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Arsenal 1 – 0 Man City: Tactical Observations

744 comments August 26th, 2007

Well, another win, another three points, and as arseblogger points out, it’s our first 1-0 to the Arsenal at the new ground. That’s what matters: last year we would’ve drawn this match.

The goal came from Cesc Fabregas, who clearly enjoys scoring belters against Manchester City. If Kasper Schmeichel hadn’t saved an unusally poor Robin van Persie penalty, it could have been slightly less tense entering the last fifteen minutes.

The overriding feeling is one of positivity. Our result yesterday mirrored that of Chelsea, who overcame a Portsmouth side who, like City, created chances and defended well. Victories like this will give us momentum, inspire confidence, and allow the side to grow.

However, rather than just let everyone be merry for a day, there are a few tactical points I have an urge to point out. Some of them are specific to yesterday, and some of them are more general. Perhaps they’re things that will be addressed as the season progresses:

Do we need a gameplan?
With a manager as astute as Arsene, it’s slightly odd that our side lacks any kind of tactical identity. There seems to be no specific gameplan – no “Plan A” as regards scoring goals. In the days of The Invincibles, for example, it was a concentrated attack down the left-hand side, with Henry drifting out to support the combination of Pires and Cole. Now, I’ll grant you that a lot of those players have moved on, and to a large extent this is a new side still gelling. But that hasn’t seemed to prevent Manchester City. Sven has introduced a fluid 4-3-3/4-4-1-1 system whereby Hamman holds as Johnson and Ireland look to play in the wide threats of Elano and Petrov. It’s simple, but effective. Perhaps Arsene feels that with the talented players he has at his disposal, no strict tactical plan is neccessary. But the result of that is that too much pressure is heaped on individuals. Our current tactic appears to be, “Give it to Cesc”. Perhaps our young players would benefit from a degree of tactical adherence? Just something to think about.

Is Robin van Persie too selfish?
I can’t believe I’m asking this question of a player in an Arsenal side with a tendency to try and pass the ball into the net. But at times yesterday, Van Persie seemed to completely ignore his strike partner, Emmanuel Adebayor. I counted three opportunities when Van Persie looked to play Ade in, then checked and tried to play a one-two with Rosicky. Now, Adebayor was having a terrible game, but it seems to me that Van Persie might’ve got a little to used to being upfront on his own. If 4-4-2 is the way we’re going to go, he needs to show more awareness of his strike partner, whomever he may be.

End product doesn’t release Hleb from defensive responsibility
Congratulations to Aleksandr Hleb, who has finally started to add tangible end product to what has been, for the past year, a frustrating succession of near-misses. Yesterday he won the penalty and had a hand in the goal. In the first-half I felt he gave the ball away needlessly several times, but you can’t argue with results. However, we very nearly suffered by a real reluctance to help out the stand-in full-back, Mathieu Flamini. Martin Petrov could quite seriously have had a hatrick, and that was largely because Hleb’s failure to get back when City countered often left Flamini outnumbered. Hleb must remember that in a 4-4-2 he has more defensive responsibilites than he does playing behind the striker.

IN SUMMARY
Positives

• Another goal from midfield
• Gilberto and Adebayor’s return to fitness
• Hleb’s good form going forward continues
• A solid display from Almunia
• The injuries to Senderos and Sagan aren’t serious

Negatives

• Adebayor didn’t look close to his best
• They looked like scoring on almost every counter-attack
• We struggled to break them down

However, at the end of the day, the biggest positive of all is three points.

Man U vs. Spurs today. I hope they both lose.

Man City Team News, Arsene/Cesc Interviews

1,182 comments August 25th, 2007

And so the game against table-topping Manchester City is almost upon us. After a succession of holidays, it’ll be the first competetive game I’ve attended this season, and I’m more than a little excited.

To the right is my guess at who might line up in red-and-white. Although Rosicky and Adebayor are available, I suspect Arsene may be cautious about throwing them straight back in. I do think, however, that with Captain Gallas missing, Arsene may immediately introduce the experience and know-how of Brazilian midfielder Gilberto Silva.

A lot of eyes will be on Manuel Almunia in the Arsenal goal, though I’d suggest spectators divert them to the other end – without wanting to jinx us, I believe young Kasper Schmeichel to be highly indecisive and error-prone. If we can test the Dane, we could reap the rewards.

