- 10/05/2024
Former Arsenal manager Unai Emery came back to haunt his former club this weekend, and put an enormous dent in their Premier League title ambitions in the process. But after a first-half where Mikel Arteta's men looked in total control, how did his predecessor completely flip the game around in the second 45? Adam Clery looks at how a slight change of shape, and a massive change of approach, gave us one of the shocks of the season.
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00:00Bonsoir, guten morgen and how's it going everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here and this weekend
00:09turns out title races, pretty tough.
00:13No sooner had Liverpool left the cherry pie of opportunity cooling gently on the windowsill
00:18had Arsenal managed to like slam their neck in the thing or whatever it is that happens
00:24to the cartoon character in that situation.
00:26The thing is, right, while this does feel like an Arsenal story this morning because
00:30they've blown the lead at the top of the thing and now they're up against it to go and win
00:34it, I actually think that game was more about what Aston Villa did brilliantly, especially
00:39in the second half than necessarily what Arsenal did badly.
00:42I'll tell you why.
00:43All right, so this video is about Aston Villa, I promise, but we are going to start with
00:49Arsenal because you need to get what happened in the first half to get what happened in
00:53the second half and this was how they lined up.
00:55Now, you may recall if you watched it on Sky, Paul Merson saying too much going on here,
01:00he's messed too much with the team, why'd you change a winning team, what you dropped
01:04Jorginho for, but actually I think Arteta largely got this right.
01:11Now regular subscribers to the channel and indeed anyone who's watched a lot of Arsenal
01:14this season will know that where they've majorly come unstuck this season has been against
01:18their Achilles heel and I'm going to recycle the clip, the mid-block.
01:23We did a big thing on it after they got beat against Porto that time, but when teams set
01:27up against Arsenal and they push right up to the halfway line, but also maintain a very
01:32high line, this Arsenal side can sometimes struggle to play through it.
01:37And I mean, it wasn't just Porto that got a result doing this, Fulham set up the exact
01:41same way towards the end of last year, got themselves a shock win and given that Villa
01:45like to have a high line as it is, this was always going to be the system they faced.
01:50So Arteta, knowing this pretty much changed his entire left side, Trossard came in for
01:54Martinelli, Havard dropped back from centre forward to be on the left side of midfield
01:58and Zinchenko came in for Kiwio.
02:00The logic here was actually pretty sound because it meant that when Arsenal were in long periods
02:04of possession, they could get into the little box midfield, Zinchenko would come across
02:08to help Rice in the centre.
02:09Obviously for all his many flaws, Zinchenko does have a good incisive passing him, so
02:13getting him in that area is really useful against a team that are going to have numbers.
02:17But the main thing it was designed to do, and you saw this work several times in the
02:21first half, was when Arsenal were a lot deeper, when they were still building out from the
02:25back and Aston Villa had pushed right the way up to the halfway line to try and make
02:28that hard for them, Zinchenko could get on the ball in the left back area, where obviously
02:33he's way more effective on the ball than Kiwio is, and just hit it into this space.
02:39And that's why you play Kai Havertia, not because he's amazing at running in behind
02:43or he's lightning quick, but from a wide eight position, rather than being the centre
02:48forward, he can do so untracked.
02:51Kai Havert's entire job in that first half was to use his spatial awareness in his reading
02:56of the game to evade his marker in midfield, and then burst into that gap in behind, because
03:01that gave Villa a hell of a problem, because if a centre back then goes with him, they're
03:05getting pulled all over the place, that'll create huge holds throughout the rest of the
03:08back line, and Arsenal would just play through them.
03:11And time and time again, they got him in, either just with a slide pass behind the full
03:15back, or ball over the top.
03:17And on another day, my friends, Arsenal take one or more of these great chances that came
03:23about off this system change, and instead I'm sitting here applauding Arteta, saying
03:27what a great bit of management that was, how he's just figured out Villa, and it's gotten
03:31the win, and they're on their way to the title, yadda, yadda, yadda, but they didn't.
03:36They did not score.
03:37And say it with me, if you don't take your chances, in this league, you will usually
03:45get f***ed.
