Manchester City vs Arsenal ended in spectacular fashion with a late John Stones equaliser breaking the Gunners' resolve. But, after Leandro Trossard's red card in the first half left his side a man short, Mikel Arteta's dropped a modern masterclass on how to frustrate a numerically superior opponent and deny them the space to create any meaningful chances. They may have ultimately dropped 2 points, but they were less than a minute away from recording a win for the ages. Adam Clery examines their defending (and *all* the controversial decisions) to explain how they almost did it.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Okay, so these were your 11s for the game and the two major talking points were A, no
00:07Kevin De Bruyne for Man City and B, no Martin Oerdegaard for Arsenal.
00:11Now you will note we've got Arsenal set up in a 4-4-2 here and that may or may not
00:16have been the plan.
00:17It's just that while we saw two great moments from them in an attacking sense, we saw very
00:22little of them actually on the ball in possession.
00:25Bringing Califiori in for Ben White and swapping Timber over at the right-hand side may have
00:29been a plan to have him invert from there and get builder patterns on a different side
00:33but we just didn't really see it.
00:35Man City dominated the ball in the first half and then in the second, well, we will get
00:40to the second.
00:41However, what we can infer from Arsenal's game plan off the ball at least was that A,
00:46they were defending in their 4-4-2 block which they like to do and B, for all the talk that
00:50they occasionally go into these games being a bit negative or grinding out a result, that
00:55was very much the Man City narrative.
00:57They weren't doing that at all.
00:58They were really aggressive in the opening exchanges.
01:01And this was something that jumped out to me about the opening exchanges because when
01:04a lot of teams, especially those that defend in a 4-4-2, play against Man City, what they
01:08look to try and do is stop the service into him with the two forwards.
01:12Basically, they'll sit off, they'll allow the centre-backs and the goalie as much time
01:15on the ball as they want and their priority is to stop this pass coming into Rodri either
01:19by closing down or just shutting off the passing lane and force City out wide.
01:23But Arsenal, as you can see here, were way, way more ambitious than that.
01:27Both Trossard and Havertz jumped immediately up to the two centre-backs and then Declan
01:31Rice would jump ahead and go and sit on Rodri.
01:34And that is genuinely quite a brave thing to do against Man City because presuming you're
01:38going to be 1v1 in both the full-back areas and you're not going to leave Haaland one-on-one
01:43with a single centre-back, that then leaves City with, in this case, Bernardo Silva and
01:47Gundogan basically between Thomas Partey.
01:50But the logic to this is if you can shut off all these short passing options then it tempts
01:55Man City to go long into whichever of these two players is free and then, when that ball
02:00does go into the air, you have the centre-back step up who will dominate a Bernardo Silva
02:05or a Gundogan aerially.
02:07But City did not take this bait, instead they found another way around Arsenal and that's
02:10what leads to the opening goal.
02:12Now Manchester City work the ball from left to right and Kyle Walker plays a short pass
02:16into Savino whose back is to goal.
02:18Now Ricardo Calafiore doesn't actually make a terrible decision here necessarily because
02:22what he's trying to do is get right up against him, stop him turning and force that ball
02:26backwards into the centre.
02:27But the problem is that Savino is really good.
02:31Now he takes a brilliant touch which not only takes him away from Calafiore but takes Calafiore
02:35out of the game entirely so now Arsenal have this enormous sort of hole in their left-back
02:41area.
02:42And what's key here is the run of Bernardo Silva because he moves into that area straight
02:45away and even though he's being tracked by Thomas Partey he still gives Gabriel a snap
02:50decision to make.
02:51And that decision is, well I better get out there because that's a dangerous player in
02:55space.
02:56And you can see straight away in one touch of the ball Manchester City have gone from
02:59this situation where Arsenal are perfectly set and perfectly safe to this situation where
03:04they're now facing the right way and they've created two really dangerous gaps.
03:09Now we've got absolutely loads to talk about in this video so I'm not going to get too
03:12bogged down in any one goal but I will say I thought this was interesting.
03:16If you look at William Saliba when this foot race back to the goal begins and we draw a
03:21line of sort of where he is on the pitch, right, because Gabriel feels he has to go
03:25across into this space he then has to come across with him to make sure there's not a
03:29big gap there for Haaland but he just has a look and he sees Gundogan is now in loads
03:35of space.
