What a Sunday football we had, with Arsenal facing Liverpool on their home turf. It surely did not disappoint, as the ball managed to find the net 5 times and Arsenal came out on top. As a football fan, I am intrigued by a series of tactical battle displays throughout the match. So let’s go a little bit deep into it.
First of all, it all started from the formation and starting 11. Liverpool recently moved away from the 4-3-3 to the 4-2-2-2, with Nunez and Jota on the front, while Fabinho is on the bench. The idea is to have 2 dangerous strikers running around to make Arsenal’s defensive shape narrower, then switching positions to lure defenders out of position. This is similar to the formation they used mid-week against Rangers in the Champion League. And oh boy, did Arteta do his homework.
Arsenal started Tomiyasu on the left flank instead of the usual Tierney or Zinchenko. Although it is later revealed that Zinchenko suffered an injury right before the match, you would still normally expect Tierney there. But having a right-foot left back, it would help defending Salah cutting in somewhat. This is also mentioned by Tifo, shout out to them for inspiring this channel.
Now, on-ball Liverpool tried to force Arsenal's defensive shape to be even narrower than they normally do by Diaz occasionally cutting in, so it creates space for Tsimikas overloading on the left. Then, along with Nunez and Jota, they try to run cross and change positions to confuse Arsenal’s 4-men defensive line. And it works a few times, which resulted in Liverpool first goal (picture below). They managed to lure White higher up, creating gaps for Nunez and Diaz to run cross each other. But they encountered an on-form Partey, who has 7 clearances, 2 interceptions and 4 recoveries. He effectively shut down Thiago and Diaz from creating plays, making Liverpool's attacking plan much less effective. This showed up in the team xG. Liverpool only managed 1.13 xG while Arsenal got 3.09 xG. I know Saka scored twice and became Man of the Match, but Partey is the key to Arsenal win for me.
In fact, let’s look at Arsenal on ball strat, as their counter attack was so amazingly well executed. There is not much change in Arsenal's attacking start compared to other matches, except the front 3 did not change positions much like normally. However, that’s all they need, as the pace of Saka and Martinelli running riots on the 2 wings. To counter Klopp’s change of tactic to cover for the weakness between Trent and Matip, Xhaka box-to-box run from behind helped to outnumber Trent, which you can see from Arsenal's first 2 goals, which you can see from the picture below. Tomiyasu is also pushed higher up, covering for the advancement of Xhaka, helping to recover the ball if the attacking front loses the ball along with Partey.
In the 2nd half, Klopp decided to take off Trent and Diaz due to injury reasons. Thus, formation changed a little bit. Instead of having Jota running side by side with Nunez, Firmino dropped deeper to help Thiago and Henderson to create plays while Jota filled in Diaz’s position. And Firmino made an instant impact with a clever run behind Saliba to equalize 2-2.
To counter this, Partey was made to drop even deeper to help the defense, and consequently Odegaard also played deeper to cover the midfield so it meant less attacking power for Arsenal. If you look at the chart, the match entered a stalemate until the substitution of Fabinho and Konate for Salah and Matip. This changed the formation again, from a wide 4-2-2-2 to a narrow 4-2-2-2, with Thiago and Fabinho playing behind Jota and Henderson, trying to overload Arsenal in the central. Sadly, it backfired quickly before the players on field had the chance to adapt as Thigao made a bad challenge against Gabriel Jesus and gave away a penalty. Arteta then sub on Tierney to create a 6-to-7-man defensive line to protect the score until the end of the match.
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