Arsenal have played two away games and won twice since the loss to Everton, learning their lessons from that game ahead of the Toffees’ visit to north London in midweek.
Wins over Aston Villa and Leicester offer encouragement that Mikel Arteta’s side have found solutions to problems caused not only by Everton but also by Brentford doubling up on the Gunners’ wide players earlier in the month .
The touch maps below look at our last three away games, but don’t include touches by any of our wingers in those games. Some things jump out at you. Firstly, no one other than Saka held forward positions on the right at Everton, but there was a huge improvement at Villa Park.
Last week I wrote about how working down the right, with an extra man up front and Jorginho passing aggressively, helped Arsenal win at Aston Villa.
This week at Leicester it was all about the change on the left flank in the win over Leicester. In Leicester’s previous game touch map compared to the previous two away games, there’s a collection of box elbow touches, a space that no one other than the nominal winger has had an influence on of late.
Playing Leandro Trossard in the middle instead of Eddie Nketiah certainly helped, as the January signing switched roles with Gabriel Martinelli, but there was also a better balance of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Granit Xhaka on that side of the pitch.
With Nketiah stuck in the middle, Arsenal have looked increasingly rigid, but it’s not just up to the striker to move to the flanks and contribute. Last season, one of the keys to the team reaching their best form was the adapted role of Granit Xhaka and how he, along with Kieran Tierney, offered Emile Smith Rowe (or Martinelli) the opportunity to deviate from the flank by overlapping. This has worked effectively at times this season, but it has been a minor feature of Arsenal’s play until the weekend, when Xhaka continually filled up and found himself in space while Martinelli slid inside.
And Xhaka provided the same balance and movement to the left as Trossard and Martinelli traded positions as well. Anyone coming on from the left forward position, the Swiss was there to exploit them dragging Timothy Castagne into the field with them.
With a little more patience on Martinelli’s part, a lung-busting run from Xhaka to overlap could have given the Brazilian room to cut inside and shoot from a more dangerous position shortly before halftime.
Martinelli goes to his left and closes the angle on himself before Xhaka arrives, but the Swiss clearly planned to continue his run and get around the winger.
And Xhaka wasn’t the only one who played more like this, with Zinchenko also taking the deflected ball more often, using that same run from Martinelli as a trigger to overlap.
And we cannot, of course, ignore Leandro Trossard. Firstly, he slid deep as Arsenal built up, helping the team play from behind even when not given possession.
Take this scene, for example, where he falls deep and attracts the attention of Leicester’s holding midfielder Wilfred Ndidi to his left. Xhaka has dropped into space on the left back and is free, while Martinelli has moved to Trossard’s right.
Xhaka drops back as the ball reaches his side, dragging Leicester right-back Castagne into the pressure, and Trossard takes Ndidi out of midfield with his own move to the left into the space Castagne was prepared to defend. With those players dragged across the field, Martinelli slides into the heart of the field to receive possession into space.
From there, Arsenal could play it safe and speed up the attack. And Trossard dragged Ndidi down in the final third as well, again dropping deep to draw his attention earlier, in this case below, running behind between the defenders. Xhaka has immobilized right-centre Harry Souttar and there is space for Trossard to attack, although Gabriel Martinelli returns the ball…
…before continuing his own run (unopposed as Xhaka has moved further to lure Castagne) into the space Trossard has created at center by taking Ndidi with him.
It’s this kind of collective fluidity that Arsenal have lacked at times against defensive teams led by Nketiah, but that’s not just him. Trossard is more prepared to float a la Gabriel Jesus, but he was able to do it because Xhaka and Zinchenko also filled the gaps, or created them, as the players in front of them drifted more freely than in previous weeks.
With back-to-back wins inspired by increased threat on the right through overlaps and more fluid and collective on the left, Arsenal should feel well-equipped to make Everton a far bigger challenge this week than they were at the start of the month.
