How Mikel Arteta Tactically Evolved Arsenal in 2023/24

Looking back across the season, I couldn't quite believe myself how much Arsenal have changed tactically as a team. I mean, this video is going to focus on the in-possession stuff because otherwise we'd be here for a week, but I'm going to walk you through the season, showing you how Arsenal have changed from quite a predictable and robotic outfit into a team of fluidity, rotations and improvisations, and how some of the earlier experiments from Michael Arteta have developed into really defining principles down the line, and also the specific games and tactical turning points along the way. I mean, it's incredible to see where Arsenal started and where we've ended up, and also what more may happen down the line. I mean, let's begin with the opening game of the season against Nottingham Forest. We saw what potentially was Mikel's pre-planned low-block killer, the three-diamond-three, with Thomas Partey inverting from right-back into midfield, as he did for the final two games of the 2022-23 Premier League season. And this move from right-back to the base of midfield pushed Declan Rice further afield, and I think the balance of Rice's role was one that I actually really liked in this game. He had the option to stay deeper in a more familiar three-two shape, often sort of dropping in as a left-centre-back too to carry the ball up and rotate with Durian Timber, and this kind of relationship is one that we've missed out on the whole of the season, unfortunately. But this saw a lot of the touches in our build-up shared by Declan Rice and Thomas Partey, with Rice being that touch-heavy centre-mid we know he can be, but then as soon as we progressed the play further up the pitch and Forest really were beginning to retreat, the box would then readjust into a diamond shape, with Rice moving between the lines so that we could, I think, extract his proper box-to-box qualities, if that makes sense. Erdegaard also mirrored this movement, moving clockwise on the other side by swinging down, and Havertz was now located at the tip of the diamond. I mean, interestingly, when Kai Havertz signed for Arsenal, the two positions that I said would fit him best was, of course, one, the centre-forward, and the other was this pure randoiter type at the tip of the diamond. And here Havertz could drift left and right and high and low, all according to the centre-forwards' movements. I mean, I actually think the centre-forward in the three-diamond three is a role that was really well-suited for Eddie Nketiah, but the relationship with Kai Havertz never actually clicked, and why was that? Well, the centre-forward, if they're playing with someone like Kai, needs to be suited to dropping, to being associative, and giving the space for the randoiter to move into. And this isn't really Eddie Nketiah's game, and I think the improved dynamics with the relationship between Trossard and Havertz is something that we're going to get onto a bit later, but adding the six-body into attack didn't really click for Arsenal against Forrest. And although the diamond has been used in spurts this season, and it hasn't been completely abandoned, it's been mostly left on the backburner, especially after the injuries to Durian Timber and Thomas Partey. Most of the problems, I think, against Forrest were just players naturally bedding in. The movements, I think, at times to form the diamond shape seemed a bit forced, but they also kept Saka much wider than you would normally like when you're wanting to unpick a deep defence. Saka would often have to wait for White's overlaps from right centre-back to move inside, but the diamond is a shape with Timber's return and potential presence in the left centre-mid that I expect Arteta to return to at points. I don't think it will ever become our go-to, though. I mean, let's move away from the Nottingham Forest game and go further into the season. Until November, despite moving away from the diamond, Arsenal's season shared a common theme of poor attacking dynamics covered up by moments of individual brilliance. Thomas Partey's injury meant that Zinchenko returned and things were a bit more like 2022-23, but Zinchenko didn't have that touch-heavy, deeper presence option in Xhaka ahead of him and instead have essentially a left shadow striker in Kai Havertz. Again, the lack of central midfield options meant Havertz played in that shadow striker I think much more than Arteta initially intended, but these poor dynamics were exacerbated by Oerdegaard's role, which mirrored Havertz on the last line. And as our main creator still, Martin Oerdegaard, we got to the point where every single Arsenal attack was being funnelled through a really selected space in the inside right channel, and Barzynchenko, there was no ball-dominant player on the left-hand side to counterbalance things. And this led me to ask why Arteta was actively choosing no second-phase presence in this Arsenal team, in the absence of Partey or Jorginho's sort of hip