Premier League Rewatch: Arsenal vs. Manchester City
How the Gunners blew the doors open in the second half
Pep versus Arteta has produced some thrilling tactical encounters over the years, but this one went the way of Arsenal.
Manchester City had been improving with only one loss over their last nine matches, while Arsenal had been unbeaten in the Premier League since their 1-0 loss to Newcastle on November 10th.
Let’s first start with how each team set up.
Arsenal went with their best possible lineup minus some of their injuries, while Manchester City went with a very attacking set up having Kovacic as the only real ball stopping midfielder.
Match Breakdown
Arsenal was able to score quickly off a high turnover. Manchester City with their first opportunity of the match tried to play through the middle of Arsenal’s press and got punished as Ødegaard finished off a point blank chance from a pass from Havertz.
Early on, Odegaard was dropping deep to help aid in build up, which meant that Timer was inverting and playing a very high position up the pitch.
Manchester City were mainly playing out of a mid block and staying very compact to not allow Arsenal to progress the ball centrally. That’s not a problem for Arsenal who have one of lowest rates of central progression in the Premier League because Mikel Arteta favors the low risk approach of playing the ball in wide areas.
Arsenal almost made it 2-0 as City gets caught with three guys trying to close down Ødegaard, which frees Martinelli in the box for a goal, but he’s just offsides.
Here is an example of Arsenal jumping into their man to man press. The ball going backwards triggers the press as Martinelli tries to force Ortega to pass it to the Akanji. However, Ortega plays it back to the other side of the pitch away from the press, which frees City to build down their left hand side.
One thing that Arsenal is so good at is changing their OOP structure throughout the match. They started in a 4-4-2, but Partey drops into the last line of defense so City cannot get a 5 v 4 on the last line.
In addition to that, Arsenal did a masterful job of not letting City do what they wanted to, which was play through the middle of the pitch. Here is City’s pass map from the match.
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Marmoush was trying to find pockets of space in Arsenal’s right half space, but it was Thomas Partey’s job to man mark him mostly throughout the match and he did a brilliant job of doing so.
One of the reasons Arsenal can be so difficult to prepare for is because really anybody can invert into the middle in build up. To start it was Partey and Odegaard as the double pivot. But here Lewis-Skelly inverts while Partey drops into the back line.
Arsenal really should have been up 2-0 inside 30 minutes. They force another high turnover in the central areas with City continually trying to play through the middle and are able to set up Havertz with a WIDE OPEN chance, but he puts it wide.
As the first half started to come to a close, City started to live in Arsenal’s final third as the Gunners were falling back into a very compact defensive block. There was just a lot of ball circulation from Manchester City, but they weren't able to threaten Arsenal much.
It was more of the same for Arsenal in the second half sitting in a very low 4-4-2 and basically daring City to break them down.
The Haaland goal comes off of what City was trying to do for close to 30 minutes. Because Arsenal was playing so compact the switch balls to Nunes were wide open. This was the first time it worked.
Foden receives it at the top of the 18 yard box, while Savinho comes all the way over from his left wing position to find a pocket of space to send in a cross to the back post to Haaland who boxes Saliba out for the header.
While it was a great goal, it was the last shot City would have in the match.
Savinho was by far City’s best player in the match and as the match progressed started to roam around the pitch trying to find these pockets of space.
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Arsenal's second goal of the match came yet again off a high turnover in the center of the pitch. It’s a poor pass from Foden that Partey picks it off for a shot. He’s a bit fortunate that it takes a deflection off of Stones, but Foden giving it away in that area of the pitch is asking for trouble and Arsenal punished them.
City kept trying to switch the play to free up some space when Arsenal’s defensive block would shift. Here they freed up Marmoush in the half space with a switch ball to Savinho who plays it back to Gvardiol, and then through to Marmoush who gets his cross blocked.
Arsenal made it 3-1 with a brilliant individual effort from Lewis-Skelly. Arsenal got a 3 v 3 out wide against City and Lewis-Skelly found a space as Marmoush is telling Silva to cover, but Bernardo Silva is caught guarding two guys, which allows Lewis-Skelly to dribble into the box and get off the shot.
Ortega probably should be saving that with the post-shot xG only being 0.19.
This is what can happen with City and why they keep getting exposed in transition. Because Gvardiol, Kovacic, and Nunes are usually in such advanced positions, when opponents win the ball they are creating chances against City on the break with regularity.
Here Arsenal wins the ball centrally and is able to spring a 3 v 3 counter attack.
Arsenal sealed off the match exposing City on the break again. Havertz makes an overlapping run, Martinelli finds him and it’s a brilliant cut back shot for the fourth goal.
Conclusion
In the end, Arsenal scored five goals off of only one expected goal, so you could say that they were fortunate, but they were by far the better side in this match.
Their high press was the real star of the match as it was the reason for two of their five goals with the ability to turn Manchester City over centrally to create two golden opportunities.
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For most of the match though, Arsenal sat in their low defensive block and didn’t allow City to play any passes through the middle. They also did a fantastic job of neutralizing Erling Haaland. He got free for a goal, but he only was able to touch the ball nine times in the match.
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Arsenal was so good in their low defensive block that after the Haaland goal, City weren’t even able to take another shot for the remainder of the match.
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It’s a massive three points for Arsenal to keep pace with Liverpool in the title race. The Gunners have a two goal deficit to overcome against Newcastle coming up in the League Cup on Wednesday, while Manchester City has Real Madrid in eight days time after an FA Cup match with Leyton Orient.