The players to watch out for are Martin Petrov and Elano, who will play on the flanks in support of Rolando Bianchi. That’s another reason to bring Gilberto back-in: both these players like to drift inside and shoot from range. Gilberto could be vital in protecting that area just outside our penalty box.

I do think we’ll beat City though. Call it a hunch. 2-1.

Arsene didn’t hold his traditional press conference yesterday as he had spent Thursday at the launch of Arsenal’s new charity, Treehouse. Henry Winter has a fascinating collection of quotes from Arsene, on subjects ranging from autism to the Olympics. It’s really worth a read. Particularly interesting is Arsene’s description of the development of a young player:

“You build the player like a house. The basis is the technique that happens before 12. If the player can play, the next floor is the physique at 14-15. Then it the tactical ability – how to use your technique and physique in the game.

The last part, the roof, is the mental side. If you have no roof, it rains in your house. How competitive are you? How motivated to do well every day? That is the final step. I believe that hunger is something you get at 18 and remains relatively stable during your life. That is decided between 18 and 20. And that decides careers.

You are not born with hunger. Roy Keane was competitive [from a young age], but why? You need to be psychoanalytical to see why. Sometimes the same adversity can have a bad effect. If you have a strong father, you can fight against him or completely lie down. Maybe Roy Keane had the first reaction, to fight the father. I don’t know.”

One player who certainly has a roof over his head is Cesc Fabregas. It’s certainly easy to forget how young he still is:

“When I scored my first goal, against Wolverhampton, I went home and celebrated by drinking a Coca-Cola and eating a Kinder Egg.”

He’s been talking about the positives behind Thierry Henry’s departure:

“Thierry is the best I’ve ever played with. There’s no doubt. But there was this other factor. He is Thierry Henry. When I came I felt I was low and he was high. It was a big difference and for a long time I was intimidated. When I had the ball I felt I had no choice but to look for him. I did this because, one, he is the best and, two, because I had the feeling I had to pass it to him. He has such a strong character that he almost made you feel this way. I needed him to say, ‘Look, you don’t always have to play the ball to me.’ Once he said that, I was free and I gave him even more assists.”

Perhaps other players, such as Hleb and Rosicky, will now experience this same freedom.

We now have three home games before we travel to Tottenham. It’s a chance to build up a head of steam that I hope we don’t neglect.

Arsenal 3 – 1 Man City: Cesc Bomb takes Arsenal to 3rd

434 comments April 18th, 2007

Well, Myles Palmer got it right.  After Cesc and Rosicky finally grabbed a couple of Premiership goals on Saturday, they repeated the trick last night – Rosicky’s was a replica of his Bolton effort, whilst Cesc’s was a dipping volley of absolute perfection – what a way to score Arsenal’s 50th goal at the Emirates Stadium.

It’s amazing what a bit of confidence can do.  Following his goal on Saturday, Rosicky had the same drive and belief to get in the box, and when he did, finished powerfully.  Cesc, meanwhile, looked reinvigorated – there’s every chance he could add to his tally before the season is out.

Their goals came either side of a DaMarcus Beasley equaliser – a poor kick from an out-of-sorts Jens Lehmann was punished by a slick through ball from Somebody Johnson and a neat finish from Beasley.  It was a real shock – Arsenal had completely dominated the first-half in spite of not creating many chances.  When Abou Diaby had come off with blurred vision for Julio Baptista, we’d lost a lot of momentum.

Which doesn’t surprise me at all – it strikes me that, whatever position he plays, we’re a better team when Diaby’s on the field.  He again played just off the striker, and showed tough tackling as well as very quick feet indeed.

His replacement, Baptista, added a third late on, sidefooting home after good work from a much-improved Aleksandr Hleb.

One man who couldn’t get a goal was Emmanuel Adebayor, who is now without a goal since February.  You have to say he’s been unlucky – firstly with the Carling Cup Final suspension, and latterly with his finishing.  He hit the post twice at Liverpool, had a close-range header miraculously saved at West Ham, and yesterday had an effort blocked almost on the goal line. You get the feeling that like Cesc and Rosicky, once one goes in, he’ll reap the rewards.

Well, if there’s one thing we know about Adebayor, it’s that he relishes the big games.  White Hart Lane on Saturday wouldn’t be a bad place to start getting the goals again.

