It’s been nearly a full week since we gave Spurs a delightful pasting in the league, and I still haven’t stopped smiling. Yes, even after that experiment with weaponising boredom at Cologne. I spent a fair bit of time before the derby thinking about what Arsenal needed to do to win the game against Spurs, and sagely suggested three things that seemed essential for us to win. It is with great pleasure that I got one of them absolutely, completely, jaw-droppingly wrong, and that even the others didn’t prove entirely necessary, though the underlying issues were addressed in the event by the way we set up.
But let’s start with the one I got quite perfectly wrong – the need to drop Ozil. I was firmly of the view that the German wouldn’t be able to handle the physicality that this game would come with – Spurs press high in a manner that somehow allows them to commit grievous bodily harm without ever getting called for it or booked – and that he wouldn’t be able to influence the game in any meaningful way. He only then went and put in a man of the match performance, of course, assisting Mustafi’s opener with a perfectly placed free-kick from the left, creating 4 other chances, dictating play, and even making 2 tackles and a clearance. He left the field to a standing ovation towards the end of the game that was as well-deserved as it gets.
Let’s get this absolutely straight – this was a game that Ozil approached with incredible determination to influence and dominate. The performance was his, and the plaudits should go to him for it, for helping ensure we were able to secure a crucial win in the battle for the Champions League spots, and almost as importantly, bragging rights. But what was worth noting about how great a game Ozil had, was how the whole team played on the day, and how well everyone performed their roles. That this should get the best out of Ozil, and Sanchez for that matter, is no coincidence.
One of the reasons why the 3-4-2-1 worked so well for us at the back end of last season, and in the FA Cup final, was that Ozil and Sanchez were able to thrive in free roles, creating chances for each other and the no.9 at will. Sanchez would lead the press at the front, knowing the left wing was being covered, while Ozil was free to drift into a no. 10 position, or even deeper if necessary, knowing that the wing-back would push up on the right, and he would have options in the middle of the park to interchange passes with. For this to work, however, the central midfielders needed to take up good positions, the right wing-back needed to bomb up and down the flank, and the whole team needed to follow Alexis’ press. This gave Ozil in particular the platform he needed since he wasn’t having to hare off to track back on the wing, and he wasn’t an obvious target in the middle of the park for opposition midfielders to man-mark and defenders to buffet around.
In too many games this season, everyone else has been forgetting their roles, which has meant that Ozil and Sanchez have both looked well off the pace. But on Saturday, up against a Spurs side that everyone was gushing over, every single player wearing the red and white performed their roles to perfection and gave it their all. There’s been a lot of well-deserved praise for the back 3, where Mustafi returned as the middle centre-back and had a barnstorming game. The team had started to look really good a few weeks ago when the German moved to this position, with his aggressive tackling game complemented by the quick movement and thinking of Koscielny and Monreal on either side, but he obviously ended up injured, and the backline became destabilised once again.
The benefits of this particular defensive configuration were evident for much of the game, barring one mixup between Koscielny and him which presented Kane with an opportunity. Apart from that, the benefit of playing the quicker defenders on the sides was in full evidence, with Monreal racking up 5 interceptions, and Koscielny making 3 (along with 11 clearances), which helped prevent Kane or Alli, playing in the advanced roles for Tottenham, from getting any particularly dangerous service. Mustafi won 3 aerial duels, made 14 clearances, and threw himself brilliantly in the way of a Harry Kane shot that would have certainly troubled Petr Cech if not beaten him outright. Those are incredible stats for a defensive unit, and they achieved them with aplomb. Yes, there is still room for improvement – the chance that Dier had towards the end of the game that Cech clawed away like some arachnidesque superhero should ideally never have arisen – but they generally looked comfortable, didn’t panic even when Spurs put pressure on them, and leveraged their strengths perfectly.
