals in my head thinking this should be 10 or less.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecords are there to be broken, but I\u2019m not sure 15 goals conceded in the Premier League will ever be beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those lines capture why the comparison endures: Chelsea\u2019s defensive benchmark is exceptional, and Arsenal\u2019s current form has invited fresh debate. At this stage of 2025\u201326 the measurable fact is simple \u2014 Arsenal had allowed three goals by Gameweek 10 \u2014 and that statistic frames the evolving discussion about how close, if at all, this team might come to matching a long-standing standard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal’s defence has conceded three goals by Gameweek 10 as comparisons to Chelsea 2004-05 grow. yet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190,172],"tags":[1162,1220,1221],"class_list":["post-4222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-john-terry","tag-premier-league-defence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}