After Arsenal drew 2-2 with Everton, it was interesting that Arsene Wenger praised the team’s belief and resilience. He did the same thing after Arsenal beat Crystal Palace 2-1. Not in the sense that it was unexpected but praising Arsenal’s mental resolve has now become the manager’s stock response, whereas once he would cite possession statistics or shot output as a sign of Arsenal’s dominance. He wants to win – and win quickly – therefore winning ugly, though Arsenal drew in this case, has to become part of Arsenal’s armoury.
Wenger’s desire to make a stylistic impression on the match, though, won’t change therefore the encounter with Everton, a similarly ball-oriented side, was an eagerly anticipated one. What the match showed, though, is that possession football is diverse – as diverse as the game itself (as everybody passes the ball) – and that there is no such thing as a single, homogenous style of build-up play.
Arsenal’s style is mainly position-based, and as such, it’s easy to identify the typical passing lanes. The centre-backs pick up the ball and look to feed one of the midfielders, in this case Mathieu Flamini (though Mikel Arteta is far more adept), who in turn has the option of passing it to a myriad of attacking players who have committed forward in front of him. With this approach, Arsenal look to have as much of the play in the opponents half as possible and it’s up to the players, based on a know-how accumulated over time and matches, to find solutions.
Everton on the other hand, have the majority of their play at the back and are happy for it. Instead, they look to work space patiently by stretching the pitch as wide as possible in the hope that eventually, this will create a bit of space for one of the midfielders in the 4-3-3 to find a killer pass. Arsene Wenger was aware of that threat therefore he asked his attacking players to mark the Everton midfielders so that they couldn’t receive the ball. What Everton did well, however, making it hard for Arsenal to win the ball back was to spread the centre-backs across the pitch then drop a midfielder in the gap and push the full-backs forward. This is the Pep Guardiola dictum who, early on in his Barcelona reign, realised that teams would press them high up the pitch therefore by spreading the field; the opponents would have to cover more distance to close them down.
At times, Everton brought trouble upon themselves with this approach, with one chance falling to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain following a botched diagonal pass by Seamus Coleman. On the main, however, especially in the first-half, it allowed them to play on their own terms and with Arsenal not willing to commit to the full-press, it gave time for the centre-backs to pick out a pass to one of the three forwards who generally stayed up the pitch for the whole game. Leighton Baines explains Everton’s approach in an interview with the Guardian:
“The full-backs at Everton are more advanced now. If [the goalkeeper] Tim Howard has the ball, I’ll be encouraged to be higher up the pitch and that creates more space for the midfielders. We can then start our play, building up from the back.
“People will say there’s a risk involved, and there are times, as a defender, when I’m one side, Seamus [Coleman] is on the other, and I’m thinking: ‘I could do with being 15 to 20 yards further back here.’ But the idea is we stick to it, keep the ball and build. What the manager says is: ‘We’re going to get so good at what we do, we’re not going to compromise that, we’re going to stick to our principles and just get better because the top sides, the really top teams who have mastered this way, are the ones that gets success.'”
Pressed on who he means, Baines continues: “I’m reluctant to say Barcelona or Bayern Munich, but it is based round those principles. We’re trying to gain an advantage in what we do. It’s attacking football, and we just have to trust ourselves.”
Gifs: The subtle differences between the two build up plays from deep
Arsenal: http://i.gyazo.com/a097d7df084d56809e4a2a1a93f48b0a.gif
Everton: http://i.gyazo.com/dedb7b16d2b337eface47c35f7c14295.gif
Thankfully, Arsenal improved in the second-half, completing 257 passes to Everton’s 118. Tactically, it’s hard to underpin what exactly was the reason for the swing in dominance, though noticeably Aaron Ramsey played much higher to the striker, Olivier Giroud. Part of it can be psychological also, as having gone two goals down, Arsenal rallied and naturally Everton went back into their shell. The presence of Giroud as opposed to Alexis Sanchez helps, as he eats up space. It helps that much, though, that Giroud is a big man because it makes him easier to find and that any ball played up to him, he can hold and shield off any opponents. Indeed, over time the Arsenal players have warmed to him as although his finishing can be woeful, he’s represents an out-ball whether to cross the ball or bump passes off him.
As it happened, Arsenal scored because they did what they weren’t able to do in the first-half: cross the ball into the box. Indeed, frequently it seemed that they had to resist the urge to lump it forward without the presence of their Brobdingnagian striker. Ultimately, this is the main criticism of Alexis as the no.9. His lack of presence means that Arsenal have to be very good at moving the ball and working themselves into optimal positions to slip him in. That’s one of the reasons why Ozil started on the left. To be fair to Alexis, he didn’t do badly; he just lacked the support. The average positions diagram will show that he continually dropped deep for the ball – almost as a false nine – but that was far from the case. Instead, he was often isolated and having spent large periods of the first-half pressing, the Arsenal midfielders were unable to expend the extra energy to support him.
In the second-half, Aaron Ramsey was to play closer to the goal and he arrived at the right position to pull one back for Arsenal. Fittingly though, it was Giroud who rescued the point for Arsenal. Much maligned he still a very important part of the way Arsenal play.