problem. And this is what I focused a lot of my videos on in the first half of the season, and that was the big space set-up. Look, I've covered this in depth and in a lot of videos, so I won't do any more on it today, but it was basically the why behind Arteta's strange, I guess you could say, choices. It focused on drawing an opposition press in, and playing long to either Kai Havertz or the centre forward, and then swarming this outlet with the second ball winners. And the big space set-up optionally skipped the second phase that Arsenal had been struggling to access, in order to attack space in a more direct way, and create more transitions. And this is an area of attack that really had been lacking, and we still need work on our creation of transitions, and our inevitability or clinicality on the break too. And at the time, this was of the benefit of isolating Martinelli, but with the sheer amount of deep defences Arsenal played early on, and again the lack of pass-first profiles on the left-hand side, the lack of rotations we saw in the last line too, to help move Martinelli closer to goal, the Brazilian found himself often just hugging the touchline, and losing confidence really quickly. But, there was a day where things changed, suddenly, for the better. And it was that increasing of Martinelli's zone of influence that I'd been really hollering and frustrating you all with probably the whole season. It finally happened, and for me, the defining game for this was just at the end of September, and it was Bournemouth away. Again, it's another tactical decision that I've analysed exhaustingly, but to simplify, Odegaard became an all-phase central midfielder, often dropping into the pivot in our 4-2 build-up shape, overloading and dragging presses around the pitch, displacing the need for an inverted full-back all the time. And Odegaard became Arsenal's creator again, and gave us the central access and progression that we'd been lacking previously. He wasn't just profiled and shoehorned into this shoot-first, last-line profile. And this change also moved him away from Bakayo Saka, in turn increasing his zone of influence. And in my recent video about Saka, I highlighted why this is so important. And for Saka, we can get him even closer to the centre of the pitch, and when he's in these positions, he can dominate games that some people wouldn't even believe, and it's something that we need to do more and more of going into next season. But Odegaard became one of the best midfielders around in this role, and this is Martin Odegaard, a proper build-up leader, and his role gets even freer, as we'll see as the season progresses. And of course, sod's law, Arsenal's improved dynamics going forward coincided with a real drop-off and downturn in the finishing moment in front of goal, and we were creating more but scoring much less. But the performances from November to New Year are what showed me that this team was really capable of a proper title push, and this was made really evident after our trip to Dubai, but just before that holy trip that we should probably create some sort of cult for. Actually, let's probably not do that. But before that trip, I was given even more hope that Arsenal were going in a really positive direction tactically, and this came in the FA Cup loss to Liverpool at home. Because although Odegaard's more complete role is absolutely brilliant, sometimes we need to sure ourselves up a bit more in possession, and also not become totally over-reliant on him. Again, this is a development that will take more precedence as we develop and grow further into the season, as I'll show you. And the Cup game against Liverpool was the closest I think Arsenal have had to having a proper, no-messing-about double pivot. This was the simplest iteration of Arsenal this season, I think, with two controllers at the base of midfield, full backs playing full backy, and Odegaard, although he was closer to the right-hand side, instead was just hovering on top of this base. And I think Reiss and Jorginho as a pairing in a proper double pivot is something that, and is a pairing, that understands each other perfectly. Arsenal would build deep in a 4-triple-2, with Kai Havertz and Odegaard forming the top of a box, and then we would transition to a 3-2-5, with Kivio sitting in the left eight position, with Jorginho deeper. And these evolving full back roles this season will be returned to later. Arteta, I think, has given us constant glimpses throughout the season of his hopes and ambitions for this team moving forward, but it feels like he's always had to in one way or another, and that's not totally misfortune. Sometimes it's down to him too. But then the Dubai trip came, and it was time then to play Liverpool again in the Premier League, but this time this system we've just outlined was deployed with even more joy. I'm going to take you through the first goal in the 3-1 win for Saka, to show you this. In Arsenal's 4-2 build-up shape, Liverpool press aggressively, forcing Saliba