“A superb attacking performance by Arsenal today, and as the full time whistle at the Emirates is blown, Arsenal four, Leicester two.”
The jubilation around the Emirates when the full time whistle was blown was something non-existent in recent years. In a time when we had 0 goals last year, the Gunners have racked up 6 goals in style, this turn of events is ultimately down to Arsenal’s 45 million pound man, Gabriel Jesus. And what can I say, I think every Arsenal fan hopes his phone rings constantly throughout the season. A wonderful attacking display saw Arsenal collect their first home win of the season, but what can we take from it?
First of all, Arteta now has a selection headache that wasn’t necessary for years, with Ben White adopting the RB role comfortably, giving Saka cover whilst going forward, does Tomiyasu come back into the side? Of course, Tomiyasu’s first season from Bologna was injury-riddled to say the least but does he have the quality to be played over Ben White? Personally, I adopt the philosophy when it comes to selection choices with the old fashioned mindset of, ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it’, so naturally I would favour Ben White in this role. A part of me though is thinking we should stick with the reliable Tomiyasu who will be playing in his natural position, unlike Ben White. I am conflicted, as I am with who should take the LB role! I will leave Arteta with that headache.
With an in-form Martinelli and a fresh Jesus in the side, the expectations and weights have been taken off Saka’s shoulders – meaning when he has an off game, such as the one yesterday, it doesn’t effect our overall team performance or result. The one thing that scares me with this is if Saka takes this for granted and subconciously relaxes, in turn dipping in form. However from watching All Or Nothing, it has solidified the fact that this is not Saka’s mindset, he has a growth mindset (unlike Lacazette who lost form with the lack of competition for his spot).
In the Winter transfer window, the reason we were interested in Vlahovic is because he is quick, clinical but most importantly, tall. The fanbase wanted a tall striker as we had issues with working through the centre of the pitch, often resulting in our wingers having to take a chance with a cross into the box, which would more often than not be cleared away before 5 foot 9 Lacazette could head it into the back of the net. Instead of spending 70M on Vlahovic, Arteta looked to improve with his current squad, lets face it, a must for an Arsenal manager with the Kroenkes upstairs! In improving his current squad, we have worked on our crossing to give our attacking numbers an opportunity to score a goal. Often finding an unmarked player or weighting the cross beautifully to land right on the head of a man in red.
Xhaka’s performance was sublime, getting a goal and assist but being the complete box-to-box we are looking for currently in the transfer market. Creating great plays and chances, being the real core of our team with his midfield partner Partey. I believe Arteta instructed him to do this to combat Leicester’s back 5, something we usually are unable to break.
The first obvious tactical point was Arsenal’s fluidity and their unstructured style of play, well at first glance anyway but when digging deeper, it may have been one of the most structured performances in Arteta’s managerial history.
This is how both teams usually set up at a balanced part of the game, if the ball was deep but we had men forward, Martinelli and Saka would drift into the flanks, whilst Odegaard and Zinchenko were always making sure they were available to Partey if needed. At times, Xhaka pushed up to be the linkman between Martinelli and Jesus but that will be a point later. Arteta has adopted Guardiola’s philosophy of always having 2/3 options for the ball carrier. This only works when the players know where they are meant to be as well as where their teammates should be. We saw this practiced during All Or Nothing numerous times. Unlike the times of Mustafi and Sokratis who lacked the confidence to want the ball, Saliba and Gabriel are always available, constantly getting in pockets of space or dropping deeper to suit the passage of play. Jesus is ultimately what we wanted from Lacazette, a player that drops deep and can link play effectively whilst also being able to make forward attacking runs to score goals.
At first glance this just looks like a tactical mess but its safe to say this would fit in along with Arteta’s other drawings.
As you can see, we have 2 triangles on adjacent sides of the pitch. One consists of White, Odegaard and Saka whilst the other, Zinchenko, Xhaka and Martinelli. These players often created triangles among each other, basically setting up their own rondos mid game. It led to a Leicester player being drawn in and in 2 passes we could either play it to Partey, a defender or to a forward running Saka or Martinelli. This meant that even if Leicester doubled up to combat this, it would leave a space for Jesus, Partey or the possibility of a quick long ball ultimately giving us the attacking advantage in every scenario. If Partey didn’t think playing the ball to one of these triangles was a good move, Jesus often dropped. deeper or the triangle was broke for Xhaka or Odegaard to assist him in his struggles.
When Jesus joined the triangles it looked like this. As you can see, its a one touch style football that Arteta is trying to implement. I can just hear him on the training ground bellowing, ‘PASS AND MOVE, PASS AND MOVE.’ The fluidity of this attack means that Leicester are unable to track all the runs as there are so many, the same philosophy of the infamous 2018 World Cup ‘Love train’ deployed by England and Gareth Southgate. When Jesus receives the assist, often Ndidi and Evans were unable to establish who would go and block the shot because of the speed Arsenal have got to that position.
All in all, it was a very strong tactical display by the Gunners, only conceding sloppy goals, something that needs to be cut out against the big teams but it will come naturally when the side adapts to our new way of football. A slight scare was our lack of ambition to keep scoring after we had a comfortable margin, we would be looking to score cool and skilful goals, much like my 7 year old self on FIFA!
Arsenal had a great performance that has left our fanbase excited for Saturday’s 17:30 kick off against newly promoted Bournemouth, after they lost 4-0 to City, they will be looking to get back on winning ways, whilst we are looking to go 3/3, a drastic change from our 3 consecutive losses last year.
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still early days,get Pino before someone makes an offer