By Vinay Shankar (Tactical Analyst)
A gritty victory interspersed with moments of quality against Crystal Palace, Arsenal’s bogey side in recent years. Nothing beats a winning start to the season and there were lots of positives to build on.
The starting lineup for this game was pretty much fixed during the preseason friendlies with Tomiyasu and Smith-Rowe not yet up to the required fitness levels. White is a very solid right-back but going up against the trickery of Zaha is a challenge of its own. He dealt with it well for the most part.
Arsenal’s start to the game was a continuation of their pre-season form—a high and aggressive press coupled with overloading the final third in transitions and the chemistry between the players in this period made for some eye-catching football. Things settled after the opening 20 minutes.
Xhaka drifted all over the pitch to exploit the spaces in their midfield and build out from the back much faster. Zinchenko maintained his width when the system was structured, or dropped into the central areas to support Partey when Xhaka began to move freely. The Ukrainian is still settling into this team but he’s always willing to cover the spaces as per the situation, a sign of his positional nous.
While the right side was quiet, the left side saw a lot more movement and interplay focused on getting Martinelli isolated against the full-back. Xhaka’s off-the-ball movement allowed the winger to drift inside to run directly at the defenders, or open up the pitch on the other flank. When Zinchenko stayed out wide, the Brazilian could play as an inside forward to support Jesus. The asymmetric nature of the formation doesn’t help Arsenal out of possession, but the lack of chemistry in the past on the left side has hindered the attacking output. Zinchenko’s versatility could be the key to improving the fluidity on the left for this team to reach the next level.
Once the pressing started to falter, Palace’s centre-backs looked to play the long diagonals behind the full-backs at every opportunity under minimal pressure. Jesus was guilty of pressing Guehi most of the time and this allowed Andersen to really showcase his passing range with the ball. Getting smarter with the press to minimise these situations is the only way to stop the supply. Obviously, expecting all this in the first game of the season is too big of an ask.
After the initial phase, Palace looked to press higher and impose the physical nature of their play to win the midfield duels and second balls. Off-the-ball movement is crucial to breaking the press but too much of it can lead to a lack of passing options for the goalkeeper and centre-backs while playing out from the back and in this stage of the game, the riskier passes played right into Palace’s hands, with the early domination lost.
Initially, Palace focused on isolating Zaha against White but in the second half, Zinchenko faced the brunt of the long balls and struggled to deal with the scrappy nature of the play, especially when isolated against Jordan Ayew. The substitution of Tierney should have perhaps come sooner to defend against the aerial bombardment.
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