Country: England
Player:Saliba
We’ve had these debates many times and when stats dispute your claims you always revert to ‘everybody knows that’ or ‘I doubt many fans would dispute that’. Arsène made them into better defenders by better nutrition, stopping their drinking habits and ‘taking off their shackles’ as Lee Dixon put it.You're looking at minutia there though. Goals conceded doesn't really have much input on overall league position when you're looking at a difference of 0.14 goals conceded a game
Arsène was a better and more progressive manager than Graham, 100%, but the bedrock of the early Arsène defence was built on the Graham defensive unit that Arsène got to be a bit more professional and put some faith into them that they could play a bit too. Arsène didn't make them better defenders because he didn't need to.
Winterburn, Dixon, Adams, Bould / Keown were a better defensive unit than the Invincibles version. Not necessarily better players as individuals but as a unit they were superior. I doubt many fans who watched both sides would dispute that tbh.
And another thing, David Devin was chief transfer negotiator and was responsible for bringing in many of the players in that era under Graham and Arsène. Neither of those two managers are responsible for some our best signings at that time, Bergkamp is a great example. None of those teams were 100% Grahams or Arsène in terms of personnel acquired.