Arsene Wenger will continue with his tactical overhaul of Arsenal’s playing formation and begin next season as it ended with three centre-backs and three main creative forwards.

Arsenal’s results were transformed at the end of last season when Wenger joined Antonio Conte at Chelsea and Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino in switching formation, with his team winning nine out of their 10 final games in their new 3-4-2-1 structure.

It had followed a desperate run of seven defeats in 12 matches in the 4-2-3-1 formation that has been Arsenal’s identity for the most of the past decade. Before that and Wenger had largely stuck with 4-4-2.

Wenger, though, is already preparing his players in pre-season to begin with a three-man defence next season which has the added knock-on of reducing the opportunities for his creative players but adding an extra defensive player that can then help release Aaron Ramsey from central midfield.

The manager’s message to the players is that he wants the team to be more flexible next season and they will also go back to 4-2-3-1 during spells in training and matches, which is a formation that effectively means trading a defender for an attacker.