Tactical Analysis: Where It Went Wrong for Arsenal vs Leicester
Arsenal returned from their trip to Austria on Thursday to face fellow Europa League contestants Leicester City.
Unfortunately for the Gunners, they couldn’t convert their possession and chances and fell victim once more to a Jamie Vardy goal as the Foxes snatched a 1-0 victory at the Emirates.
This report will analyse what went wrong for Arsenal and the tactics both sides used.
Line-ups
Mikel Arteta went for his favoured 3-4-3. Ahead of Leno was Luiz, Gabriel, and Xhaka as they formed the back three, with Tierney and Bellerin as the wing-backs. Thomas Partey started for the first time in the Premier League next to Dani Ceballos. Saka, Lacazette, and Aubameyang formed the front three. Mustafi returned to the bench, as Willian missed out through injury.
Brendan Rodgers’ injury-hit Leicester, saw Schmeichel start in goal and a back five of Justin, Fuchs, Evans, Fofana, and Castagne. Tielemans partnered Mendy, with Maddison and Praet behind Barnes while Vardy returned to the bench.
In Possession
Arteta altered his usual in-possession tactics. The front three played narrow and tight, drawing the Leicester back five to a narrow position. This opened space on the wings for Tierney and Bellerin. Upon the ball being played out to Tierney, Xhaka would move out from left-sided centre-back and cover the space in behind the wing-backs, acting as a ‘false full-back’. He and Partey would look to occupy the central midfield areas, whilst Ceballos was given a more free role in between the lines. Due to Leicester’s low block, Luiz was given permission to move up and advance into space. Leicester were reluctant to press him, given the number of players Arsenal had between the lines. This allowed Luiz to switch play and saw him play 26% of his 46 passes forward and an additional 9 long passes (completing 5), before going off injured in the 51st minute.
Some of Arsenal’s best chances came when the wing-back received and Arsenal had players run central into the box from wide when the ball was on the opposite wing. This allowed them to exploit the space at the far post, for late arrivals.
Leicester’s 5-4-1 when in a deep block, altered to a 3-4-2-1, when in possession. Harvey Barnes never looked comfortable as the lone striker and Leicester struggled to find him and exploit Arsenal’s high line. This was largely down to Arsenal’s high press, which stopped or rushed passes as Arsenal had a passes-per-defensive-action (PPDA) of 8.7. This is comparable to Leicester PPDA of 27.3.
Leicester’s game plan
As previously mentioned, Leicester wanted to stay tight and compact. The back five were tasked with minimising the spaces and gaps for Arsenal’s front three. Specifically, the wing-backs had to close down Arsenal’s full-backs, when they received. This allowed Leicester’s wingers, Maddison and Praet (when in a low block), to tuck in and ensure the inside space near zone 14 wasn’t open.
When Leicester won the ball back, they moved it as quick as they could through the Arsenal pressure. Similarly to against Rapid Vienna, Arteta preferred to defend the space in behind Arsenal’s defence, by pressing high and aggressively, preventing the pass in behind from source, or at least rushing it. This is shown through Arsenal’s 0.30 recoveries per minute to Leicester 0.26. Suggesting whenever Leicester won the ball back, Arsenal could recover it once more, in an attempt to prevent Leicester from moving the ball over the top of the Arsenal defence.
Unfortunately, Arsenal’s press dropped off in the second half and contributed directly to how the goal came about. With Vardy, Rodgers had a natural striker and willing runner. As well as this, Ünder came on and Leicester had an intelligent winger. Leicester won the ball and quickly moved it to Tielemans. He received on his stronger foot and on the half-turn. Tielemans swivelled, opened up his body and released the ball before Thomas could close him down, playing a perfect ball in behind Arsenal’s defence. Ünder was demarked, coming short before going long, exploiting Xhaka’s frailties as a makeshift centre-back. Ünder attacked the space in behind Arsenal’s defence, connected with the ball, and played a pinpoint cross for Vardy. After Vardy came on, Leicester began to play longer, playing 14 long balls in the last 15 minutes of the match, as they attempted to get in behind Arsenal’s defence.
Woeful Lacazette and underused Thomas
Lacazette really struggled for space, with Leicester effectively crowding him out. Mendy and Tielemans were quick to close him down and help double mark the forward when Lacazette would drop off the frontline to pick up the ball in pockets of space. By doing this, it meant the back five could hold their position and defend any gaps which may arise.