03:36And it puts Saliba in just a really awful position because he knows he has to make that
03:39sprint back but he can't ignore the fact Gundogan is there so go back to that line he was on
03:44when the sprint begins, right, if Gundogan is not there he can just run in a straight
03:48line back to that goal and when Haaland receives it he would be here.
03:52But because he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't he makes his run away from that
03:57line to try and cover the space for Gundogan so he ends up here.
04:01And you could very easily look at that and go oh so it's a mistake from Calafiore which
04:05leads to a mistake from Gabriel which leads to a mistake from Saliba but I don't actually
04:09think it's any of that I just think Manchester City expertly manoeuvre them into positions
04:14where it's harder for them to defend and then the turn and the pass and the finish are all
04:18just of the highest quality.
04:20Basically they can just do that to you.
04:23Now I know why some of you have clicked on this video and yes we will be discussing the
04:27refereeing decisions at the end but right now we're just sort of looking at the tactics
04:31and stuff because that's what kind of channel this is.
04:34Arsenal have a free kick and Man City are not set.
04:37Now we can argue until we're blue in the face about whether Michael Oliver gave Kyle Walker
04:41sufficient time to get back into position and he certainly is in position but that's
04:46not necessarily the same thing as being set and ready to go and also Arsenal have successfully
04:51moved that free kick considerably up the pitch.
04:54They have a great situation to take advantage of and they take advantage of it.
04:58Now the goal happens because it's a fantastic strike of the ball from Ricardo Calafiore
05:03but the chance happens because with it being taken quickly, Rodri being off the pitch and
05:07them not really being set, Man City panic.
05:11Technically it's a good reaction on their part because so many players then burst along
05:15to get back in position and stop this chance developing but they do it way too much.
05:21So when this ball comes back to Calafiore, every single player bar Harland has sprinted
05:27into their own 18-yard box when there's only a handful of Arsenal players there.
05:32Or to put that another way, the ball over the top gives them a bit of a fright and they
05:36massively overcompensate as a result which is really, really unlike City.
05:41Can you imagine being Ricardo Calafiore and your first goal in the Premier League is not
05:45only against Man City at the Etihad but it's somehow more conventionally attractive than
05:50you are?
05:51Right, so that was good.
05:52We all thought we were at least going to get a game out of this even though City are probably
05:55going to dominate and score next but no!
05:57The Arsenal magic set-piece routine bears more fruit.
06:01Now a couple of things on this one, right?
06:03First of all, how do you get done on the exact same set-piece routine you've just survived
06:09minutes prior but also more importantly than that, Kyle Walker, what are you doing?
06:16I've watched that like 10 times now and for the life of me, not a clue.
06:21Now I think we will at some point do a dedicated video on how Arsenal are structuring their
06:26set-pieces at the minute because they're so inventive and so effective but I'll give you
06:30the cliff notes of this one.
06:32Now I presume Arsenal have looked at how Man City specifically defend set-pieces and know
06:36they massively overload the front post here.
06:39Like you can see they've got one, two, three, four, five, six players, all of them decent
06:44headers of the ball in an area where there isn't a single Arsenal player to challenge.
06:48Like I presume the logic behind this is that a lot of corners don't beat the first man
06:51so what you try and do is force the opposition to go for the back post and thus probably
06:56hit it long or put it into an area where the goalkeeper can go and get it but you don't
07:00need six players to do that.
07:03You literally just need one.
07:04And so it's left entirely to Bernardo Silva and Vardial to mark Havertz, Calafiore, Partey,
07:12Martinelli, Saliba's there.
07:14All of them big, big, big, big lads.
07:16But the reason this set-piece works is not because Arsenal have targeted a specific area,
07:21it's the roles of the players within that area.
07:24See as the ball comes in a group of them immediately rush into the six-yard box to completely
07:29crowd that area.
07:30I've seen quite a few people saying well is that not foul on the goalkeeper blocking
07:34him off and no, blocking at set-pieces is absolutely fine.
07:39Holding, grabbing, pulling, yes they are all fouls but that's not what is going on here.
07:43You are allowed to just pick a spot and stand in it.
07:46And the key thing to note is that when this ball goes in you've got all these players
07:49here but Arsenal's two best headers of the ball in my opinion, Kai Havertz and Gabriel
07:55are not in that area.