Ahead of them, we saw solid performances by both Bellerin and Kolasinac, offensively and defensively, and Granit Xhaka didn’t do anything stupid. With the way Spurs have at times played this season, however, that wouldn’t necessarily have been enough. When they lined up three in midfield, including Christian Eriksen fresh from his heroics for Denmark, I have to admit I thought they would run rings around us in the middle of the park. For precisely this reason, I had suggested last week that we needed to play 3 in midfield, bringing Jack Wilshere to act as a schemer and tackler sitting deep. This fear, however, proved happily wrong, as Aaron Ramsey put in a central midfield masterclass that ensured our backline was not badly exposed and that instead we were able to win the ball in good positions to press an attack. Ramsey made 5 successful tackles, some in deeper defensive positions and a couple near the centre circle, and also made 2 interceptions near the halfway line, which are great stats especially for a midfielder not looking to play as a destroyer. But then again, as I’ve mentioned before, when Ramsey gets his central midfield game right, like he did in 2013-14, he isn’t just about scoring goals, he is very very good at the defensive side of things as well.
And he was superb on Saturday, making a good number of passes, making all those interceptions and tackles, and creating 1 goal-scoring opportunity – because his positioning was spot on. He sat in central midfield a little ahead of Xhaka, but didn’t wander off onto the wings, didn’t allow himself to get caught upfield, and looked to play the sensible passes to his central midfield partner or wing-backs, or to Ozil when he dropped deep. There was none of that decoy central midfielder nonsense that Wenger seems to instruct him or Coquelin to do, and it proved the perfect platform for Ozil and Sanchez to strut their stuff.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team selection certainly didn’t help his team’s case in this regard. A midfield 3 technically outnumbered Arsenal’s, but he failed to make this count by selecting Moussa Sissoko and Moussa Dembele to play alongside the in-form Eriksen. While both of them had the physical attributes to dominate Xhaka and Ramsey, they don’t quite have the craft and guile required to run the show in midfield, as Silva and De Bruyne did the previous week. This meant that even when Arsenal ceded possession to Spurs, the latter’s midfield could be stopped from creating chances merely by maintaining positional discipline, without the danger of a clever pass or intelligent movement to unlock the defence. It was quite surprising that Harry Winks was also left on the bench – after coming on, he made their midfield look much better, though by then we were already 2 up and the defenders had settled into a comfortable rhythm.
All of this ensured that Ozil had time on the ball, and was able to control and influence play without fear of having the ball taken off him before he could do something with it. The same went for Sanchez as well, who created 3 chances and took 4 shots (including the second goal). Sanchez also was able to start the press from the front, without having to worry about making tackles at the back, and did so with relish. I said last week that Davinson Sanchez would be a good person to target with the press, and Alexis certainly seemed to have instructions to target the former Ajax man, whether pressing him when he had the ball, or running at him when we had it. Our Sanchez got the better of theirs several times, including drawing the free kick from which we scored our first, and later getting two chances to increase the margin of victory but for superb saves by Hugo Lloris.
All in all, a complete performance – let’s also not forget Lacazette, who linked well with Alexis and Ozil and roamed across the front line, using his great movement to create opportunities for the rest of the team, and who created the second with a great run in behind the defence and a sure pass to the Chilean.
As for Cologne, the less said the better. The game was a complete snooze fest – sterile domination by us for most of the game, a sucker punch goal from a dodgy penalty, and a failure to capitalise on two excellent dribbles at the end of the game, one by Reiss Nelson who we really need to see more of, and the other by Jack Wilshere. The loss doesn’t really matter – we’re still guaranteed top spot in the group, but it would have been nice to see more endeavour by the players on the pitch, many of whom need to be trying to force their way into Wenger’s plans for the first team. Wilshere is obviously one of those players, and also someone we could really benefit from having back up to speed and playing at his best, as is Olivier Giroud. Still, it was good to see Calum Chambers back as he could prove useful cover for the right centre-back and wing-back positions, and Danny Welbeck will certainly have a part to play as the season goes on.
The only thing the Cologne game did show, from a tactical point of view, was that the B-team are not suited to playing a 3-4-2-1. Wenger should therefore ensure that they are better trained in switching to a back 4 and playing differently – because when they are called into action (and they will be when injuries strike), whether in the League Cup, FA Cup or Europa League, they need to be able to play better, as they will be facing better opposition then than they have faced thus far on Thursday nights.
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