03:46So how then, I hear you ask, did Unai Emery turn this into this, and the simple answer
03:52is they didn't really change much, they just did what they were doing a whole lot better,
03:57and then at the vital moment, made a substitution that Arsenal just had zero answer for.
04:03So first off, the proverbial space between the lines, right?
04:07Villa set up in a 4-2-3-1, but out of possession, they went into a 4-4-2 shape, because most
04:13teams now defend or press in a 4-4-2 shape, because it gives you good coverage.
04:16Like you see, we'll just pause it here, and have you ever seen a more perfectly disciplined
04:214-4-2 in your life?
04:22Yes, probably, but for the purposes of this video, let's pretend you haven't.
04:26And the thing is, in that first half, it was good, and it was effective, and Arsenal's
04:29only real chances were coming from those balls over the top, but they were still doing the
04:33one thing you don't want to do against Arsenal, and they were allowing Martin Oerdegaard to
04:38get on the ball.
04:39And here, for your viewing pleasure, are all the passes Martin Oerdegaard successfully
04:43made in just the first half.
04:46So he's equally able to get on the ball in the build-up, he was joining in with Rice
04:50and Zinchenko at the back to find a bit of space, but also, crucially, he was able to
04:54get on it in this half space, where he likes to be, just outside the box, and he was starting
04:59to make things happen.
05:00And for as complicated as people like to make football sound, that's really simple.
05:04If a player like that is getting on the ball that much in that area, you're leaving him
05:09too much space.
05:11So Villa, in the second half, had a simple solution.
05:14They just sat much deeper, and sat much narrower, and when you do that, that reduces the amount
05:21of space available in the centre of the pitch.
05:23And then, incredibly simply, Oerdegaard's impact on the game drastically reduced.
05:29He went from this in the first half, to this in the second half.
05:33That's every successful pass he made until he got substituted.
05:36They just completely shut him out of the play.
05:38Now look, he successfully makes one pass into the box in that entire half of football, and
05:44do you want to see it?
05:45There is not an ounce of space for him to really operate, and he just about finds Mikaio
05:49Saka, who has two defenders within a couple of yards of him, and it rolls out harmlessly
05:53for a goal kick.
05:54But the thing is, right, this is easy.
05:57Anybody can get deeper, and narrower, and more compact, and deny the space.
06:01The reason you don't want to do that normally is because it makes it that much harder for
06:06you to get up the pitch.
06:07The reason Villa were more open was because they had more attacking intent.
06:10They wanted to be easy to play up when they did get the ball, so they sacrificed that
06:15ease of play for defensive salinity.
06:18So how do they fix that problem?
06:19Arsenal will pressure really high, they'll pressure really aggressively, and in that
06:23first half, Villa could not play through them, they couldn't get through the centre
06:27of the pitch.
06:28So in the second half, what they started doing instead was they were putting the ball directly
06:33into Zaniolo on the left-hand side.
06:36Now I know what you might be thinking, surely if you wanted to target long balls into one
06:40of Arsenal's full-back areas, you'd do it on the side with Sanchenko, because he's only
06:43wee, isn't he?
06:44He's only little, he's only diminutive, and Ben White's actually quite big.
06:47But you've got to think about what else is going on on that side of the pitch.
06:51Erdegaard is Arsenal's right-hand side number eight, and he is the one who normally leads
06:55the press along with the centre-forward, so there's always a little bit more weakness
06:59recovering on that side.
07:01So you had John McGinn here, he was usually in behind him, Saka presses high so the full-back
07:05would get up.
07:06If they could make the ball stick on that side, they tended to have a man advantage.
07:10But also, and this is so subtle but so effective, right, the width on the right-hand side for
07:16Arsenal didn't normally come from Saka, like he wants to get the ball and move in field,
07:20so you do look for overlaps from Ben White, right?
07:24Keeping Zaniolo there, and keeping him high, and making him the target of so many out-balls
07:28completely pinned Ben White back in his own third.
07:32Like, just to show you what I mean, right, this is Ben White's heat map from the Brighton
07:36game.
07:37You can see he's rampaging forward, he's providing all the width down that side, great performance.
07:41And this is Ben White's heat map from the Bayern Munich game, you see he barely touches
07:44the ball in his own half, he's all the way up that side, helping out Saka, stretching
07:49the defence, doing his job there.
