What a turn-up for the books. Arsenal, sweating out a 2-0 win against Manchester City on Mancunian turf, scoring twice from set pieces (albeit, one a penalty) and leaving the Etihad with just 35% of the ball – their lowest possession rate since OPTA began turning the Beautiful Game into the blackboard from A Beautiful Mind fifteen years ago.
Gunners legend Thierry Henry (now a pundit for Sky Sports, in case you missed the billion memos) certainly didn’t see it coming. In fact, his pre-match interpretation of recent events was incredibly pessimistic for an otherwise debonair Frenchman, and one can hardly blame him; until Sunday, Arsenal hadn’t beaten a former Premier League title winner away from home since Chelsea, a chaotic 5-3, back in October 2011.
Such an emphatic win against reigning Premier League champions has never been beyond the north Londoners’ capacity, but it’s the nature of the performance – a potential watershed in the history of Arsenal philosophy – that fans will find most pleasing.
Instead of endlessly attempting to replicate Jack Wilshere’s Premier League’s Goal of the Season – the sensational culmination of imaginative movement, aesthetic flicks-ons and ball-threading through the tiniest of gaps that destroyed Norwich City last term – against the division’s most superior defences, it was a win inspired by hard-graft, gamesmanship, tactical nous and defensive awareness. So how did the Gunners pull it off?
Well, the biggest alteration from a tactical perspective was the inclusion of a holding midfielder, Francis Coquellin, instead of a roaming No.10. The combination of the Frenchman, Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla operated as an impenetrable triplet in front of the defence, starving City’s star playmaker David Silva of the central space he relentlessly craves by rarely spanning a handful of yards beyond centre-backs Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscienly, who were left too exposed to a serial degree during Arsenal’s recent encounters with the Premier League’s big-boys.
When Silva did inevitably get on the ball, all three encircled him in an instance. Likewise, when the Gunners were given the space to attack, only Cazorla or Ramsey – never both and never Coquellin, barring a few chaotic minutes at the start of the second half – dared to venture forward. The Spain international, who eventually picked up the Man of the Match award for his converted penalty, free kick assist, two tackles, three interceptions and ten (yes, ten!) successful dribbles, particularly impressed.
Meanwhile, wingers Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Alexis Sanchez provided dynamic width and pace on the counter-attack, instead of joining the central play and leaving such duties to the full-backs – a strategy that, once again, has left Mertesacker and Koscileny too exposed in prior heavyweight clashes. In combination with Cazorla, their mazy, powerful and energetic dribbles gained Arsenal vital yardage, flipping the pressure onto City’s defence and allowing the rest of the team the time to re-establish their defensive shape.
On top of that, the Gunners quite simply took their chances – a spot kick (accurately awarded) for Vincent Kompany’s foul on Nacho Monreal as a consequence of some very positive play around City’s penalty box, and an Olivier Giroud header from a poorly-marked set piece. With such a low percentage of the ball, a clinical approach in the final third was vital to Arsenal claiming all three points.
Of course, Arsenal have faced big teams in that 4-1-4-1 formation before, but the ultimate difference on Sunday was the Gunners’ high level of discipline – something many previously argued their vast collection of technical playmakers were incapable of. Rather than all attempting to affect the game going forward as much as possible, defensive responsibilities – particularly, the object of suffocating City in midfield – came first. Clearly, a lot of hours have been put in on the training pitch and of paralleled importance, clearly Arsene Wenger approached the match with a willingness for pragmatic compromise.
The persisting question however, is whether Arsenal are capable of a repeat performance and if so, what does that mean to their long-term Premier League title ambitions? There were some uniquely heroic performances on Sunday, particularly, Cazorla, Bellerin and Coquellin’s, that will be difficult to replicate, whilst personnel returning from the sidelines, namely Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Mesut Ozil, could inevitably change the dynamics of Arsenal’s starting Xi in future fixtures.
But the most important lesson the north Londoners can take from the 2-0 win is that they now have a proven template to work from. This isn’t just a single instance either; from the eight Premier League fixtures in which Arsenal have recorded their lowest possession rates since 2003, they’ve won seven and lost none, including a 1-0 win over Tottenham last season, a 2-1 win over West Ham in December and most recently, their pre-Christmas 2-2 draw at Anfield.
Whilst all the eye-catching tiki-taka remains Arsenal’s game-plan against more rank-and-file opposition, they now have an alternative style for facing Premier League and European heavyweights. Equally, the Etihad win will breed huge confidence in firstly, Arsenal’s ability to beat high-quality opposition in the future, and secondly, their capacity for success when adopting a more pragmatic brand of football. If that can be maintained long-term, the Gunners will undoubtedly be infringing upon the Premier League’s summit.
The ultimate litmus test comes between now and May-time, or more specifically, against Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United – which I view as Arsenal’s most important fixtures of the remaining campaign. All are capable of hurting Arsenal and triumphing against any will require the characteristics shown at the Etihad on Sunday; grit, determination, defensive responsibility and discipline.
Vitally more important than the attitude of the players however, is how Arsene Wenger approaches these fixtures. Will he call upon the spirit, style and system that ensured a 2-0 win over the reigning Premier League champions, or revert back to Arsenal’s more familiar, expansive philosophy?
