GW5 -Everton vs Arsenal : Arteta’s tricky reds breaks the Goodison Park curse.
Game week five saw the Gunners take an away trip to Goodison Park, A ground where historically they have struggled. The last time Arsenal won away to Everton was all the back in 2017. Mikel’s tricky reds broke that curse yesterday with a resilient 1–0 victory. Super sub Trossard broke the deadlock courtesy of an outrageous first touch goal. Arsenal still in title contention hot on heels of league leaders Man City.
⚽GW 5: Everton 0–1 Arsenal
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ARSENAL XI : Raya; Gabriel, Saliba, White, Zinchenko; Rice, Odegaard, Viera; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
SUBS : Ramsdale, Kiwior, Tomiyasu, Trossard, Havertz, Smith Rowe, Nelson, Jesus
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EVERTON XI : Pickford, Young, Tarkowski, Branthwaite, Mykolenko, Onana, Gueye, Danjuma, Doucoure, McNeil, Beto
SUBS : Virginia, Godfrey, Patterson, Keane, Garner, Dobbin, Onyango, Calvert-Lewin, Chermiti
David Raya was an surprise inclusion to the starting XI for Arsenal. Well that’s what you can afford to have if you have 2 top GKs in the squad. Ramsdale hadn’t done anything wrong in the past few matches still was benched this is how ruthless Arteta can be. Arteta loves to tinker with his team which he has shown time and time again. He wants to have two world class players in each position, even in goal. It’s not all doom and gloom for Ramsdale as he might be starting between the sticks as Arsenal return to Champions league with the opening match against PSV. The quote below is from Arteta’s post match presser which further highlights the point about Ramsdale-
It’s the same rationale that Fabio [Vieira] played here or Eddie [Nketiah] played instead of Gabriel Jesus, I cannot have two players like this in one position and not play them. David has tremendous qualities like Aaron has, like Karl [Hein] has, but we have to use them you know.
Arsenal of this season have been constantly criticized of not playing as entertaining football as they did last season. There are a lot of reason for this. Some people even would go as far as to believe that Arsenal have regressed this season and they wouldn’t be able to mount a title challenge this season(😉😉United fans) The truth can’t be further from that. Sure, Arsenal might not look be looking as tempting while playing but there is a reason for that. Below I will try to explain that as simply as I can…
🔴⚪Arsenal Structure
In my previous articles I have mentioned how Arsenal plays with a 3–2–5 shape while attacking but yesterday’s match made me realize it’s more of a 3–2–2–3 shape. You live and learn, right?😁 Below is a simple description of how Arsenal attack-
The main motive of this tactical setup by Arteta is to form a box midfield of four in the centre of the pitch. The box is highlighted with blue lines in the above image. This generally creates an overload against the opposition midfield of three players, and ensures that Arsenal have a spare man to pass in midfield. Everton lined up with in 4–5–1 formation, which pushed Arsenal to build from the wide areas, which again is not a problem for Arsenal. If you peek at the yellow lines in the diagram, you’ll see how the team forms triangle shapes all over the pitch even diamond shapes too. This elite structure enables Arsenal to dominate possession and pin Everton or any opposition team for that matter into their own box, while building an attack on them.
Also note that, just because I didn’t draw any lines connecting to the GKs doesn’t mean that he is ineffective in the buildup, infact Raya played some crucial passes directly from the box to Nketiah even Martinelli/Saka at times, going long with pin-point accuracy. Raya is brilliant on the ball, there is no surprise in that, any PL fan can say this. However, Raya yesterday brought a sense of calm to the defense in yesterday’s match which is absolutely pivotal when you’re away to a physical team like Everton. Ramsdale for all his great qualities has looked a little bit hurried, especially in the home games towards the end of last season and even couple of matches this season. Let me repeat again, this is not the end of Ramsdale as #1 GK but having a little competition with an excellent keeper like Raya will definitively force Ramsdale to up the ante and level up his game even more.