07:51But this is Ben White's heat map from the Aston Villa game.
07:55Does he get to the halfway line occasionally?
07:56Yes, of course, Arsenal had good territory in that first half, but the vast majority
08:00of the contributions are way back in the right-back area because he couldn't really leave it.
08:06So just to recap, Villa cut off Arsenal's most potent creative weapon in Erdegaard by
08:10reducing the space and sitting deeper, but they also gave themselves a much better out-ball
08:15further up the pitch, allowing them to go direct from the back, which is all well and
08:19good, right?
08:20But how do you then turn those two things into almost consistent dominance for 45 minutes?
08:26Like, the thing is, as good as this mid-block is and as compact as Villa were, the fact
08:30they had loads more of the ball in that second half should have been a good thing for Arsenal
08:35because their pressing gives them a really good weapon of winning the ball back in a
08:39crucial area, meaning they haven't got to worry about building up or playing through
08:42you, they can just get it in a dangerous position and get the chance from that.
08:45So how did Villa stop that happening?
08:49And you're probably not going to like this one very much, Arsenal fans, but the reason
08:52was this man, Martinez.
08:54Not even one of those brilliant ball-at-his-feet goalkeepers that you think of, he pretty much
08:58played as a third centre-back and all of a sudden, Arsenal's numbers game just did not
09:06add up.
09:07Like, it's risky because you'll sometimes find yourself literally knocking the ball
09:10across your own goal line, but Arsenal, like so many teams, will press you in a 4-4-2 shape,
09:15so if you are happy to use your goalkeeper as a third centre-back and have basically
09:20a 3-4 here, you're going to have a man advantage.
09:23Like, you did see this against Bayern, like, Arsenal are pressing them really, really well,
09:27they're targeting Eric Dier, but it goes to Neuer, and because he's really comfortable
09:30playing, he just lifts that ball over Kai Havertz and that's how Bayern get out for
09:34their second goal.
09:35What Aston Villa did really, really well here was they allowed the two centre-backs and
09:39goalkeeper to go as deep as they wanted in the build-up, they could be as close to that
09:44touchline as they needed, Arsenal would then push and push and push and push, creating
09:48this huge amount of space between the midfield and the defence, which the likes of Zaniolo
09:53and Watkins would really happily just drop off into to receive a long ball.
09:57Like, this is Martinez's distribution in that first half, you can see he sweeps up
10:01once or twice when Arsenal were going over the top, but by and large, neat, simple, tidy,
10:06left and right, not really anything incisive.
10:08Second half though, just whoosh, straight over the press, you can see these three here
10:12straight into where Zaniolo would have been pushing Ben White back, he was all of a sudden
10:17a far more potent weapon in resisting Arsenal's press, which means they just couldn't get
10:22the ball back off Villa in anything resembling a useful area.
10:25But wrestling control back of a game of football against an allegedly much better side is one
10:30thing, scoring the goal to then get you a 2-0 win is quite the other.
10:36And this was the substitution that Emery made that Arteta just did not have an answer for,
10:40he hooked Moussa Diaby and he brought on Leon Bailey and the plan from there was we are deep,
10:46we are compact, we are controlling the ball very well, we are beating their press, but
10:49our best route to goal remains this space here that Sanchenko is not in.
10:55And there was a warning sign for this, like straight away, Bailey's been on the pitch
10:59like four or five minutes at this point, Villa get a free kick while Arsenal are in this shape,
11:05Sanchenko's miles out of position and Bailey is screaming for it, look at all the room
11:12he has got out here, if they just take that quickly and get him in, he's through on goal.
11:17In the end there's some kind of fanny on and it doesn't happen and they have to retake it and
11:21Arsenal should have seen that and been like alright, so that's what they're doing, he's
11:25just gonna stay there, we should fix that, but they didn't.
11:29Villa get a corner and Sanchenko is one of the players defending the near post areas,
11:33when it comes back and Villa reset, he is caught on the wrong side, he's miles out of position.
11:38In his defence there's not really a window for him to go all the way back across,
11:41he needs his teammates to help out, he needs everybody to reorganise and Declan Rice,
11:46being one of these responsible, good reading of the game types, moves out into that position.