07:57They are both now, having given Kyle Walker the slip, running towards this back post area
08:02and what will these two chaps have as a result of running that all the lads just standing
08:08here will not?
08:09That's right, you win the prize.
08:10It's a better leap.
08:12Which of course Gabriel gets.
08:13Nobody in this just mess of bodies can really get off the ground and that is a brilliantly
08:18executed set-piece.
08:20And then we get to the red card and the entire complexion of the game shifts entirely.
08:25But again we will be talking about the officiating at the end of the video.
08:30This is the impact it had tactically.
08:32Now conventional logic will tell you that if you have a man sent off and a lead to protect
08:36and you're away from home with a very good team what you want to do is go to two nice
08:40neat banks of four, congest the middle of the pitch and leave somebody up the other
08:44end of the pitch as a bit of an outlet.
08:46Either someone who's quick and can chase after balls or someone who's big and strong and
08:49can win long balls.
08:50But Mikel Arteta says nah, bump that.
08:54We're going to go to a back six.
08:55He substituted Bukayo Saka for Ben White and gave himself just four really big centre-backs
09:00all in the centre-back area.
09:02Durian Timber who is a full-back but also can play a centre-back, he went in at right
09:06back and Martinelli, he went in at left back.
09:09Thomas Partey went and sat in front of the back six and was actually even drawn in there
09:15himself to give them a back seven at times.
09:17That is a thing that genuinely happened and I got to see with my eyes.
09:20While Rice and Havertz just applied a bit of pressure to the ball.
09:24Like genuinely this is one of the most astonishing visuals I have ever seen and at this point
09:28of the game there are still like 35 minutes left.
09:32I really wanted to show you the Arsenal average positions graph for the second half but all
09:36I could find was the full 90 minutes but just bear with me right.
09:39These are Arsenal's average positions across the whole 90 minutes but bear in mind that
09:43is 45 minutes of adventure and high pressing and 45 minutes of sitting in your own six
09:48yard box so it's an average.
09:50But do you know who played the entire second 45 and none of the first?
09:55Ben White.
09:56And where is he on the average positions graph?
10:00He is inside his own box.
10:02And given that Arsenal had a very disciplined, very structured back line, Ben White certainly
10:06wasn't acting of his own accord or going rogue, it probably looks a bit more like this.
10:13And literally all I've done here is just pull everybody back to where Ben White's line is
10:17and that is wow.
10:21Now the logic here is actually incredibly simple even if it's something you just simply
10:25never see because if Arsenal had a back four instead of this back six then the obvious
10:29thing for Man City to do is to move the ball out of the flanks, try and drag a defender
10:34out of position and then somebody can get into that sort of half space and it's actually
10:37what they did for their opening goal in the first half.
10:41But of course if you've got a back six you kind of close off those wide areas anyway
10:46and in fact of all the graphs I've seen during the rounds since that game it's these two
10:50that are probably the most pronounced right.
10:52These are Arsenal's completed passes in the second half all like bloody five or six of
10:58them and these mamma mia are Manchester City's.
11:03This is genuinely just the second 45 there are hundreds of them here all directly outside
11:09of Arsenal's box but what if you just sort of look at it in real detail it tells you
11:14is that they were kind of out of ideas very quickly but if you think about the fact there's
11:19absolutely hundreds of them here and also were defending on the edge of their own 18
11:23yard box you would expect there to be quite a few that get in behind right in the corners
11:29because ultimately that's the way you beat a really low block you need to get one-on-one
11:33situations where the numbers in that area don't tell quite as much and you need somebody
11:37to display a bit of ingenuity or a bit of brilliance to take a defender out of the game
11:42and give you some kind of advantage somewhere.
11:44And the way that almost always normally manifests right is that a wide player is able either
11:49through individual dribbling or getting played in gets in behind which forces his defender
11:54to drop even deeper and then all of a sudden either the entire rest of the defence has
11:59to drop onto that line or all your players in the box cease to be offside.
12:03And here's two things that I think are even more telling right these are all of Manchester
12:06City's crosses in that second half and the things to note is that they did get into good
12:11positions on this side but all of these crosses were cut out and they did get some crosses
12:15in from this side but they're all from really deep they never once got in behind.
