By Vinay Shankar (Tactical Analyst)
A tactical masterclass from the visiting side shut down Arsenal completely and extinguished any semblance of a league title this season.
Brighton was a tricky opposition in the reverse fixture and after their humiliating loss to Everton in midweek, they would be looking to bounce back. Similar to Manchester City’s approach at the Etihad, Brighton opted for a man-to-man approach in the press and suffocated all passing avenues centrally and in the wide areas.
In the first half, Arsenal was happy to press high against Brighton to force turnovers in dangerous areas and forced Brighton to play incredibly high-risk passes under pressure. Jorginho man-marked MacAllister in the press and the centre-backs pushed up to win the ball and this left the fullbacks as the deepest players in 1-v-1 situations. This setup does play into the hands of Brighton and their style and Arsenal nearly generated turnovers around their box to justify the risk-reward approach.
Both teams were pretty much cancelling each other out in the first half and Arsenal’s build-up play was non-existent for most of it. Brighton resorted to being too physical and committed numerous fouls to prevent any sort of continuity. Tierney has usually played the inverted role in Zinchenko’s absence but resorted to the conventional role and hardly saw the ball.
The second half was a different story. The man-to-man approach ended up backfiring as Brighton started winning their duels all over the pitch consistently and seemed to always have an extra man to dominate. Arsenal did not track their runners consistently and made a lot of mistakes that cannot happen in such a risky approach.
This game was all about the details and Brighton made their opportunities count clinically for an emphatic scoreline and Arsenal are forced to rue their mistakes at home this season.
Comentarios