Match Analysis: Arsenal vs Chelsea. How Arteta adjusted to beat Lampard’s Chelsea 3-1

Arsenal’s 3-1 win at the Emirates stadium lifted spirits around the club

Following a seven-game winless streak in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta’s position at Arsenal looked to be under serious threat, considering the theoretical potential of heavy beating by Chelsea, who would have climbed to 2nd place with a win. The absence of experienced starters Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, David Luiz, Willian, Gabriel and Thomas Partey made the task at hand even more difficult, as Arteta had to not only adjust his gameplan in the hopes of improved performance but also field a starting line-up of unusual names.

Adjust was certainly what Arteta did, opting to change his starting formation from a 3-4-3 to a 4-2-3-1, as well as give a first league start for the season to youngsters Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe, in addition to centre back Pablo Mari, three players that only recently had returned from long-term injuries. Alongside the two youngsters, Bukayo Saka was included in an attacking midfield trio averaging 19.3 years of age, behind the misfiring Alex Lacazette. Granit Xhaka came back in from his suspension to partner Mo Elneny in the double pivot, while Mari started next to more experienced defensive names Rob Holding, Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney.

[Starting lineups provided by whoscored.com]

PRESSING SCHEME

Whenever a manager fields young players in attack, he can expect big amounts of energy and “hunger” to press the opposition back line, and that’s definitely what Mikel Arteta got. The youngsters set the tone, and veterans such as Lacazette, Xhaka and Elneny fed off it to create a stifling press that hindered Chelsea’s first and second phase build-up throughout the entirety of the game.

Arsenal’s 4-2-4 press

4-2-4 zonal pressing scheme, rather than the usual man-oriented

• Compact front 4 which forces the ball wide and simultaneously cuts off passing lanes to midfield

• Double pivot which protects the backline, in case front 4 is bypassed

• Fullbacks man-mark the wingers closely, while centre backs shift across to protect the channel

As mentioned above, the goal of the press was to force the ball wide, a well-known strategy preferred because the receiver of the ball is not only pressed infield by the opposition players, he is also blocked by the touchline, so his passing angle is 180 degrees and instead of 360. 

Here’s an example of how the particular pressing scheme worked:

Here, the press forces the ball to be shifted towards the right flank, where the right-winger Pulisic has dropped deep to receive. This acts as a pressing trigger as Tierney has followed him, along with Xhaka and Martinelli swarm the receiver and cut off all potential forward passing lines

The ultimate goal of the press was to force long balls that would be defended by the jumping defensive players and would win the ball back.

Here, all passing lanes are closed down by the Arsenal forwards and so Zouma is forced play it long, which is easily blocked by Elneny.
When their press was bypassed, Arsenal players retreated into a 4-4-2 mid-block, where they would only press when the ball entered their own half.

ARSENAL BUILD-UP

Arsenal unusually chose to play their goal kicks long, and focused on winning the second balls, however, when not pressed they tried to play it out of the back in open play.

In the first phase, the full-backs would spread very high-wide, acting like wingers, and Elneny would drop in the back line to create a back three to cover Bellerin.

• For the first time in a while, Xhaka played as a lone defensive midfielder/deep-lying playmaker on the ball and was the heartbeat of everything good that Arsenal did in the build-up

• The number 10, Smith Rowe, along with the right-winger Saka, would drop in the half-spaces slightly ahead of Xhaka, in order to create forward passing lanes

• In terms of the remaining forwards, Martinelli acted as an outlet off the left half-space and was constantly making runs inside and outside of Reece James, while Lacazette operated as a link-up option from the right half-space, dropping in the midfield line to receive the ball.

When they entered the opposition’s half, Arsenal turned to their trademark left-sided overloads primarily in the first half. The inclusion of Emile Smith Rowe as a natural number 10 for the first time this season was very important, as his movement towards the left half-space gave a different dimension to a struggling Arsenal attack.

As can be seen here, Smith Rowe and Martinelli’s positioning the left half-space attract three Chelsea players and space for Kieran Tierney to run in from deep is opened up, where Xhaka found him multiple times, including in the phase of play that resulted into the penalty that made it 1-0.

SECOND HALF

Due to the nature of their 2-0 lead, Arsenal retreated a lot more in the second half and picked their moments to attack when on the ball. They mostly attacked down the right side this time, and perfect execution of their gameplan is illustrated in the build-up to their third goal of the game.

Saka drops deep in the right half-space to attract a man, which opens up the passing lane to Xhaka, who Holding finds.

Xhaka plays a 1-2 with the dropping center forward, Lacazette, who has pulled Thiago Silva with him, and now Arsenal can run into the open space.

Xhaka then plays in Bellerin, while Smith Rowe who has drifted towards the right touchline creates a 2v1 against Chelsea’s left back Chilwell.

Bellerin then passes it to Smith Rowe, and immediately makes a darting run in the box to attract a defender and open up space just outside the box for the oncoming Saka to attack. Smith Rowe finds Saka who makes it 3-0. Whether it was a shot or a cross, and whether the young Englishman meant it or not, we cannot know for sure, however no one can deny that the Arsenal players worked themselves into a very good position and were rewarded for it.

CONCLUSION

Arsenal picked up a huge three points, which acts as a lifeline for the short-term future of the team. Arteta’s adjustments paid off, but we are yet to see if they pay off in the long-term. Arsenal have a very important run of winnable games in the festive period and have to capitalise. 

Written by Nikolas Stephanatos (@ncstef16)