So, we’ve all heard the story before, Arsenal dominate a game, control possession and make chance after chance but to everyone’s disappointment it doesn’t quite pay off, the opposing team’s keeper has the game of his career and they end up winning the game 1-0.
Against Swansea at the Emirates on Monday night, something along those lines happened…
Arsenal dominated the game, possession and control in midfield was comfortable and everything was very good, it almost seemed as though the goal was a certainty, but it just didn’t happen.
Lukasz Fabianski clearly came back to north London with a point to prove and he did just that. At times the Gunners made it easy for him, firing the ball into his direction on a number of occasions, but at the end of the day he kept them in the game with a whopping nine saves.
At the Liberty Stadium back in November, the game was finely poised at the hour mark before Alexis Sanchez opened the scoring, but as soon as he did that Arsenal gave up, assuming the game was won and a Gylfi Sigurdsson free-kick got the Swans back into the game before the tricky Jefferson Montero floated a cross into substitute Bafetimbi Gomis’ head who put the ball into the back of the net with his first touch of the ball.
On this occasion at the Emirates, the game was finely poised at the hour mark and Alexis Sanchez again had an attempt at goal, but he shot it straight at Fabianski who parried the ball into Theo Walcott who again placed the ball into the Swansea’s keeper’s hands.
Bafetimbi Gomis was a 75th minute substitute and with the game still awaiting its first goal, the French striker took no longer than 10 minutes to get on the score sheet as Jefferson Montero once again got a cross in and Gomis leaped higher than anyone else to head the ball into the goal. At first glance, it seemed as though David Ospina had done enough to save the effort, but the goal decision system came into play and proved that it was behind the line.
Nacho Monreal has become increasingly important
Arsenal lost the game and can take little joy away from the emirates, but one of the few positives is the role that Nacho Monreal had to play in the game.
When he was first signed, it was to be back up for Kieran Gibbs and slowly but surely he has proven himself to be worthy of an Arsenal shirt, he is not the quickest full back you’ll ever see and he’s certainly not going to be remembered as an Arsenal great, but what Monreal provides is consistency and an honest 90 minutes of football- without fail.
In Monday night’s game, Monreal’s role was clear, defensive work in abundance against the pacey Nathan Dyer was vital.
Monreal made six interceptions, cancelling out a number of attempted through balls into the path of Dyer, one block and one clearance. In an attacking sense, Monreal attempted three crosses and had a good shot at goal, whilst completing a very high 94% of his passes.
The only let down of Monreal’s performance on Monday night is something that is not usually the case with him, getting dragged out of position by a one two which led to the goal.
Besides this, it was a tidy performance from a tidy performer who continues to win over doubters.
Garry Monk’s tactics were executed to perfection
Arsene Wenger said of Swansea: “They defended well. They came just to defend with four defenders and six midfielders, and they defended. That’s it. If you win, you’re fantastic but if you lose people say to you, ‘why did you not play?’ They won so they are fantastic.”
He’s right, Swansea came to get a draw, Garry Monk knew that if Swansea came to the Emirates and attacked they would be made to pay and so he ensured that he packed the midfield, with Jack Cork sitting in front of the defence all game and the full backs rarely, if ever pushing forward… but it worked.
In football, a manager needs to be able to adapt to different situations, if a team cannot compete on a level playing field, they need to ensure they first and foremost defend properly, with a view to counter attacking when the opportunity arises and with the pace of Dyer and Montero on each wing, it was tactically sound for Swansea.
Jonjo Shelvey and Ki were both good in midfield, always comfortable on the ball and able to make short interchanging passes between themselves.
Arsenal took off Francis Coquelin and the midfield opened up for Monk’s team, they countered well and scored a well worked goal, Swansea go home pleased with more than they could have hoped for, no matter what the Arsenal boss said.
There was a lack of composure in front of goal
There was no lack of chances being created for Arsenal, 16 in fact. 31 crosses, 23 shots and nine saves forced out of Fabianski prove that the loss can be put down to nothing more than a lack of composure in front of goal.
The boss said: “We rushed our finishing because we had plenty of chances in the second half.
Sometimes we were maybe too eager to finish alone rather than passing the ball. Sometimes we had to force the situation and in the end you have to give them credit – they defended well.”
57% of Arsenal’s efforts were inside the 18-yard box, and 4% in the 6-yard box- the players got into the right positions and managed shots on goal but most efforts were either straight at Fabianski or were simple saves for the Polish keeper.
Ultimately, an uncanny lack of composure in front of goal is what cost Arsenal the game.
Fabianski has made his point
At times, we may have made it easy for him, but former Arsenal stopper Lukasz Fabianski came to the Emirates with an unbelievable amount of motivation, he came to prove that Wenger was wrong to not keep him and many will argue he succeeded in his mission.
No matter how poor Arsenal were in front of goal, nine saves is a good goalkeeping performance and without Fabianski in goal, Swansea would have lost the game.
Monreal forced a good save out of his former team mate and Fabianski made a good double save late on but the majority of his saves were in the middle of the goal and the lack of composure in the type of game that should have been a certain victory is something that Arsene Wenger will certainly want to address in training.
Control of the ball is not everything
In recent weeks, Arsenal have controlled games with midfield masterclasses, but have also been able to execute the ball in the final third meaning that as long as Arsenal had the ball in the key areas, they would score goals.
In contrast, the 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City is a fantastic example that Arsenal do not always need the ball to win games. The former champions had 65% possession of the ball and 12 shots to Arsenal’s nine, but a solid defensive performance where the ‘off the ball midfield battle’ was dominated by Arsenal meant that the result was really never in doubt for the Gunners and the second goal of the game typified what composure in front of goal can mean for a side.
Garry Monk deployed similar tactics to those of Wenger in the 2-0 win at the Etihad and it paid off; a slice of luck, domination in the ‘off the ball midfield battle’ and counter attacking with pace meant that Arsenal could likely have had 90% possession and 75 shots on goal and would still not have scored; Swansea had three shots on target and it was all they needed.
All of the best manager’s know how to win games without the ball; Jose Mourinho did it at home against Manchester United recently where the away side had 70% possession and 15 shots on goal, but could not put the ball into the back of the net, with Eden Hazard’s goal enough for Chelsea to take all three points on their way to winning the title.
Midfield domination is something that Pep Guardiola describes as the key to winning games of football, but what wins games is being clinical in the final third and nothing else.
