Formations and personnel

Arsenal’s starting eleven changed slightly from the side that came from behind to rescue a 3-1 victory at West Ham during the previous matchday. Aubameyang started up top with Mesut Ozil playing behind with Martinelli on the left and Pepe out wide on the right. Torreira sat in the midfield alongside Guendouzi who replaced the injured Xhaka. Kolasinac played at left back in place of the injured Kierney. Soktratis, Chambers, and Meitland Niles completed the backline.

Guardiola meanwhile made a host of changes to the side that lost 2-1 to Manchester United last match day. Benjamin Mendy, his favored but injury prone left back made a rare start. Fernandinho continued his fine cameo at center back alongside the contentious Otamendi and Kyle Walker remained at right back. Gondogan and Rodri shielded the back four. Phil Foden tucked in on the left side, de Bruyne played slightly of Gabriel Jesus down the center and Raheem Sterling hugged the touch line on the right hand side.

A cascade of poor defending

Any potential nuances that could be teased out in the opening minutes were promptly lost when Kevin de Bruyne thumped in a thunderous finish from a clever pull back by Raheem Sterling. Arsenal had started sharply from kickoff with Martinelli foreshadowing the trouble he would cause to Kyle Walker over the course of the match. He took the ball to the goal line and crossed but no Arsenal players were able to get on the end of it.

The sequence of events that led up to de Bruyne’s goal captured the singular theme of the match. His goal was the consequence of two glaring defensive errors by Arsenal’s backline. City regained possession at the top of their box and swiftly passed the ball down field. First, Chambers did not adequately handle the through ball from de Bruyne to Jesus. The gulf in pace between Chambers and Jesus is indeed vast but Chamber’s handling of the through ball is indefensible. Jesus’s run wasn’t particularly clever. Chambers simply had to go in hard, fast and clear the ball into row Z. Instead he opted to keep the play in front of him in order to contain Jesus. Nonetheless Jesus managed to wiggle away and slink a pass back across the face of goal where Kolasinac was also deep in defensive hibernation. He was drawn towards goal and unaware that De Bruyne was laying in wait over the outside shoulder. By the time he turned De Bruyne was winding up to rifle in a fine finish into the top of the net.

Pressing

City employed a simple and consistent pressing scheme that reaped dividends. Whenever either of Arsenal’s centre backs had possession Jesus would apply pressure forcing a pass to the fullback. City’s outside midfielder would apply pressure and De Bruyne would prevent any midfielder from becoming an outlet. This would effectively pin Arsenal into the area immediately outside of their penalty area. Arsenal’s back six displayed a puzzling inability to consistently play themselves out of this predicament. I’ve previously argued against fielding both Torreira and Guendouzi simultaneously in midfield specifically because of this ensuing shortcoming. The center backs were often forced to simply hoof the ball upfield after receiving the ball back from Leno.

Arsenal did find sporadic success playing out from the back through two avenues:

1.) Progressing the ball down the flanks through interchanges between the fullback and the winger.

The manner in which this was done differed slightly between the two flanks. Phil Foden was exceptionally attentive in his defensive duties down Arsenal’s right. Consequently Meitland Niles and Pepe were forced to play one two’s in very tight spaces in order to get Pepe free. The major downside to this is that Pepe received the ball very far from goal and in a cramped midfield so he was forced to go down the line as opposed to his preferred tactic of receiving the ball deep in the opposition half and cutting inside onto his favored left foot.

Arsenal were allotted slightly more space down their right side. Kolasinac(or a midfielder) was able to sling direct passes into space in front of Martinelli where he was perfectly situated to drive towards Kyle Walker and force the city backline towards their own goal.

2.) When Mesuit Ozil came deep to offer an extra passing option in the middle of the park.

As he is want to do when he isn’t seeing much of the ball Ozil often dropped deep in pursuit of possession. His retreat from further up pitch wasn’t driven by persistent hounding from City’s midfielders. His back six simply couldn’t advance the ball upfield.The downside to Ozil receiving the ball so deep is that he is very far from goal and unable to play the pinpoint accurate through balls into the final third. Despite this Arsenal desperately needed an additional player in that zone because he provided a consistent outlet from City’s pressing. However, when the ball did get up to one of Arsenal’s front three they were often isolated and were forced to dribble at the Manchester City defense.

Whereas City employed a consistent pressing tactic I wasn’t able to decipher Arsenal’s game plan for whenever City had possession in their final third. In the opening minutes of the first half it looked like Arsenal were employing a medium block in which the holding midfielders positioned just behind the halfway line. The forwards would press but did not did so in coordination. Periodically Arsenal would press high and force the ball back to Ederson. There may have been a trigger for this pressing but I’m unable to tell what it was.

Regardless City proved adept at bypassing this halfhearted press and proved dangerous on the counter attacks. Prior to City’s second goal Pepe lost the ball while attempting a one two with Aubameyang. When City regained possession there was an instance where the City player was surrounded by four Arsenal players. Somehow the ball managed to make its way past them.

The Battle On The Left

Despite nabbing a goal Raheem Sterling had a fairly quiet first half. He wasn’t playing on the left hand side where he has proven very effective cutting inside on his favored right foot so this could also have been a factor. However, let’s not detract from Kolasinac’s strong performance on this aspect of the game. Although he does have a bag of tricks in his locker, Sterlings main offensive weapon is his pace. I’m not saying that he is overly dependant on it in the mold of say Theo Walcott.

But I do believe he does not have as much success when the opposition fullback is capable of matching him for pace. The article “The Romário-fication of Raheem’: how Manchester City transformed Sterling” over at The Guardian provides an excellent glimpse of how City have effectively weaponized his pace to open up plenty of scoring opportunities. Although Kolasinac is affectionately known as the Bosnian Hulk, he is capable of a sizzling turn of pace whenever he goes on the overlap. This also served him well on defense. City were unable to play their trademark one twos that culminate with Sterling receiving the ball deep in the opposition third primarily because Kolasinac can keep up with him and also body him off the ball.

Wolverhampton Wanderers previously benefited from a similar dynamic during their 2 - 0 victory of City back in October. Wolves coach Nuno Espirito Santo utilized the pacy Adama Traore out left as a wingback. He normally plays further forwards as either an outside midfielder or an out and out winger. Likewise in that game Sterling was also fairly quiet on the dribble. This a template that other managers would do well to keep in mind when devising their game plans to counter City. One could make the case that the absence of Leroy Sane, a much trickier player, is handicapping their domestic campaign. Whereas Sterling is particularly adept at taking space in behind the opposition back four, Sane is extremely capable of creating space on the dribble.

Arsenal were looking promising and less shaky down their left but much of this evaporated when Kolasinac had to be withdrawn because of injury. Saka, a left sided attacker came on in his place but Foden and Sterling switched sides around that time.

Conclusion

It wasn’t that Guardiola won the match with clever tactics or that Ljungberg somehow contrived to put out a side utterly incapable of competing. In my opinion this Arsenal side is within touching distance of their best eleven. Of course there’s the obvious forced omission of right back Hector Bellerin through injury and the question of whether Aubameyang and Lacezette should feature together. All that being said, City’s victory should be attributed to extremely shoddy defending on Arsenal’s behalf(in all honesty I’m sick and tired of typing that sentence week after week).

Arsenal looked threatening in bits and patches but City were utterly ruthless in attack(albeit slightly less reassuring on defense) and thus thoroughly deserved their victory. They pressed simply yet effectively when the Arsenal backline were in possession. Arsenal struggled to get the ball out of defense and make the transition from the middle third to the final third.

Arsenal Manchester City English Premier League