This season, Arsenal have been accused of being boring, of having little more to offer beyond set-piece brilliance and of lacking much of an edge in open play.
Their victory at the weekend did little to sway the naysayers, either: Arsenal netted their first via a corner, and with Burnley looking resolute, a 2-0 scoreline hardly lifted anyone off their seats.
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Arsenal have made a tactical tweak with their build-up that is reaping rewards in attack
Riccardo Calafiori helps vary Arsenal’s build-up (Image credit: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Arteta is often criticised for playing two centre-backs at full-back, in Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori. Of course, they don’t actually function as centre-backs: though both have played there for their respective countries, the pair have license to roam in the final third and contribute massively to Arsenal’s attack.
By fielding full-backs who are capable of playing centre-back, though, the Gunners not only have a defensive base strong enough to platform their attack, they have two players who can build up in a back three. Arsenal play out in a kind of 3-2-2-3 formation – and both Timber and Calafiori are equally adept at receiving and playing forward in this first line.
As noted last year in Arsenal’s 2-0 home win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, however, Arteta wants a teams of ‘generalists’: like Pep Guardiola, he wants as many players capable of playing in differing roles, so that whatever formation or system he’s playing, his players can adapt.
This doesn’t just mean that he likes versatile players. Take Calafiori, for example: he can play as a defensive full-back man-marking his winger, he can invert into midfield, he can pop up as a no.10, or he can overlap his left-winger: in all of these roles, he’s still a left-back… he’s just playing different kinds of left-backs.
Arteta wants his players to interchange positionally during games, with build-up a particular area of fluidity – and this season, Martin Zubimendi has even dropped into the first line of build-up to assist Saliba and Gabriel.
By doing this, the Basque no.6 draws a midfielder closer to the Arsenal box and leaves more space for the other two Gunners midfielders in Arteta’s 4-3-3.
Yet against Burnley, it was Rice dropping into the first line more: this isn’t unusual for this season, but it was significant in Arsenal looking more threatening in the first half.
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Declan Rice vacating the midfield helped Arsenal against a dreaded mid-block
Arteta demands positional fluidity (Image credit: HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
Arsenal can play against physical teams, and they can play against teams offering more technical quality. They can play against high lines and their record against both those at the top and the bottom has been astounding for a while.
But it’s those midtable sides like Fulham, Bournemouth and Brighton who caused the most problems for Arteta’s side last term when they played in a resolute mid- to low-block.
The reason is somewhat tactical, exacerbated by the personnel picked by Arteta. Arsenal’s best passers – Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Ethan Nwaneri – were often stacked on the right last term… with low-touch runners like Rice, Gabriel Martinelli or Mikel Merino on the left of the pitch.
Declan Rice dictates play from the centre of a back three for Arsenal (Image credit: Arsenal.com)
Arteta doesn’t want his midfield to be quite so rigid. Odegaard has done some of his best work when he’s had the freedom to float into the left half-space, while Rice is best when he covers every blade of grass.
On Saturday, Arsenal lined up with Zubimendi in the no.6 role, Rice to the left of him, and Eberechi Eze to the right – but they didn’t stay that way, with Zubimendi adding another degree of positional fluidity.
Rice dropping into the first line of the build-up allowed Eze to drift to the left, with Zubmendi to the right. With Burnley sitting off and Arsenal dictating play, they had two more incisive passers in Eze and Zubimendi in more dangerous areas ahead of Rice – who is the weakest of the three when receiving the ball between the lines.
Rice’s heat map
Image credit: Sofascore
Zubmendi’s heat map
Image credit: Sofascore
Eze’s heat map
Image credit: Sofascore
The heat maps of all three show quite how positionally flexible the Arsenal midfield really was, with Rice receiving the ball deeper than Zubmendi or Eze, before taking on a more box-to-box role in the second half when the home side gained more possession a little more.
Arteta even dropped Zubmendi against West Ham United in a sign that he was prepared to give Eze and Odegaard the creative keys – but this weekend was the clearest indication that the Gunners are looking to double down on their own ideals in a bid to find new ways to win.
Tactics are highly dependent on the players carrying out instructions. But with Arsenal’s squad now rich in multifaceted players capable of performing multiple roles within a game, Arteta’s finding ways to solve problems as they arise in ways that he couldn’t last season.
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