12:20To really break down a low block you need players to win those individual one-on-ones
12:26either going past somebody with trickery or with speed opening things up through your
12:30own ability and that is the only time Manchester City did it in that entire second half.
12:37And we will come back to it but that is Jack Grealish in the 97th minute going past a player
12:43and winning the corner that the goal comes from.
12:46And up until that happened I genuinely did not think for a second Man City were going
12:50to get that goal because when you are defending with 10 you have to make certain decisions
12:55you have to prioritise what it is you're going to focus on.
12:57And because Arsenal have this back six sometimes seven only when you left them with Havert and
13:02Rice capable of closing down what was happening on the edge of the box and clearly the
13:06decision they made was of all the things we've got to worry about defending here
13:11we'll sort of let them have it in this area.
13:14Like it's a pretty big gamble that they were basically just saying like if you can get
13:18the ball to Walker or Diaz or Kovacic 30, 35 yards out and they want to have a shot
13:23crack on we don't think that's where you're going to score from but to get these results
13:27you do have to make these gambles.
13:29What I found genuinely bizarre was this space was available to Manchester City almost
13:34constantly in that second half but it took Pep ages to bring Phil Foden on.
13:39Like given that Kevin De Bruyne wasn't there Foden is their next best chance of getting
13:42a long range goal he's got a great strike on him but not only did he come on late when
13:46he came on he didn't even find that space.
13:49Like these are all of Phil Foden's touches of the ball after his introduction like when
13:53he came on he was just another body in the middle of this really deep Arsenal block.
13:58Like just for comparison these are all Diaz and Kovacic's touches in that same amount
14:03of time like these are two players who were reluctant to shoot and still found themselves
14:07in that position so many times and let go with six attempts.
14:10Like if Foden had swapped with either one of these players I think that shot volume
14:14probably doubles and the quality of them is significantly better.
14:18And it may well be the case that Pep thought that as this went on Arsenal wouldn't have
14:22sort of the mental energy or the physical energy to do this for the entire second half
14:26but they did like they were a minute away from what I genuinely think would be regarded
14:32as the greatest defensive display in Premier League history but just the concentration
14:38went in the last minute.
14:40This might be a really really harsh way of looking at it and I can absolutely understand
14:44by this point you just not being switched on but when this short corner is taken
14:49Arsenal are set perfectly for it.
14:52Even though City have kind of worked a situation down the side they've got the numbers in the
14:55box that if that cross comes in they're almost certainly going to win it and if it is pulled
14:59back to the edge of the box they've got bodies who can close that down but for some reason
15:05Thomas Partey decides he needs to move towards the near post.
15:09Like Grealish is in a dangerous position but two players have gone and closed that down.
15:13Thomas Partey's job isn't easy but it's to make sure that if the ball does get rolled
15:18across to either Gundogan or Kovacic he's able to throw himself at it and instead he
15:24just gets attracted to the ball.
15:26And thus when it is rolled out he's in no position whatsoever to get a block on that
15:31shot it bounces around it ricochets it drops to John Stones.
15:34It's incredibly fortunate but given the amount of long range efforts they were manufacturing
15:39on the edge of the box this is probably what they were hoping to happen.
15:43If you shoot from this close with that many bodies between you and the goal you're kind
15:48of hoping for a bit of chaos.
15:49And it's really really harsh on Arsenal because I don't think people appreciate just how
15:55hard it is to play football without the ball.
15:59You are constantly moving left to right having to think do I go do I do this do I do that.
16:04It's so much harder than having possession and the possession stats for that half were
16:10absurd.
16:10Like people will say it's hard to play without the ball when a team has like 35% possession.
16:17Arsenal had 12.
16:19Now I do hope that all of that has provided at least a little bit of context for why what
16:24happened in the game happened in the game.
16:26But it's simply impossible to talk about that and not talk about the referee.
16:31I'm sure whatever opinions you have about it you will kindly provide us in the comment
16:36section.
16:36There does seem to be an awful lot of anger about this and people saying he's influenced
16:40the game and the result is entirely down to Michael Oliver.
16:43But I please bear in mind I am neutral in this matter will say this.
16:48I thought he had a bad game but a bad game across the board that was quite consistently
16:54bad for both teams.
16:56And the reason I say that and I'm begging you to go easy on me for this right it's
17:01genuinely just my opinion is the way I would describe what happened in the red card is
17:07pretty much exactly how I would describe Arsenal's equalizer.
