Arsenal vs West Ham tactical preview 19/09/2020
Out of Possession
Given the stylistic differences that exist between West Ham and Fulham, I’m not really sure how useful it is to read into Arsenal’s opening day performance.
These goalkick pass maps from StatsPerform’s Premier League and Championship season reviews illustrate the differing approaches to build-up play:
With the obvious caveat that they were playing in a weaker league last season, it’s clear that Fulham’s keepers tried to play short passes within their own box where possible and the rest were lumped up to Mitrović. By contrast, West Ham attempted very few short goal kicks and there was a much wider spread in end location for the longer ones — perhaps a reflection of Fabiański’s inconsistent distribution.
West Ham did try to pass their way out from the back more regularly against Newcastle last week than we had done previously under Moyes, but I’d be amazed if we replicate the awkward back-3-in-possession experiment from last week here.
But, on the off chance we do, this is how Arsenal played against Fulham.
With the security of three central defenders behind them in the defensive phase, both Arsenal central midfielders pushed up to the edge of the opposition box to aggressively press Reed and Cairney whenever Fulham tried to play out from the back, particularly from those short goal kicks:
There’s an almost pendulum-like effect though between Xhaka and Elneny: if Fulham play their way through the pressure and pass the ball out to a full-back, Xhaka drops back to cut off the outlet pass into Josh Onomah (number 25) while Elneny pushes even higher to box them in.
When their press was broken or Fulham managed to advance over the halfway line, Arsenal settled back into their defensive shape and focused on restricting space between the midfield and defensive lines rather than trying to win the ball back:
After Arsenal got in front, they dialed back the pressing intensity a bit and were happy to sit off and set traps for Fulham, like they do in the final clip in that last video.
In Possession
The fun thing about Arteta’s Arsenal is that they completely defy the sort of superficial Fifa/FM framework of thinking about formations. Although they defend in a back 5, it’s a very different shape when they have the ball:
Every team has different shapes with and without the ball but this one is so regimented and represents quite a drastic shift — the 5–4–1 morphs into a 4–4–2 or a 4–3–3 shape, depending on where their wing-backs decide to position themselves:
Tierney shuffles over to play as an orthodox left-back, Maitland-Niles plays a wide position or tucks in as an extra CM, Holding and Gabriel spread apart, Aubameyand acts as an auxiliary striker and one of Bellerín or Willian hold their width on the right wing.
That’s why it’s a bit silly to talk about us switching to a back 3 to “match up” with Arsenal; they don’t attack with a 3ATB structure so what’re you matching up against?
The main purpose of this shape is to enable Aubameyang to move into central areas from his wide defensive position without leaving the left wing vacated. Arsenal often look to play direct passes in behind the defensive line for Aubameyang to chase:
The way Aubameyang positions himself in that channel between opposition RB/CB causes confusion and requires good communication between the backline to sort out who’s supposed to be tracking him. I’ll let you decide how that’s going to go for Fredericks and Diop.
One of the most intriguing questions about Mikel Arteta’s appointment as a manager was how his time as an assistant coach at City under Pep Guardiola was going to influence his style of football.
There are a thousand hagiographies of Pep out there, so I won’t go off on a huge tangent here, but a basic precept of the “Juego de Posición” principles that inform Guardiola’s football is the need to have all 5 channels of the pitch filled. Arteta seems to have that in mind with the way he sets up his team in the opposition half:
It’s noteworthy how much variety Arteta’s side have in their build-up structure though, which is achieved by rotating the positions of the WBs and the wide forwards, with one inside and one outside at all times:
Bellerin’s ability to play inside — not just by driving in from the touchline with the ball, but also by starting in a central position — will cause a lot of Premier League defences problems this season, not least West Ham’s, who struggled with Lucas Moura’s interior movement when they played Spurs after the restart. Cresswell in particular struggled in that game, so the dynamic between Willian and Bellerín will be a real test of both him and Fornals on Saturday.
Maitland-Niles’ interpretation of this role is interesting, allowing him to defend like a full-back but play in possession like a central midfielder. At points you end up with a shape like this:
..which is pretty much a full rotation of the left side of their team: Xhaka plays Tierney’s position; Tierney plays Maitland-Niles’ position; Maitland-Niles plays Xhaka’s position.
This sort of fluidity is extremely difficult to mark and organise against.
Another vital cog in this system is Lacazette’s role in possession. He drops off the frontline and acts as the fulcrum for his side on the break:
Diop and Ogbonna both struggle with getting too tight to strikers who move away from goal and they both disrupt West Ham’s defensive shape by following this type of striker too far up the pitch. Finding a way to thwart Lacazette’s movement is key for West Ham’s hopes in this game.