to turn neatly and go back to Gabriel. Gravenberch now must jump from the eight, this is how Liverpool always press, but Curtis Jones is tasked with too much ground to cover when he's transferring markers from Reiss to Jorginho, and that's that complementary relationship we were talking about with their offset staggered heights. These staggered heights, and McAllister also hanging back because he doesn't quite have, again, the legs of a Declan Reiss six, means that Arsenal in four touches and four passes, Gabriel can fire into Jorginho, who can bump it into Kai Havertz, who has the licence to drop from his double ten position with Urdegaard. Havertz then goes back to Gabriel, and Gravenberch has been completely taken out of the game. Alexis McAllister stays deeper, so Gakpo is then tasked with collapsing, and this leaves Zinchenko as the free man, and it's a lesson from Arsenal in baiting the press, and it's what I want to see even more of going into next season against really high-pressing teams. But Trent now must cover Zinchenko, meaning Canate has to peel wider to cover Martinelli. Van Dijk is caught in a similar dilemma now, of whether to stay with the other dual ten, which is Urdegaard, who again, in this position on top of the double pivot, can float across to the left-hand side. Van Dijk also has the option to retreat too, and his split second of indecision is all that Martin Urdegaard needs. Havertz is clever and assumes this kind of triangle of space in the Liverpool back line. He fluffs the shot, but Saka finishes it off. You know, growing out of these two Liverpool games, Arsenal added another way of playing to their arsenal, and have approached, I think, each game against Liverpool and Manchester City in different ways this season. But now, as the season continued, there was a growing confidence in this Arsenal team, and after Liverpool, there came a run of games in the league where Arsenal completely silenced, I think, any murmurs of our difficulty against real deep blocks and defences. But it required another tactical alteration from Mikel Arteta, returning this time to Havertz, playing alongside a centre forward and removing Jorginho from the midfield. But it was the sheer amount of rotations and flexibility that would become a core principle of our current version of our build-up. In the first two minutes against West Ham United, it was clear that we had got the fluid rigidity, meaning lots of players interchanging positions, but also keeping the exact same zones occupied. But it was clear we had got that from pre-season back, and it was as if, in Dubai, the players had genuinely reconnected with each other, if that makes sense. I mean, Havertz's relationship that we see here with Trossard was the most exciting, because for Kai to work in the shadow striker, there needs to be certain conditions present. He can't just be constrained to one lane, he needs to play like almost he would at the tip of a diamond. And Trossard, being much more injury-free now than Jesus, he can connect and drop deeper much more than Jesus can. And Trossard also prefers to move vertically, as opposed to laterally. And this gives Havertz and Martinelli an easier chance, I think, to rotate centrally into the striker position. Trossard also makes up for Havertz's lower touch volume, deeper presence, by dropping there himself. And if he is allowed to get on the turn and play facing the opposition goal, things like Saka's penalty can happen. And against West Ham, alongside Martinelli's inside movements, Erdegaard and Raya found this really central, overloaded area between the lines really easily, and it felt just like a really good balance to this Arsenal team. But this wasn't the only change that Arteta made, because we also saw White trialled as an inverted right-back. He had a really nice, free sense of the role, I think, with Erdegaard, also wanting to go back to his sort of all-phasing role. So when Erdegaard moved deep, White immediately pushed high and wide on the right-hand side, meaning Saka was able to dominate those half-space areas that I'm so desperate for him to be in more often. And adding, of course, from earlier on in the season, White to this Erdegaard and Saka connection has been a complete game-changer for Arsenal. I mean, now let's talk final evolutions this season, because as you can see, things are getting seriously tasty now, and from, I put it, about Luton at home to the end of the season, in the Premier League at least, we have an Arsenal in, for now, is their final form. For now. At this point, Rice was starting to play more and more as a left-eight, with Jorginho and then later Partey in the six, with Erdegaard still carrying most of the creative burden. Rice became much less touch-heavy, but again, I still expect him to be deeper and more central for the majority of his Arsenal career. But he's so versatile, and looking even forward to further evolutions of Rice's role for Arsenal, he can be even that inverted centre-back role that John Stones played