Arteta in his presser spoke about the idea of treating the goalkeeper like any other position and even hinted that he considered replacing the goalkeeper in a couple of matches after the 60th min mark, something which is completely unheard off, the exact quote being —
I’m a really young manager. I’ve been in this job three and a half years and I have few regrets with what I’ve done. One of them was that in two occasions, I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes, in two games, in this period, to change the ‘keeper in that moment. But I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to do it. But I’m able to take a winger, or a striker off, or put a central defender on to drop to a back-five and hold that result. We drew those games and I was so unhappy. Someone is going to do it, and maybe it will be *gasps*. That’s strange? Why? Why not? We have all the qualities in another goalkeeper to do something when something is happening and you want to change momentum. Do it
Do you realize how crazy this is? This has never happened in the sport unless the starting GK got a red card or got injured. There are a lot of tactical nuances which Arteta is working towards to ensure that Arsenal reach the highest level. I strongly believe, Arteta’s next tactical evolution might see the GK as a pivotal player while building from the back, so much infact that it will allow one player from the defence to push higher effectively utilizing 11 players to attack even the GK🤯 Absolute bedlam!!!!
✔What worked-
Rice Rice Rice, I’m actually running out of words to describe him. He played his second game as a lone pivot or a #6 but his presence was everywhere. Declan moped up any loose balls or any second balls so effortlessly almost as if he was gliding over the pitch. Rice’s ability to cover large parts of the pitch with less number of strides is so useful and all these just proves how he totally deserves the price tag of £100m. Rice offers everything be it an attacking state or defending state.
Viera — A majority of fans were not convinced about Viera starting against the physical midfield of Everton but boy did he prove them wrong. Viera occupying the LCM space played a beautiful game his first big contribution was to setup Martinelli’s opening goal through a defence splitting pass, sadly the goal was ruled out for being offside. After Trossard replaced Martinelli early in the game due to injury, Viera positioned himself onto the LW while Trossard occupied the LCM space. Even then he was immense with his BLT passes and rotation with Trossard.
Trossard —Martinelli’s unfortunate injury forced Arteta to make an early substitution of Trossard though didnt start well in the first half, Trossard made a great comeback in the second half. He ended up scoring the winning goal with an emphatic first touch strike, assisted by Saka.
Gabriel — There was speculations earlier in the season that he has fallen down the pecking order and a move away might be on the cards. However, Gabriel has came out on top in both the matches he started never putting a wrong foot. He has been playing comfortably in the LB position and was hardly troubled in yesterday’s match. He enables Zinchenko to invert into the midfield and do what he does best
🚧What didn’t / Work under progress
Nketiah- I mean he didn’t have a bad game, but frankly against low block teams like Everton, there is not much he can offer. Games like this demand variety of attacking patterns from the striker to exploit the small pockets which rarely emerge due to the opposition’s insistence to sit in their box. Jesus was better suited for this game and it was pretty evident when he came on as well, constantly wriggling his way through the Everton defense.
Now let’s address why Arsenal look a little lacklustre while attacking. Arsenal’s start to the previous season took everyone by storm. Arsenal played beautiful attacking football, passing vertically and sprinting towards opposition box. By the end of season, however the team had run out of steam, with teams having figured out what Arsenal will do and thus opting to sit in a low block. This largely hurted Arsenal’s title aspirations as they ended up losing the title by 5pts to Man City. It seemed that the team peaked early in the season and fizzled out by the end. So what went wrong? Arsenal played a lot of vertical balls which enabled them to attack continuously however it also left them open at the back to sudden counter attacks and conceding goals completely against the run of play. A common theme was Partey in opponent half would play a misplaced pass allowing the opponent to mount a surprise counter and most times being 1v1 with the defender. Arteta has taken note of this and made the changes accordingly
This season Arsenal are playing with a more controlled approach. Sustained pressure is the king of breaking down low blocks however you can’t compromise on your defensive side. This is being facilitated by inclusion of Declan Rice and the ever changing starting XI by Mikel. Sure, the amount of chance creation has declined a little but the overall defensive security has increased higher as Arsenal are only behind Man City(3.7xGa) with 4.0 xGa(expected goals against) There is a very delicate balance between killing a team with 1000 passes and being incisive, Arsenal are a little short of being incisive though slowly but surely they are building towards it. There is no need for panic Arsenal fans! If anything other teams need to say their prayers as once Arsenal arrive with their attacking prowess it’s game over for everyone.
Final Thoughts
Thank heavens that Arsenal got Declan Rice, he is the catalyst which will propel them towards their goal. Next game is NLD at the Emirates with both the teams flying high and yet to lose a single match. This will be a good match up in a long time, see you then!
If you liked this, you can check out my previous articles here.