Although they’re willing and able to press intensely, Arteta’s system at Arsenal revolves around creating counterattacking opportunities when they’ve got possession, rather than when they cause a turnover. The intricate passing routines inside their own penalty area are designed to draw their opponents forward to create space higher up the pitch.
We have sporadically attempted to press aggressively in the final third, even in games against difficult opponents:
It works here against Chelsea because Christensen is abandoned by his midfielders which forces him into playing a poorly executed clearance that quickly results in a shot for Antonio. If we try this sort of thing on Saturday and it’s anything less than airtight, we’ll be toast. Hopefully we’ll be smart enough to not take the bait.
These excellent pass maps from the game against Fulham highlight some of the main facets of Arteta’s system:
Few things to pick out:
- Lacazette’s mainly involved in the centre circle and on the edge of the box — looks like a #10’s pass map.
- The bulk of Tierney’s passes are against the touchline like a traditional LB. Against Fulham he struggled to open his body up (possibly due to the lack of a natural winger in front of him offering a pass up the line) and resorted to passing inside a lot of the time as Kebano pressed him. Getting Bowen to do the same job here is important.
- Gabriel is the passing hub of the defence. Getting our centre forward to position himself on Gabriel’s left to cut off access to that side of the pitch is the best way of stifling Arsenal’s build-up. Force Gabriel into playing sideways and backwards.
- Don’t worry about doing the same with Holding. On his map you can see a few long red arrows representing unsuccessful passes — he attempted several of these long range pings and failed to pull them off. Stand off him and let him have the ball.
Defensive Frailties
Rob Holding is arguably the defensive weak point in this team and Fulham’s few moments of joy in this game came from channel passes in behind him. He’s eager to play on the front foot to win the ball back, which can be exploited by a quick turn from a forward and he lacks the agility to match nimble attackers in a foot race:
A big part of Arsenal’s domination in this match was their ability to sustain pressure on Fulham by winning headers. When Arsenal squeezed and Fulham were forced into going long, they had no target to hit so the ball usually came straight back to them:
After Mitrović was subbed on, things changed — Rodak was able to bypass the press and exploit Elneny’s aggression by dinking a pass onto Mitro’s chest inside the centre circle. The ball goes wide and Arsenal look nervy defending the resulting cross. That could be a fruitful avenue of attack for West Ham:
If we’re intending on passing out from the back, Haller is an essential pick for this game. Even if we’re not, I’d be tempted to have him in the side to help alleviate some pressure.
Set Pieces
Over the summer, Arsenal appointed set piece coach Andreas Georgson from Brentford and it’s easy to see why:
They’ve added Willian’s delivery into the mix which resulted in Gabriel’s goal at the weekend. It’s impossible to tell how much difference having a specialist coach has made from just one game, but this was the set up for that Gabriel goal:
Fabiański isn’t the most commanding GK in the air, so we could have a problem if he gets penned in like this.
Conclusion
Arsenal should have the advantage here — they didn’t have a Carabao cup game midweek, so they’ve had a full week to prepare for this one. Although Elneny had a good game against Fulham, it wouldn’t surprise me if Arteta picks Ceballos instead of him; we’re unlikely to give them as much opportunity to press aggressively, so having an extra passer in midfield might help to unpick a deeper defensive block.
From a West Ham point of view, Fabiański/Fredericks/Cresswell/Ogbonna/Souček/Rice weren’t in the squad against Charlton so they’ll surely be playing. Bowen and Fornals were on the bench but didn’t make an appearance, so they’ll presumably start as well. Noble wasn’t in the squad either, but I have a suspicion that he’ll be dropped for Robert Snodgrass, which would be a disaster — Snodgrass’ headless chicken pressing in central midfield in this game would play right into Arsenal’s hands.
Again, there’s an off chance of a switch to 3 at the back, but as previously mentioned, that wouldn’t really achieve much.
At this stage, Arteta’s side are perfectly set up to pick off teams who are proactive about trying to win the ball back from them. They’re starting to get a grip on their manager’s principles in possession, they’re flexible enough to switch between defending high up the pitch and in a solid structure in deeper areas, but they’re still lacking a bit when it comes to chance creation in the final third. If we don’t give them opportunities to play in transition and defend in a more passive manner, we have a chance of frustrating them.
As always in these games, we’ll live and die by Antonio’s ability to conjure something out of nothing. If he can isolate Rob Holding, we’ve got a chance of nicking something.
