Title Back On? Arsenal 5-0 Chelsea Tactical Analysis: Arteta answers Pochettino's mid-block + more

Arsenal 5 Chelsea 0. The Gunners put on a clinic yesterday as they ushered Chelsea back to South West London and in today's tactical analysis I'm going to discuss how Arsenal progressed through Chelsea's sub-optimal mid-block which is an out-of-possession setup that has caused the Gunners a lot of problems recently. The success behind this will be explained in today's video as well, corresponding I think with Arteta's better platforming of player roles alongside some reoccurring issues from Maurizio Pochettino and touching on some key individual performances from the likes of Oerdegaard and Havertz along the way. Welcome back to the Harvey Gratian YouTube channel, I'm so glad you found us or are joining us once again. With all this to come let's get straight on into it and we're going to start with Chelsea's sub-par mid-block and sort of in-possession ideas on top of that as well. You know I can easily go into more depth on this in a forthcoming video but the mid-block, to put it simply, Chelsea looked to block space centrally by pushing up the back line and dropping their front line of the press and this is exactly what they did at Stamford Bridge in the two-all draw earlier in the season between the two sides and just try and cram as many athletes as they can into this block. But within this shape Chelsea were really passive, neither Badia Shell or Axel de Sassi stepped out to contest Havertz's movements and sort of connecting movements and often Caicedo was stuck as well between following Oerdegaard or staying within the block and I think if you combine this with Chelsea's build-up where the distances in their 4-3-3 are just simply too big, Caicedo is that lone six, more an auxiliary controller naturally and he should be sort of moving in from inverted full-back or a number eight than a primary controller which he's been acting under Mauricio Pochettino this season. But he's to do that job because Enzo doesn't have that athletic edge to cover the big spaces in the lone six and Mauricio Pochettino of course, he ceases to play that true double pivot and as a result this meant it was very very easy for Oerdegaard to lead that Arsenal transition from their 4-1 4-1 zonal setup to transition and lead that trigger into their man-to-man press with Rice then jumping onto the Chelsea six which Oerdegaard was shadow marking as he pressed the left centre back which is Badia Shellay and obviously this just negates Chelsea to playing transitions which was part of the plan but it was a bit too hip and hit-and-hopey for me and I think Arsenal's out-of-possession ascendancy really negated Pochettino's plan which I think was to replicate that Guerrero, Masraoui and Muziala left-hand side for Bayern Munich against Arsenal but the bodies in the build-up weren't quite close enough together to manipulate that Arsenal press and with Partey instead of Jorginho tasked with being on Muziala and being more conservative in his positioning and Arsenal being less aggressive off the ball in that Bayern Munich game, White could now be much more aggressive with Partey instead of Jorginho and Arsenal could deal with the Gallagher and Mudric and Kukurea rotations a bit better and it just didn't work out for Chelsea and that out-ball to Jackson who started really well as that outlet like I said just became much more hit-and-hopey in the end and especially if you compound this with Arsenal's bulletproofing in defence bringing in Tomi Asu at left-back it just meant that Arsenal were allowed to recirculate more, sustain pressure, counter-press effectively and just control the game but back to the mid-block because I have gotten a bit of a tangent there which I didn't mean to but if you come up against a physical mid-block like Arsenal yesterday and like Arsenal have themselves deployed this season with players like Kai Havertz and Declan Rice blocking the centre, often times and we've seen it against teams like even Manchester City you just have to give up on your central progression but of course Rice and Kai Havertz play for Arsenal and alongside Partey and Saka and more and more Martin Oerdegaard but we'll touch on that a bit later, Arsenal were given a means to break down this Chelsea mid-block with genuine ease so how did they do it? Well as I focused on towards the start of the season it was Arteta's aim to make Arsenal comfortable with different ways of attacking, more clips into channels, more aerial stuff and I coined the big space setup and that was a large proportion of my analysis of Arsenal early in the season which simply put sort of a deliberate offsetting of our transitional and out-ball threats to take advantage of the space in behind, progress the ball quicker and be more dominant in second balls however this isn't the purpose of today's video this is just to give you a bit of context because this is Arsenal's ability to attack space in different ways and exploit space has been a real key focus for Arteta and one that he hasn't always completely got right and also it's just as much about profiles of players than certain instructions or dynamics in the system so let me explain. To break down a mid-block it's all about runners, passers and tenacity, I'll get back to that word tenacity a bit later, it's about a balance of these broad three things, you need runners who will stretch the opposition in behind to decompact and to pull centre-backs around and this kind of gravity I think is something Havertz is something he has natural to him and for Arsenal they have two runners really in