for Manchester City. But let's move back to this season for now, and the game against Brighton, where Rice played, yes, this more peripheral left-eight role, but it was also what I called at the time a pendulum in work, where either Rice or Erdegaard can drop deeper next to Jorginho. If Rice ever felt he was kept out and locked away from the build-up, he can initiate his familiar rotation, dropping into left-back or left-centre-back, and allowing, in Brighton's case, Zinchenko to roam higher or step into midfield. And I think there was a real sense in me watching this game that Arteta now was prioritising, fortifying this build-up and just loading it full of technical leaders. I mean, excluding David Rye, who is obviously used quite often as a plus-one in the build-up, Arsenal have at least six, but oftentimes seven, players involved in their in-possession stuff in the first and second phases now, creating 3-3 shapes or 3-4 structures. And the heart of this, I think, is a growing sense of freedom to the Arsenal players. I mean, it's simple, right? Arteta seems to be loading the side with great ballplayers, meaning that a greater emphasis is placed on letting them find solutions instead of always having a fixed, rigid structure. At times, there is a requirement to be a bit more rigid, like we saw away at Tottenham Hotspur with Partey returning, and Partey's return definitely took Arsenal's evolving build-up to the next level alongside Tomiasu's return too, who doesn't need to be as fixed centrally and as deep in the pivot as Zinchenko still has to be, really. I mean, in a previous video, I outlined and used the Bournemouth game to highlight this evolving build-up, with Tomiasu playing that free left-back role that Arteta has sort of trusted him with all season. And here, he's able to invert into midfield and push Declan Rice higher, or switch the roles over, with Rice controlling and Tomiasu higher between the lines. But the key is the fluidity to this. To initiate a rotation, Rice often pulls wide and vacates the space for Tomiasu to travel into. Or they may both remain deeper alongside Partey and possibly even Odegaard too, because, remember, Partey progressively is tremendous and is a massive part of why he's so important to us, but Odegaard's still our creative magnet. And like Rice and Tomiasu, Odegaard has complete freedom to decide whether he pushes Rice out and starts in our deep pivot, or begins higher at the top of a box, or overloads and forms, again, that kind of 3-3 base where adjustments seem to be allowed to be made intuitively on the pitch. And that's when we can make sort of shapes more like a 3-4, with Havertz also able to join in from the centre forward. And this freedom of expression is why Odegaard drifting more central and left, where we love him to be, is occurring more and more. And with the bulletproofing out of possession that particularly Tomiasu gives us, as well as Declan Rice in close proximity, there can be more of this cheating across lanes. But the fact that we are so flexible begs the question of how we can improve further, because Arsenal, this current iteration of Arsenal, is by no means the final version. I want to assert that, and I still want us to hold the ball more. And this is a by-product of Tomiasu and Thomas Partey being starters once again. So, I guess wouldn't it be nice if we could add players just as able to fluidly rotate, whilst also improving our control of the ball, that maybe Tomiasu and Partey don't give us as much? Well, as I've described in detail, Timber can take the Tomiasu free roll to a completely new level, whether that be on the right or the left-hand side. And as we saw against Everton, he perfectly interchanges with Martin Odegaard in his free roll, and these movements happen much more instinctively than Tomiasu and Declan Rice. And as for the Thomas Partey upgrade, Rice can move back to the number six and add that security on the ball that maybe Partey lacks at times, whilst keeping progression ticking. But granted, Thomas Partey is one of one in a sense of his verticality and the way he can shift the momentum of games in the short spaces. That's phenomenal. And this is where the left-centre mid signing comes in. But that's for another video. I think all in all, there is a much more coherent sense of what Arsenal are on the ball now. We are a team that loves to be unpredictable, operate with complete cohesion with the amount of rotations we see per game, progress from a 4-2 build-up deep into a fluid sort of 3-3 shape in the middle third, and then mostly a 2-3-5 shape in high possession, which is equally as flexible. And what I really hope is that pre-season, Arteta can give us an indication of hopefully a much more settled environment this year, because it took me a long time to make this video and going through all my notes and also all the games of the season. Probably too much has changed for our liking this season, and I think a settled environment can help us start the season in a much better vein.