Yesterday’s performance highlighted a memorable day for Arsenal fans, a two goal victory over reigning Premier League champions Manchester City, reinforced with a defensive discipline many of us haven’t seen since the days of Vieira and Gilberto. Arsenal kept a clean sheet at The Etihad Stadium to put Man City’s unbeaten run to a close; not only that scored two goals from set pieces and wasted time at the corner flag, pinch us we must be dreaming! After some tireless play from the consistently improving Nacho Monreal, a cool penalty from star man Santi Cazorla set the game up at one nil 24 minutes in. A 67th minute header from Olivier Giroud ensured the two goal victory, after some slack defending by City. Slack defending is something that yesterday however, could not be aimed at Arsenal. It was the first real solid defensive performance Arsenal have put in for years; what’s changed? Well for a start Arsene Wenger’s tactics were spot on, despite previous criticism for his lack of tactical awareness, today there was a clear strategy to stunt City’s creative flair in the likes of David Silva and Sergio Aguero.
One of the things that really stuck out yesterday was the huge emphasis on shape. For most of the game Arsenal maintained a 4-1-4-1 formation off the ball, and reverted to a 4-3-3 on the ball. By implementing a 4-1-4-1 when Man City had the ball, Arsenal were able to use the 5 they had in midfield to swarm the likes of Fernando and Fernandinho, which subsequently reduced the amount of times Silva and co. received the ball. Not only this, Francis Coquelin (who was excellent) played slightly deeper in midfield so that anything that did manage to slip through he could intercept. It was evident that the back four benefitted tremendously from Coquelin’s presence. It reduced the amount of times Koscielny and Mertesacker had to come forward to get the ball, which in turn reduced the amount of times their overall shape got distorted. They were able to focus on defending and nothing else. Both Nacho Monreal and Hector Bellerin were tenacious down both flanks, and maintained a good understanding of when to defend, and when to go forward. The communication was there to see, each and every player stuck to their task yesterday and prevented Man City from even getting a shot on target in the first half. David Ospina had relatively little to do in the first half, other than encouraging the fans to chant his name even louder whenever he went to kick the ball.
Arsenal had a mere 35% possession compared to City’s 65%, which highlights the defensive nature of their performance. Arsenal managed an incredible 35 interceptions; a key contributing factor towards this was the influence of Francis Coquelin. Coquelin made 6 interceptions, all in vital areas of the pitch, his mobility is a significant upgrade from Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini. He also won 88% of his 8 aerial duels, which exemplifies his strength. He won 100% of his tackles and made 11 clearances; it is these monstrous stats that are justifying his starting place in the first-team. Not only this, he’s vocal – reminder of when he told the whole Hull team to “shut the f**k up”. But his vocal nature was epitomised today after Arsenal scored the 2nd goal, whilst others were celebrating, he was instructing others to stay focused. He has all the traits of a natural born leader, something Arsenal have lacked for a long time. Defensively, Arsenal were impressive. Overall they managed to be solid in so many areas, but one thing that really stood out was the amount of clearances. Arsenal made 50 clearances, Man City made 16; it is this old school defending that many Arsenal fans loved seeing yesterday purely because it was extremely effective. Clearing the ball into Row Z goes completely against our philosophy, but it was what needed to be done in order to break up City’s attacks and restore our defensive shape.
Another individual performance worth talking about is Santi Cazorla. Cazorla was by far the best player on the pitch, his retention of the ball was extraordinary. He racked up an incredible pass accuracy rate of 92% and touched the ball 96 times in a variety of different areas. He showed a cool head to convert the penalty, which helped set the tone for Arsenal early on. His vision to set Giroud up for the second provided a two-goal cushion Arsenal were certain not to lose. But it was his willingness to track back and provide cover that was most impressive. Cazorla played in a much deeper role compared to his usual No. 10 position, but it worked tremendously well. Cazorla’s runs from deep were the catalyst for most of Arsenal’s counter attacks; not only this, his passing range ensured that he could move the ball forward quickly, catching City unaware a lot of the time. With Mesut Ozil returning from injury Santi Cazorla is doing everything in his power to keep the German World Cup winner out of the team, and rightly so. Along with Alexis Sanchez, Cazorla has been Arsenal’s best player this season. We’re seeing the form that he showed in his debut season in the Premier League, and long may it continue.
Arsene Wenger will have so many reasons to be positive after yesterday’s performance. It showed more than anything that Arsenal ARE capable of beating the top teams, whilst also showing that the team can play in a disciplined manner. What will be interesting to see is whether Wenger continues to adopt this approach in similar games; whilst our attacking intent can blow lesser teams off the park at times, sometimes a defensive approach is best used in games such as yesterdays. What is refreshing is that the overall tactical approach of the team was a deliberate effort by the manager to stop City from playing; clearly it worked. With this in mind it would be baffling if Wenger didn’t adopt the same approach against the other big teams later on this season. The players can also take confidence from the game, they proved not only to the fans that they can beat a top side, but also to themselves. With Southampton, Manchester United and Spurs all winning on Saturday, yesterday’s vital win gives Arsenal a good momentum going forward; hopefully this win is one of many.
