Can incredible Arsenal break Premier League clubs' clean sheet record?

Six in a month 💪 

"1-0 to the Arsenal" was the famous chant that reverberated around the iconic Highbury stadium during the latter stages of George Graham’s tenure. The Gunners were renowned for their defensive robustness under the Scotsman but Mikel Arteta has arguably taken that to a higher level. It’s simply unquestionable, Arsenal are defensively the best team in the world and they are currently impenetrable. The centre-back pairing of Gabriel and William Saliba is formidable, while Jurriën Timber performances are deserving of being in conversations around the best full-backs on the planet.

The strength in depth in Arsenal’s defensive ranks is the envy of all top European clubs with Piero Hincapié, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Riccardo Calafiori all elite defenders. In keeping another clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Brighton in the League Cup, Arsenal made history by becoming the first English top-flight team to play six games in a month without conceding a goal. Arteta’s men are currently on a run of six consecutive clean sheets but how does that rank amongst the best defences in Premier League history?

Premier League clubs with the most consecutive clean sheets

Analysing Transfermarkt’s data from all clubs in the Premier League era across all competitions, Liverpool hold the record for most clean sheets on the bounce. The Anfield club prevented the opposition from scoring in 11 consecutive games under Rafael Benítez in 2005 - the run ended in a 1-0 defeat to Sao Paulo in the FIFA Club World Cup final. As the graphic below illustrates, Manchester United rank second during the 2004/05 season, racking up eight clean sheets in the bounce in all competitions.

The run included two clean sheets against minnows Exeter City in the FA Cup and Man United hold the Premier League record with 14 consecutive shut outs. There’s been seven occasions when Premier League games have gone seven games without conceding, including Chelsea three times under the stewardship of José Mourinho. Arsenal’s current record just makes the top ten list and it would be a tall ask for them to eclipse Liverpool’s record but they seldom give opposition any chances currently.