Premier League 2019/20: Arsenal 1-1 Sheffield United – Tactical Analysis
One of the Premier League’s surprises packages were up next on the schedule for Arsenal. Chris Wilder and his Sheffield United sat in seventh place and brought with them an outstanding away record, being unbeaten in nine away matches and only losing trips to the Etihad and Anfield. Mikel Arteta has spoken on numerous occasions on the importance of making the Emirates stadium a hard ground to play at so this was an opportunity to make a statement and show progress against a team that defeated the gunners under Unai Emery.
Chris Wilder has been a tough nut to crack in his tactics throughout the season. Arteta, as we will see in this tactical analysis, did very well making structural changes following his last match and shutting down principles of Wilder, however.
Lineups
Mikel Arteta maintained his 4-2-3-1 formation but for the first time was forced into some changes. Aubameyang served the first match of his suspension which saw Gabriel Martinelli come into the team on the left-wing. Reiss Nelson was out injured. Injuries also changed the back four. Bakayo Saka returned to the left-back position and Mustafi made another Premier League start coming in for Sokratis.
Sheffield United began the match with there 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 that has been throughout the season. Olivier McBurnie made his 10th start of the season, the strikers missed six big chances this season. John Fleck starting in midfield interestingly had been involved in six goals this season coming into this match but zero involvements away from home.
Arteta tweaks tactics
In my analysis last week I detailed the unbalance with Arsenal’s structure in the buildup phases that lead to turnovers. Mikel Arteta noticed these as well and made changes in his tactics that made a significant positive change. Sheffield attempted to press in a 4-4-2 shape as do many clubs and many have had success with this against Arsenal. Xhaka would drop into the backline to create a back three, as he’s been doing consistently since Arteta took over, but this time they created a diamond pattern adding Lucas Torreria to the mix. This created a numerical advantage against Sheffield’s first line of pressure in a 4v2. Every player inside the diamond has two passing options limiting the chance of turnovers. A pattern seen used by the likes of RB Leipzig in Germany and Inter Milan in Italy.
Most importantly though as I said it solved the imbalance in shape. Now Maitland-Miles could position himself higher and wider on the right as Saka did on the left and it wasn’t as to close down passing lanes in Arsenal’s half. Granit Xhaka, David Luiz, Mustafi and Torreria were all in the top five players for most completed passes.
Another tactical advantage this created was space for the likes of Mustafi and Xhaka to drive into and make entry passes into the middle third. This provided a great tactical element as Arsenal could easily bypass lines of pressure. In the analysis below, Mustafi drives into space and has the time to scan the pitch and identify a run by Pepe, with one pass the Ivorian forward is inside the opposition penalty box.
Arsenal wins the pressing battle
Whereas the Blade’s press was left ineffective the gunner’s was very good. Under Arteta Arsenal like many clubs have primarily pressed in a 4-4-2 but for the first half, it was more of a 4-2-4 as they wanted to stop ball rotation through the centre backs. This was successful, Arsenal closed down players and space quickly. It created turnovers and rotation was never quick enough for Sheffield United’s pattern play as they looked for diagonal longballs to the wingbacks. Below you can see the four of Arsenal’s 2-4 press that left the three-man backline at a numerical disadvantage and with no passing options. The away side failed a staggering 34 long balls. Despite the profile of players in their squad, they particularly didn’t win the physical battle in midfield either. The 5’6 Urugian Lucas Torriera won 66% of his aerial duels.
Lacazette as a false nine
The idea of false nines has become a very popular tactic due to the success at the top of the league with Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp. Jose Mourinho suggested during his own analysis on Sky Sports that Lacazette could play as a false nine. An idea that stuck with the football world given his lack of speed but great technical quality. In this match, he put on a solid display in the role. A back three could be seen as a counter to a false nine as you have an extra defender to cover the movements around the pitch, but it did anything but here. As a centre back would track Lacazette’s movements into midfield it opened up space for other forwards benefiting Arsenal.
In the image below Lacazette drops into midfield, breaking the opposition midfield line. The centre back follows him and it opens up space for Pepe to make a run in-behind the left wingback and the Frenchmen has the quality to execute the pass.
This and other tactical ideologies instilled by Arteta collimated for the opening goal. The gunners drew first blood in the later stage of the first half. Martinelli moved inside allowing Saka to occupy the left flank. The left-wing coming inside and the left fullback coming forward has been a pattern of positional movements we’ve seen very commonly and worked with success. Lacazette dragged a centre back out of position and in this process received a pass from Ozil, and played a first-time pass to Saka into space who found Martinelli inside the box.
Lacazette didn’t have a perfect game, however. Arsenal was poor in attacking transition and didn’t produce any real attacks from counter-attacking opportunities. Many times it was down to Lacazette not identifying a pass or run to make. With Sheffield having the joint second-best clean sheet record in the league these were huge opportunities missed as they were very well organized in their defensive shape.
Overlapping centre backs
A very mainstream tactical ideology of Chris Wilder has been the outside centre backs making overlapping runs, similarly to fullbacks, into opposition halves to create wide overloads. This was countered by flooding the ball near side when Sheffield entered Arsenal’s half. Progression through the wide areas was nearly impossible as the zones were heavily congested and even when the centre-backs came forward they could not create numerical advantages.
As you can see below the right-sided centre back comes forward, making for four of the Blade’s players occupying the right side of the pitch. In many cases this season against teams like Spurs and Chelsea, this gives them a box-shaped passing pattern and at a numerical advantage with an extra man.
Wilder has the final say
With things not working out in his tactics, Chris Wilder had to make a change. Through analysis, we can see he moved to a 4-3-1-2 formation. This left Arsenal at a numerical disadvantage in midfield as the three midfielders and one attacking midfielder created a midfield diamond. Fatigue set in from the intense pressing there was little support and tracking back from the forwards to assist the midfield as well.
The two strikers would occupy Arsenal’s two centre backs and win longballs to create knockdowns into the midfielders. In the last 25 minutes, they created five shots to Arsenal’s three.
This would create the sequence in which the Blades scored their equalizer from. Ozil and Pepe, fatigued, do not track back after a failed attack and it leaves Arsenal in a 4v3 situation with a very unorganized defensive shape. The Gunners have conceded three goals in the last 20 minutes of matches since Arteta took over. It’d be very easy to blame fatigue and fitness levels but this was inspired by a top-class tactical change by the Sheffield United manager.
Conclusion
Arsenal desperately needed a second goal to kill the game off. But from the moment Lacazette came off it never looked likely as Pepe and Nketiah failed to connect with each other in the final third. Arteta could have managed his substitutions better and after seeing the results of this game I can almost guarantee he will certainly consider.
Through this tactical analysis, we saw that both Arteta and Wilder had a great battle. The Spaniard made some great changes in Arsenal’s structure and hindered the opposition through his prematch preparations. Sheffield United continues to match the big boys however and despite it feeling like dropped points for Arsenal expected goals tell us it was a fair result.
