Formations and personnel

Leicester came out in their preferred 4-2-3-1 formation. The backline consisted of Ricardo, Johnny Evans, the mercurial Soyuncu, and the ever marauding Chillwell. Ndidi and Tielemans were the midfield pivots with Tielemans operating slightly more upfield. Perez on the left, Maddison down the middle and Barnes on the left. Jamie Vardy led the line.

Under fire Unai Emery, still unsure of what his best 11 elected to set his side up in a 3-4-1-2 that flexed into a 3-4-3 when out of posession. Holding and Chambers operated to either side of a deeper lying David Luiz. Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira sat in front with Kolasinac and Bellerin working the flanks as wing backs. Mesuit Ozil operated just behind a front two of Aubameyang and Lacazette.

A lesson in history

In the rock-paper-scissors world that is football tactics conventional wisdom states that a 4-2-3-1 is superior to a 3-4-3 or any of its variants. To better understand this lets explore circumstances in which systems with 3 at the back prove advantageous. 3 at the back came around at a time when 4-4-2 was the pinnacle of football tactics. It was developed to dominate a 4-4-2 in every third of the pitch.

Two centre backs can effectively mark the two forwards leaving a player to spare. You still retain numerical parity in the center of the park in addition to being able to field an additional forward in the attack. Against a 4-2-3-1, 3 at the back systems have none of these advantages and suffer a plethora of other deficiencies.

If your opponent is playing a lone striker you effectively have 3 defenders guarding one player. This may provide a sense of security depending on the cast of characters at hand. Unfortunately, that sense of security will be prove emptier than the nebulous “benefits” of Brexit when you find your team overrun in the middle of the park. Say your opponent opts to field 3 forwards then you have no man to spare and each defender is looking out for themselves. Oh and did I also mention that your opponent probably has an additional midfielder?

Arsenal's defensive shape

Arsenal did have some contingencies in place to alleviate the deficiencies but nonetheless Leciester were able to capitalize. A key question when operating with three at the back is how to respond to the opposition fullbacks pushing up field. Handling this threat requires careful orchestration between the wing backs, central midfielders, and centerbacks. Arsenal only partially answered this question.

When the Leicester center backs had possession Lacazette and Aubameyang would cut off the passing lanes to the fullbacks and Ozil would tail Ndidi to prevent him from turning. This prevented Chillwell and Ricardo from getting the ball near the halfway line. The center backs were forced to give the ball to either Teilemans or Madison who often came deep. That is when things began to unravel for Arsenal.

The forwards simply stopped tracking the fullbacks once the ball entered Arsenal’s final third. Confusion reigned supreme amongst Arsenal’s backline once that pivotal threshold was crossed. When either of Tielemans or Maddison received the ball they could easily find an open player in the no man’s land between Arsenals outside centre backs and wingback. Very often Torerrira or Guendouzi would be dragged out wide to pick up the fullbacks leaving room for a Leicester player to receive the ball in space that they vacated. Leicester dominated the flanks and only their indecisive finishing from late crosses prevented them from going ahead several times in the first half.

Few expansive passes from the Arsenal midfield

Leciester did well pressing their advantage in the midfield. Torreira and Guendouzi were unable to play forward passes to the front three. Having watched Arsenal exhaustively over the past two seasons I can definitively say that Torreira and Guendouzi should not start in the midfield together. They are very similar players with Torreira being slightly better defensively. The main deficiency with playing the two of them is their limited passing range. In the 30th minute Guendouzi had Ozil open for a cross field pass and elected to dribble and was disposed. This scenario was repeated several times over the game, much to Arsenal’s detriment. Being able to spray 30-40 yard passes to an onrushing wing back or forward helps bypass the numerical deficiency in the center of the park. Passes of that kind are what Xhaka’s sweet left foot excels at and Arsenal clearly missed his poise and command in the middle of the park. He may be viewed as somewhat of a pariah by most Arsenal fans. I disagree but alas that is an argument to be made another day.

Luiz as libero

Arsenal began the second half in much more commanding fashion. They were better able to maneuver the ball from the back three to the front three far more consistently. The catalyst for their reinvigorated start was David Luiz. Very often he would be ahead of the outside centerbacks, often operating as an additional midfielder. For the first few minutes of the second half he reminded me of the bygone era of the libero(granted I wasn’t even born then, but any who…). He would win or intercept the ball in the final third and march it upfield with commanding elegance.

Then things very often fell apart. The next pass that Luiz made had to be delivered and received with perfection. When his pass was intercepted or the player that he passed to was disposed he was in no man’s land with Jaime Vardy bearing furiously for the space that he just vacated. In the 77th minute and down by two goals Emery finally realized that he needed an actual midfielder with fewer self defeating tendencies. He opted to revert to a back four by bringing on Dani Ceballos for Rob Holding who looked like he was still striving for match fitness.

Lack of discipline out wide

In the 60th minute Leicester brought on Demarai Gray in place of the quiet Ayoze Perez. He immediately had an impact, bedeviling Arsenal’s left side with his cunning dribbling and all round dynamism. He further compounded Arsenal’s inability to figure out who exactly would pick up Leicesters wide men. Leicester’s well deserved first goal illustrates this perfectly.

At the beginning of the move Ricardo receives the ball from Soyuncu with Lacazette nowhere to be found. At the beginning of the match the forwards persistently blocked off the passing lanes between center back and fullback. As the match wore on they began to err in their duty. Lacazette’s absence forces Kolasinac to step up and close him down. Grey makes a run to the corner and Holding has to follow. Holding’s persistent marking forces Grey to play the ball back to Ricardo. Nonetheless, he is out of position and Ricardo passes the ball to Barnes. Barnes then initiates a one-two pass with Tielemans into the dead space that Holding should have been occupying. Unsurprisingly Vardy slots in the ensuing cross.

Conclusion

Down a goal Arsenal had no choice but to press ahead in search of an equalizer. This rendered them especially vulnerable to Leicester's counter attacking style of football. For their second goal Ndidi won back the ball in the middle of the park, wriggled past a gaggle of Arsenal midfielders and passed the ball to Ricardo who begins the passing sequence that culminates in Maddison’s sublime strike into Leno’s lower right corner.

Arsenal Leicester City English Premier League