their front line and that's Martinelli and Kai Havertz but the caveat to this is Kai is best at stretching play when he has more freedom in the centre-forward to run into different channels and not be funneled into that left-hand-sided half space and of course then Martinelli who has been out of form recently again reasons for that we've touched on on the channel and sort of our left-hand-sided dynamics and this has meant Leandro Trossard has played more and more minutes and of course he's not a natural runner type Leandro Trossard but he's still very very secure in the carry and he can deputise I think at times in that runner profile that we sometimes lack in the squad he understands the timing of touches on the break really well and how to keep a defender sort of a foot or two away from him constantly of course this is negated when he comes up against sort of a really top level athlete and physical defender but in in Gilchrist he had his match certainly more than maybe a man Augusto would have posed so you can start to see here why Arsenal have had issues in the past and why they were diminished against Chelsea but we continue this because runners also to extend within the block itself and that central carrying that at the start of the season looked Arsenal like maybe they had an abundance with the likes of Timber, Smith-Rowe, Rice, Jesus and Party to the extent that he just takes more risks on the ball but injuries and Arteta not using the squad to its sort of full efficiency which is the only real criticism that I've leveled at Arteta that's going right back to sort of October-November time but Rice against Chelsea in that left-hand-sided eight was a constant threat on the half turn and dynamic solution to central access and take advantage of that 5v4 we had on the Chelsea back line and I don't think the Chelsea wingers in Mudric and Madhu Eke worked back hard enough to double up and that has been a criticism that's been levied of course at the Chelsea wide men this season but it's not just runners it's passers as well and I think the game against Chelsea really exemplified the changes in these dynamics in the Arsenal team because you need releases to these runners in behind like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kevin De Bruyne that come outside of the block and look as I've maintained Erdegaard is never going to be that natural player with that massive zone of influence in terms of his range of his passing to hit channel after channel and switch with different angles you know he's much more limited in terms of his range of passing but the way I see it and him not being maybe the most conducive to always hitting transitions we'll get back to the Havertz goal in a little bit is that Erdegaard as a piece in this Arsenal way to solve a mid-block as opposed to being the whole puzzle is much better if that makes sense because of course when we force a mid-block back and they sit in deep defense he can still sort of unpick them and be as intricate and as beautiful around the box as we know he can and on top of this he can still be that all face centre mid that I was calling for the whole season before he sort of changed in November time being that press resistant conservative option and source of progression and I think as well he has undoubtedly changed his temperament in terms of mentally wanting to play more balls in behind and over the top in recent weeks that's something that we must say because the medium and long range stuff has gone up a level from Erdegaard and I think he's probably realised that that's something he has to take in his game to the next level this is something that can add a lot of value onto him but importantly with Partey and Rice, Partey we'll get on to just shortly, who at times can play that nominal double pivot it allows Erdegaard the freedom to drift over to that left-hand side more and more and of course this is where as I've said he becomes devastatingly vertical at times and it's much more conducive to his natural body angles which is sort of that 45 degrees open to the left-hand side and this balances as well if he picks up more positions on the left it balances how Arsenal and the routes that Arsenal have to play and sort of break down opposition defences not funnelling things through the right-hand side all the time and the greater fluidity as well in Arsenal's build-up is something that helps with this and it's been a topic that I've covered on recent times in terms of Erdegaard of course doing his greater first and second phase duties that we know but alongside the number six which has been Rice, Jorginho and now Thomas Partey, Arsenal have so many auxiliary options to control the game the six is the primary and also you have Erdegaard and also the other number eight now almost like a pendulum for Arsenal when one comes deep and drifts into the pivot the other stays high in between the lines and also if you add the inverted fullback to this it gets to a point where Arsenal on the pitch now have at least sort of three controllers at all times onto the pitch and I think the balance of this and the distribution of touches aren't always right I would like still for Declan Rice to get more touches but against Chelsea the balance was spot on yesterday and that probably coincides with being the fullback who moved in field at times not being Zinchenko who of course is going to stay in those central positions much more regularly and look add the rotations that Kaj Havertz gives you in the centre forward to destabilise the opposition block more have that balance of big bodies to hold off centre backs and then the