Man City + Transfery bits

22 comments August 30th, 2006

I’m back from Edinburgh. That means Gunnerblog will be returning to it’s daily form. That’s the good news. The bad news being that since I saw you last, we’ve lost to Man City. It was a strange game: despite dominating the first-half we went in behind thanks to an error from Justin Hoyte. Hoyte was fairly terrible in defence, whilst up-front Henry conspired to miss a string of chances. The second half brought yet more frustration as City held on for a 1-0 victory. It seems out boys just hate playing in the north-west of England. To be honest, I can’t blame them.

Now attention turns towards the transfer deadline in two days time. The big story is that pretty much everyone has a “scoop” on the Ashley Cole deal collapsing. Personally, I feel we’ve heard so much about this one that it’s almost impossible to believe anything the papers print. However, I for one am very keen to see Cole go. Let’s just take a look at the protracted timeline of this transfer:

And now, August 2006, and the deal is apparently off, once and for all. Shame: I’d far rather William Gallas than Cole.

Our other wantaway star, Jose Reyes, might well get his wish amidst news that Athletico Madrid have increased their bid from £8.1m to an initial £11m rising to £13.8m. To be honest, at that price, I feel we’ll accept.

And if we do, The Sun say we’ll replace him with Carlos Tevez. However, don’t be too excited by news that he’s “flying into London”: so are the rest of the Argentinian Squad ahead of their game against Brazil at the Emirates. It’s like joining up the dots for journalists sometimes. Intriguingly, however, this Times article quotes the club’s president as saying “negotiations are advanced” with an English club.

It’s probably Chelsea.

Don’t worry, if we don’t get Tevez, we might get Steven Naismith: contain yourselves, please.

Finally, Irish starlet Anthony Stokes has joined Falkirk on loan.

Nice to see some transfer activity, at least…

Is Arsenal’s victory over Manchester City down to the manager or the players?

5 comments January 22nd, 2015

I don’t quite know what to make of Arsenal’s win over Manchester City. My initial response was, like yours, one of shock. An Arsenal side guilty of making the same mistakes again and again appeared to have suddenly learnt from them. Frustration at their slow uptake was secondary to the joy of an unexpected victory. Arsene Wenger had got it right, and in doing so acknowledged he was wrong.

And then came his tetchy post-match interview, in which he effectively denied his side had done anything dramatically different to their normal gung-ho approach. Ignore it, I thought: he’s just struggling with publicly compromising his principles. No-one wants to climb down from their aesthetic mount on national television.

But then came this Olivier Giroud interview (“The boss didn’t say to stay back and counter-attack”), in which he appears to reveal that the players weren’t specifically instructed to let City have the ball. Arsenal’s tactical masterclass, Giroud seems to suggest, came about as much by accident as design.

Now, there is evidence against Giroud’s crude ‘big bang’ theory that re-establishes the divinity of Arsene. For example, our approach at City was fairly reminiscent of our cautious display at Stamford Bridge earlier this season. There were indications then that we had adopted a more conservative set-up. The difference, as so often in these big games, was the first goal. Individual errors granted Chelsea the lead, and recovering from that deficit away from home proved impossible.

However, if we take Giroud’s comments at face value, what does that mean for Arsenal’s newfound resolve and discipline? Where does that come from? Certainly not Steve Bould, who appears to be as impotent as Pele before his lucrative endorsement deal.

A potential answer arrives in the form of the players. Is it possible that, in spite of their manager’s intransigence, they have simply adjusted of their own accord? There are enough new ingredients for me to believe it’s possible: the eerie calm of David Ospina, the fearless physicality of Francis Coquelin, the inspirational athleticism of Alexis Sanchez. Perhaps this Arsenal, with these personnel, has taken matters in to their own hands. If the manager wasn’t prepared to teach his team some necessary lessons, perhaps certain players have – inadvertently or otherwise.

In reality, our win may be down to both players and manager. The two possibilities are in no way mutually exclusive. That would certainly fit with Wenger’s ethos: he is always eager for his players to take responsibility for their own actions on the field. The intriguing thing is how difficult that makes it to apportion credit.

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ps. TRANSFER BUSINESS: I talked about it on Twitter the other day, but my understanding is that Arsenal are confident they would secure a work permit for Villarreal defender Gabriel Paulista without too many problems. The Spanish club are holding out for something close to his €20m buyout fee, which sounds a lot until you remember just how hard it’s proven to find a half-decent centre-half. For more on Paulista, read this profile piece I wrote on him for ESPN.