And so extends Alan Hansen's "flu" bout...

To be fair TYotO Jonathon Pearce was pretty complementary to Szczseny on MoTD last Saturday.
But this myth about our defence being cr4p goes back to Hansen. He was banging on about our poor defence from set plays this season and how we went to sleep. He had to go back about 5 years to find a clip to "prove" his point. Still he does try to analyze play unlike that other ex Liverpool tool Owen on BT Sport

Hansen just wums you

Our defence has been excellent since the Bayern game last year. It was so simple and obvious. Drop two yards deeper to get the best out of Mertesacker. That led to our great run in at the end of the season. The media missed it. And most fans from other teams are sheep that follow talking heads.

Come back with yer fancy stats in May!

Best team in the league by miles. Best defence, best midfield and with Nik scoring for fun (more goals in open play than loldado) we have a slightly worse attack than Newcastle

It hasnt to do with Mertesacker dropping deeper.

7 cleansheet in the last 8 games.
And in those games, we faced Liverpool, Dortmund, ManU, etc....
Enough said.

Roma have the best defensive record in Europe not Bayern.

14`games and only 4 goals concede, truly amazing

Iawt yeah but they arent good teams.

comment by Gunnerthru - unglücklicherweise gibt es nicht viel Sehende (U6675)
posted 36 minutes ago
It hasnt to do with Mertesacker dropping deeper.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

It does, kind of.

The reason we are far better defensively is a combination of personnel and shape, and a bit of the unquantifiable like old fashioned hard work. What we do now when we lose the ball is that the likes of Giroud, Ozil and Cazorla initiate a high press (even as far as their 'keeper on occasion), with Giroud the furthest up and the others covering passing lanes. If that doesn't work the whole team then drops deeper than we ever used to, getting men behind the ball and a good shape, and allowing us to be more in Mertesacker's comfort zone.

This is almost the perfect way to play without the ball imo if you can execute it well. The key is having Arteta and/or Flamini as screens staying deep no matter what and allowing time for the forwards to retreat if they are bypassed when trying to press.

In the past we defended high up but a) sucked at pressing or b) left huge gaps between the lines making it easy to pick us off with fast transitions. Combine that with Mertesacker's lack of pace and you have problems.