17:11And what I mean is I think it is bad refereeing to call a player over and when he's making
17:16his way back blow the whistle when he's clearly not ready and when you've allowed
17:21the other team to get a massive yardage advantage in how the free kick was taken.
17:25But the bigger problem for me is Kyle Walker because he has sufficient time to get back
17:31into position.
17:32He's practically back in position when the kick is taken.
17:35It's just that he's more concerned about what the referee is doing than what Arsenal
17:40are doing.
17:40That's really dumb from Kyle Walker but it springs from a situation that is quite badly
17:45managed by the referee.
17:46And that's how I would describe the Leandro Trossard sending off.
17:50I don't think that needs to be a red card at all.
17:53I think Michael Oliver can give himself a bit more thinking time and just cool it down.
17:58They're going to go in the tunnel in a minute.
17:59You can keep 11 on the pitch.
18:01But also that's so, so dumb by Leandro Trossard.
18:07You are on a yellow card and you've just gone flying into the back of Bernardo Silva
18:12and then immediately whacked the ball away.
18:14And I know some people have said, oh, he was just trying to play in Martinelli.
18:18If you look at that from the actual angles, he's not putting his laces through that into
18:23touch to try and put Martinelli away.
18:24He would absolutely play a better ball.
18:27Even Paul Merson said that, by the way, Arsenal fans, that's not me.
18:30Now the bottom line is he's kicked the ball away and that is a yellow card.
18:34So you've got to send him off.
18:35But such is the time between the whistle going and the kick taking place.
18:39You can, if you want to, and you're the referee, just give him the benefit of the doubt.
18:44So overall, it's idiotic by Leandro Trossard.
18:47If I was an Arsenal fan, I'd be more annoyed at him than the referee.
18:51But it is a situation that stems from bad refereeing.
18:54But likewise, if I am Pep Guardiola, I am way more annoyed at Kyle Walker for switching
18:59off and trying to argue with the ref rather than reacting and getting back into position.
19:03But it's a situation that stems from bad refereeing.
19:07And just on the other two things that everyone seems to be arguing about.
19:10No, I don't think Arsenal are fouling Edison for either of those corners.
19:13I think you're allowed to do that.
19:14And no, I don't think the Jeremy Doku thing is a yellow card because Mark Klattenberg
19:18is clearly pointing to the area of the pitch it's supposed to be taken from.
19:22And that's where Doku kicks the ball back to.
19:24Does he deliberately stop the taking of a free kick?
19:27Yes, he does.
19:28But the free kick wasn't going to be taken from there.
19:30The ball had to move back there.
19:32So if anything, he would have wasted more time if he just left it.
19:36I don't think that's a yellow card.
19:37But I know, I know the rules of the internet.
19:39I'm actually supposed to just be here with a hysterical, bad faith opinion
19:43I've made up purely to wind up people.
19:44So we'll share the video around and attention in the process.
19:47But it's a tactics channel.
19:50This, it's not, it's not one where I like to show my arse.
19:53And while I have no doubt that you will have opinions about the officiating
19:56and the refereeing and the major decisions and how they influence the game.
19:59I welcome all those comments below.
20:01It would be really nice as a special treat for everyone.
20:04If we could have a fairly sane discussion about it,
20:06rather than crying conspiracy or calling each other bell whiffs.
20:10But we'll see what we get.
20:11But regardless, if you have enjoyed this video, this is what we do here on 442.
20:14So please do subscribe to us by clicking the button below.
20:17My God, it's just this close to 600,000 subscribers.
20:21I can smell it.
20:22It tastes absolutely delicious for me.
20:23And I would dearly love to hit it sooner rather than later.
20:27That's what she said.
20:28You'd also get me on all the social medias at Adam Cleary.
20:31C-L-E-R-Y.
20:32Can't believe I did that.
20:32The 442 socials are in the corner of the video.
20:36That was the most bonkers game.
20:38And we don't say bonkers enough in this country anymore.
20:40Bonkers game I've seen in a very long while.
20:43I'm away for a lie down.
20:44This video is probably way too long.
20:47And I'll see you soon.
20:49Bye.
20:50Bye-bye.
20:51Bye-bye-bye-bye.
20:52Bye.
20:52Bye.
21:10Bye.