Adrian Clarke believes Mikel Arteta must use a slightly unusual tactic for Arsenal to beat Manchester City on Sunday.
The Gunners are in high spirits after defeating Nottingham Forest and Athletic Club in their last two games, and will be hopeful of securing a third straight league win at the Emirates against City.
Arsenal thrashed Pep Guardiola’s team 5-1 back in February, and although Sunday’s clash will be significantly more difficult, the North Londoners will be confident.
City have secured two impressive results themselves since the international break, beating Manchester United and Napoli convincingly over the last six days.
Adrian Clarke says Arsenal need to ‘go direct’ against Manchester City
Arsenal will be without Kai Havertz for this game, as he continues to recover from a knee injury.
The German has been something of an aerial focal point for the Gunners in recent seasons, with his size and ability to win aerial duels allowing David Raya to go long to him regularly.
Viktor Gyokeres has taken Havertz’s place in the team, and the Swede simply isn’t as effective in the air, so Arsenal have subsequently stopped playing as directly as they usually do.
Instead, Arteta’s team have focused more on playing short passes on the ground, between the lines.
Speaking on his YouTube channel ahead of Sunday’s showdown in N5, Clarke urged Arsenal to ‘go direct’ at times against City, because of Guardiola’s team’s press.
“I also think that Arsenal should look to go direct at times in the game,” Clarke said.
“City do press a bit more and they press better. Pep Lijnders, the former assistant to Jurgen Klopp, is the new number two at City and he’s definitely improved them.
“They’ve got more athletic players, they’ve got younger players, but they’re better at pressing now than they were last year, when they really backed off of it, actually.
“So they, you know, they might have a highish line at times and we know that City have had problems with longer balls in the past against us as well.
“So let’s not disappoint them. Can [Riccardo] Calafiori go over the top to Gyokeres or [Eberechi] Eze, like he did for those goals recently at Emirates Stadium? It’s a pass he can play, and they’re runs that our guys can make, and they can really hurt them.”
Mikel Merino has to play for Arsenal to go direct
Mikel Merino ought to start for Arsenal if they are going to evade City’s press by going long.
Not only does the Spaniard’s presence allow the Gunners to physically dominate City in the middle of the park, but he will also enable them to play Clarke’s aforementioned preferred style.
Gyokeres won’t win the long balls if Raya and the defenders opt for this route out. Arsenal would simply be giving up possession by trying to play direct to the 27-year-old.
Meanwhile, Merino is exceptional at winning the ball in the air, while he’s an outstanding out-ball in terms of trapping the ball on his chest and bringing others into play.
Merino is, in essence, the Havertz replacement while the former Chelsea man is unavailable.
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