Arsenal’s Little Moments Led to the Big Moment
Before yesterday, Arsenal had managed to muster only 7 points from 16 trips to either Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea. In most cases, they were exposed as their desire to get forward and take it to the opponent, hurt themselves more than their opposition. On Sunday, Arsenal turned that upside down and set the blue print for future endeavors.
Now, before we venture further let’s be clear, it was one match. Yes, an important one and an Arsenal win is always a good thing but if it doesn’t lead to more consistency and focus, then the positive vibes emanating from the Arsenal nation will quickly dissipate.
Heading into the match, if you felt that Arsenal could beat City but didn’t have it in them to maintain the discipline to do so, you weren’t alone. I’ve always felt that this Arsenal squad are better than their performances this season suggest. The problem as it always has been is not focusing for a complete 90 minutes. No, it’s not the only problem – but when you look at matches like Swansea, Southampton and Liverpool you can see that a majority of the time, Arsenal are their own worst enemies.
Yesterday, needed to be as near to perfect as they could be. The talent on attack was there, could they though put forward a defensive effort to shut down the current Champions. They did. All over the pitch where moments that as the match wore on, you got a sense of we’re going to do this.
Little Moments Matter
In the build up to the match, I mentioned that Monreal as left full back worried me. In the tie at the Emirates he would get sucked too far forward and Jesus Navas would have acres of space to attack the box. Some of that resulted in goals.
Fast forward to yesterday and there was a moment where Monreal got caught forward and Navas started using his speed to break away but Monreal was able to recover and position himself to force Navas outside, the result was not a cross in to the oncoming City attackers, but a corner. Nacho Monreal had more moments like this and has proved himself a sturdy alternative to Kieran Gibbs, thus giving Arsenal two very good options in this critical position.
On the other side of the defense was 19 year old Hector Bellerin. The handsomely dressed youngster was starting to feature as a regular rotation option and now with Debuchy out for 3 months, it looks like we will see much more of the Spanish youngster. Bellerin was solid throughout. With James Milner coming in the on the left for City, Bellerin had the task of keeping quiet someone who has been largely effective for City when called upon. In one particular moment, Milner looked to go deep in the Arsenal zone and cut in on the touch line. Bellerin out-muscled Milner and got inside of him to win the ball. The ensuing tussle between the two players would’ve likely been called a foul on Milner (Milner frustratingly tossing Bellerin aside) had Arsenal not retained the ball through the advantage.
Bellerin was so strong on that side that it forced Pellegrini to adjust and bring in Jovetic at halftime to replace Milner. For someone who as thrust into the starting role, he hardly looked out of place and put on an admirable performance.
Much has been said about Francis Coquelin’s performance already. If not for Santi Cazorla’s mazy performance, the recalled loanee would’ve been the star of the match. He made David Silva largely ineffective and many tiny moments created a triangle with Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny to cut of passing lanes to Sergio Aguero. While many lauded Koscielny for keeping Aguero in his pocket, some of that couldn’t be done without the cover provided by Coquelin (or his partner to his right)
Finally, he is often chastised for being slow and compared to a rhino by other player’s fathers, Per Mertesacker had two little moments that define him so well. Mertesacker when at his best is always in the right place at the right time, and in one moment in particular was well positioned to get a foot on the ball as Sergio Aguero barreled in from the left to the inside channel. Mertesacker stuck that lanky leg out at the right moment and knocked the ball out of his feet and into a supporting Arsenal player. Threat nullified.
And as if that wasn’t enough, there was his nice little Cruyff move to lose the oncoming pressure from one of the City forwards.
Finally where would we be without acknowledging Santi Cazorla whose silky sublime movements through the midfield, let to many memorable little moments and many big ones that turned this match into one big show for the little man. Santi was the catalyst on a day where the focus was supposed to be on the two South American strikers. He was the man of the match and well the best little moment of the day may have been his little jig after Giroud scored on the free kick.
There were many other “little moments” in the match for sure, those combined with the ones mentioned above were part of the reason for this win.
Team
Arsenal are often called out for the lack of commitment to defending. However, when you look across the league you ask yourself is it just Arsenal? Gary Neville wrote a piece early in the season talking about the decline of defending in English football. Specifically he looked at how the art of defending one on one seemed to be a disappearing art.
As you look across the league your are still seeing teams with low Goals Allowed Percentages Per Game. The fundamental difference is that those teams are doing it collectively rather than as any individual or group of individuals (say a back 4 or 5).
Arsenal have tried playing this way on a few occasions but none with as emphatic a result as Sunday. On Sunday, everyone was committed to working together and closing down lanes that City might exploit. It was an all out effort, exemplified by Olivier Giroud busting a gut a number of times to get back behind the ball and provide additional support.
In the aftermath, a few City fans were waxing about Arsenal’s negative football. Kind of ironic coming from a team that did exactly that when Mancini was running the roost (and doubly ironic given that City would be nothing with a few billion invested.) The fact is that Arsenal went into the Eithad with a plan and it worked. It worked defensively as well as offensively.
Plan B
Arsenal had been experimenting with the 4-1-4-1 early this season to less than fruitful results. Wenger was looking at this as an option to provide additional midfield support. Whether it was a 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3, Arsenal’s formation worked effectively well. In fact the whole tactical set up worked well and was quite effective.
Wenger said post match the one regret he had is that they didn’t capitalize on the other chances they had. As stout as Arsenal were defensively their transition play from defense to attack was just as effective. Many times Arsenal found large gaps in the midfield that let the likes of Sanchez and Giroud charge forward with impunity. Arsenal made some errors with their passing that had they been crisper might have even produced more chances.
The fact is that Arsenal looked as effective hitting City on the counter as they did preventing City from have quality chances. It was a blue print for further success, especially when trying to protect a lead. It’s a good plan, but it is one that does require commitment from everyone.
Per Mertesacker mentioned post match that they won because when they defended they did as a team. Plan B worked because there was total buy in from the players and it netted a positive result.
We shouldn’t lose site of the fact though that there are still 16 league matches to go. It would be wasteful to put on this performance and then watch it all be for nothing. The next 6 matches Arsenal face are all winnable. Yesterday should prove to supporters that this team has the makeup to be successful as long as it is committed. It should also prove to the players that playing as a team and working as a team will get you somewhere. It shouldn’t however be viewed as anything other than one step towards improving on a season that has already seen many ups and downs.
We should enjoy it but let’s keep focus on ending on a positive note.