In a game which was summed up by the clinical nature of Leicester’s talisman, Jamie Vardy, Arsenal’s leading goal scorer for the season went missing. Of his total 55 actions in the match, Lacazette was only successful in 20%. Specifically, of his 23 1 v 1 offensive duels, Lacazette was successful in 39% and he lost the ball on 14 occasions. He had 3 touches in the Leicester penalty box and both of his two shots were off target. Out of both teams, Lacazette attempted the fewest passes (13 completing 11). Lacazette was Arsenal’s second-biggest contributor in their total 1.58 expected goals, with 0.43, second to Saka who had 0.58. His finishing totally abandoned him and with his wrongfully disallowed goal, nothing went the Frenchman’s way.
Thomas Partey both on and off the ball had yet another impressive game. Defensively, Thomas made 2 interceptions, won 75% of his aerial challenges and ended up making 7 recoveries, 4 of which came in Leicester’s half. In possession, he completed 97% of his 50 passes and played 13 forward passes, executing 10 of them. Additionally, Thomas played and completed all 7 of his progressive passes and was successful in 80% of his passes to the final third. The problem Partey had, was rather than finding him in good space, Arsenal (particularly the back three), opted to go long. Partey is intelligent and very good all round. He could have facilitated attacking moves much better then predictably going long, where Leicester’s back three could mop up.
Conclusion
It was a tough result to take for Arsenal, however, it almost felt inevitable after the game began to drift. Arsenal couldn’t punch the ball through midfield into their forwards and the burden on Ceballos to link play and create, it became too much for just one man. Again, Arsenal struggled against a low block. They couldn’t go long and Leicester shielded their goal well.
I wonder if it would have been more beneficial for Arsenal to have dropped their defensive line, rather than press high? This would have opened more space in midfield for Leicester, however, little alterations could have minimised this. This might have somewhat gone against Mikel Arteta’s principles, but the need for 3 points is very important. Arsenal’s high line ended up playing into the hands of Leicester, especially when they brought on Vardy and Ünder.
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Greetings Arsenal Fans,
From a Leicester perspective, despite what the media says, I think we were extremely fortunate. Some papers called it a “tactical masterclass” but for me it was negative tactics. We did well to defend against the Arsenal pressure and I think you guys were unfortunate not to be 2-0 up in the first half. I would have liked us to have more a go and take the game to Arsenal. I was really disappointed in our lack of press, and just letting your CB/CM’s ping any ball wherever they wanted, with the hope that we’d somehow defend by denying space in the box and launch a counter. Except, we failed even at that.
In the entire 90 minutes we only carved a couple of decent chances and that isn’t good enough for me. The reliance just on Vardy isn’t good in the long run. I don’t think there will many games where you played like you did and come away with a loss. Sure, improvements can always be made but I think we were lucky with our win. Arteta and other managers love to say “we controlled the game” but that means nothing against teams that who’s game plan is to let you have the ball just so that they can spring a counter. I hope he learns from this quickly because I do think he could become a good manager in the long run.
On another day, that was easily a 2-0 Arsenal win for me – maybe a larger margin if Leicester had to then chase the game. I, for one, don’t like seeing my team (or any team) rewarded for such negative tactics. Of course, there’s much at stake these days, and the majority would rather see their team win by any means rather than to actually see some good football. I’d just rather see my team turn up to actually play some football…
Best of luck to you guys for the rest of the season! Stay safe out there.
Playing Laca is a joke !! Playing Auba on the left when he has always played on the right and then when bring on Pepe playing him on the left when he always plays on the right !! always playing Ceballos as a wide midfielder and not through the middle where he has always played, we were crying out for a playmaker through the middle and yet Arteta couldnt or didnt want to see it !! ???? Took our best two players in Saka and Tierney ??? and played Laca and kept him on for 90 mins ??? and brought on Eddie in the 82 min ????? Arteta needs to grow some !! Arsenal were awful in the second half !! Laca is awful every game everyone must be able to see that he plays so deep you would be forgiven for thinking he plays midfield !! Laca offers us nothing no pace no threat cant even score the easiest goal ever !! the man is shocking and i have been saying it for the last 2 years.. Arteta last season played Eddie over Laca and we played really well in all those games and eddie was wet behind the ears.This year eddie has experience but he is not playing???? Eddie replaced laca last season and the team benefitted !! he has to start every game for now on in !! Auaba needs to go back to the right and pepe needs to go back to the left !! and ceballos needs to play through the middle as playmaker to link everything up !! its not hard to see !!
I think Arteta has become naive and predictable. It shows against the more seasoned managers and tacticians. I also think he has lost the ability to prepare for a match by anticipating what the opponent would do. Everyone knew Leicester would go for the counter attack and we all knew Vardy would come on later. Arteta lost the game on tactics and needs to abandon playing from the back ‘cause he doesn’t have the speed to do so. He should have remembered that Leicester bear man cut 5-2!!What a tactical mess!