11:50Now at the start of the video we talked about those three changes Arteta have made,
11:54why did he bring Sanchenko in for Kiryov, because he's better on the ball and stuff,
11:57and why has he put Havertz in midfield, so he can make those runs into the box, but why
12:02Trossard for Martinelli? Well one, as you saw against Bayern, Trossard is a really good
12:06finisher in tight areas, so if it was a similar kind of game, Arteta would rely on him to take
12:10that chance, maybe a little bit more than he would rely on Martinelli, but also,
12:14he works back slightly harder. Like this is a brilliant recovery run he puts in early in the
12:19game, because obviously with Havertz breaking out of that position and Sanchenko moving into
12:23the middle, it does kind of leave that side of the pitch quite exposed. But the thing is you see,
12:29at this point in the game Leandro Trossard is no longer on the pitch,
12:33Gabriel Martinelli is. And Martinelli looks, and he sees Leon Bailey, and for whatever reason he
12:38makes the decision not to drop back in and cover him. And this is honestly one of those small
12:44decisions that can just go on to define your entire season, he just has one more look at him
12:51here. And it's not too late at this point Gabriel, you can make that run, you can cover
12:55that space off, you can clearly see Declan Rice who's dropped in as the left back has his hands
13:01full, he can't be expected to see what's going on behind him while clinging to the man in front.
13:05This is your decision buddy, seasons can swing on this. I'm not trying to bury that guy, in his
13:11defence Arsenal have also left a huge hole on the edge of the box and he does go into there,
13:15so maybe he decides that's where the danger is, but it isn't. The ball rolls across the face of
13:20the goal and there is Leon Bailey with all the time and space in the world to score that goal.
13:28And you don't need me to explain the second goal to you, that is just a team who are now 1-0 down
13:32in a vital game for a title race, pushing as high up as humanly possible to desperately try and
13:38salvage an equaliser, just getting done with a very, very simple counter-attack. Or I mean,
13:44if you'd really want to try and find some poetry in that, that is a team exploiting a high line
13:48and having somebody going after that ball capable of finishing it, rather than, oh I don't know,
13:53top of my head, Kai Havertz. So yeah, just to review, I know Zinchenko is getting a lot of
13:58the blame for this result, I know Atet is even getting some of the blame for this result,
14:01but you've got a player there who has been very important to Arsenal this season and what they
14:06were trying to do was largely doing that pretty well and a manager who has proven time and time
14:11again this season that he's very good at setting up the right way and changing the game as it's
14:16going on. So I think it's okay, as sad as it is if you're an Arsenal fan, to just hold your hands
14:21up and go, ah yes, the other guy, he was very good. And also, if I may be permitted to editorialise
14:27slightly, why are people going on like the title race is over? Like, I know Man City are so boring
14:33that they probably just win every game now, just get it by default, but it's two points with six
14:39games to go, they'll slip up somewhere, they've got to go at Tottenham, which is a place they
14:44don't like to go, they've got to play Wolves, who've already beat them, they've got to play
14:46Fulham, who are so unpredictable, anything can happen, cheer up. Anyway, I have to go now because
14:53my lunch needs me, but if you have enjoyed this video, please do consider subscribing to us here
14:57on 442. New subscribers is the one metric that really, really does help us out, it is the thing
15:03from which all other successes are measured, so if you do choose to click that button, please know
15:07you're helping the channel immeasurably and hopefully we thank you with that by giving you
15:11cool videos. If you're really more of an old media type though, then may I present to you the latest
15:16issue of 442, the Invincible Special, where we look at everything great about that Arsene Wenger side,
15:22we've got interviews with players, we've got all kinds of cool features on it, I even did,
15:26can I find it quickly? No, I did a tactical thing, yes I can find it, where are we, give me a second,
15:31did a tactical thing on how they used to play, which is really, really cool, so you can give
15:34that a read, available on all good news agents and the crap ones as well, social media at Adam Cleary,
15:40subscribe to our newsletter as well, that's pretty good, follow 442 on all the socials,
15:45that's it, I think that's it, I'm going to say that's it, and if it's not, well,
15:49I'm sure I'll remember later, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
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