rapid legs to exploit in behind it's a really good combo and much better combo to breaking down these mid blocks for Arsenal and Chelsea struggled with look they struggled with picking up markers all night and it's also why the mid-block tests of Aston Villa, Fulham and Porto to name a few were much harder but there's no doubt that the dynamics in Arsenal's system last night was much much better to to breaking down a mid-block but medium to long range passes are not the only thing in terms of getting through and progressing through a mid-block because a certain type of pass is required to access the central areas still and this is one of Thomas Partey's biggest strengths that sort of initiative to take risks and we also see this with his sort of one-touch combinations that are often mesmerising in central areas to eliminate one or two opponent players and to sort of associatively and dynamically move the ball through a block in just sort of much more shorter passes and this is also why he needs Declan Rice alongside him to give him the license to take more risks and you know on a tangent for Thomas Partey it's just about him staying fit for as long as possible now of course I think it's a similar deal with him and Tommy Asu, Arteta and the backroom teams have clearly tried to manage them and prepare them and make them physically and mentally ready for this run-in and it's probably a result of now wanting Tommy Asu and Partey to give them at least the Spurs away game and the Manchester United away game I think if Arsenal win that game on Sunday against Tottenham Hotspur the title is well and truly back on but back to Partey and what he gives us on the ball because when these balls are are fired into the pockets the players receiving are just as important and of course you need them to be technically top in tight spaces but you also physically need them to be able to absorb contact and then have the tenacity I said I'll return to that word to fight for the 50-50 ball and this is a more subtle I think way that people never consider in terms of how to break down a mid-block in these really stubborn athletic defences that I've seen some of the analysis going around on mid-blocks and it's it's fine it's good but it's missing sort of the more nuanced points like this and I think in these moments of course Odegaard on a technical level it's great in these pockets we know how good he is there but alongside he needs to be alongside the jewelers in a way who have that frame height and span and power to regain possession. Havertz in the centre forward is someone that allows this when he's allowed to drift into those pockets and add that variety to his movements vertically and laterally to link play to combine and connect to pivot in transition to complement the players around him but also to dominate jewels and when the ball is not under our control to regain that for us I mean it's funny that I think always Kai Havertz's best game when he generates the most from centre forward for us I always labelled his worst ones and I think that looked like what it was going to be after the first half where of course he has to be more clinical in the final action and I think a lot of that as we saw for his second goal in off the post is just about the prep touch and it's getting the ball out of his feet quickly often and shooting within the first one or two touches that I think disregards 95% of the problems that he gets in front of goal and there's no doubt Kai Havertz took both of his goals unbelievably well but you add this to to Declan Rice in these 50-50 contests when the the ball goes into those central areas and Thomas Partey's nickname octopus legs in moments where opposition think they've trapped Arsenal and they swarm and then collapse it's that control of the ball and this regain of control on the ball in these moments that is certainly a more subtle point and it's something that Liverpool have done so well when an opposition think they've won it the momentum of the whole team starts going and acting like they're attacking now and begin to cheat a little bit suddenly the momentum is going the wrong way and you can sort of take advantage of that flat-footedness I think from the defenders and the midfielders and like I said it's something Liverpool have done so well and something Pep Guardiola has said in interviews that it's something he's wanted to develop in his teams over time so altogether Arsenal have I think the best balance of mid-block breaking bar Martinelli and eventually Fabio Vieira whose creative range is staggering that they've had all season but I hope this video as well shows you how injuries and Arsenal not always having the profiles outside of and also Arteta being a bit stubborn and not as loose and limber than I would like with the squad and how that has and may well continue to cause problems because Chelsea definitely isn't the end of the road for Arsenal getting over this mid-block hoodoo but it's certainly a step in the right direction so I just wanted to touch on that and touch on the Chelsea game more broadly because it was a much needed win for Arsenal and I'm going to go back to it I think if we win against Spurs on Sunday the title race the title race well and truly is back on for Arsenal but thank you so much for watching I'm sorry for the slightly rushed nature of this video I've got a lot of work on at the moment so it's sort of one of those things where I could only touch on one real aspect of the game instead of divulging the whole of it but that is all from me I'll catch you in the next one I really hope you've enjoyed watching see you later