By Vinay Shankar (Tactical Analyst)
A comprehensive defeat against a relegation-threatened side with a new manager, a raucous crowd, and an aggressive style.
Except for the game against Leeds, Arsenal’s away performances this season have been nothing short of incredible but none of that mentality was visible against Everton.
Sean Dyche has utilised a standard 4-4-2 setup for a long time and in the space of a few days, has organised Everton in a similar setup with Onana playing as the link between the midfield and Calvert-Lewin. The setup without the ball is very narrow and with the ball, the wide players focus on crossing the ball at every opportunity.
The only way to counter the physical nature of such teams is to win the duels and second balls as consistently as possible to squish out any threat. The combination of Saliba, Gabriel, and Partey did not do this consistently enough and paid the price in the first half. Added to that, poor decisions while playing out from the back encouraged the press and the crowd to make matters worse.
The narrow nature of their setup meant that Saka and Martinelli were always free on either side with the diagonal pass to progress the play. Zinchenko was not afraid to find Saka with these passes but Martinelli was not sought out consistently enough on the other side. The central areas were far too packed to play through the lines easily and the wide areas were the only option to destabilise the low block. Odegaard could not get the ball in the usual areas to influence play until late in the second half when it was desperate times.
Calvert-Lewin was the focal point for the long balls and goal kicks but it was Iwobi’s positions that prevented any control of the game. The ex-Arsenal player’s ability to trap the ball in the wide areas allowed Everton to win the second ball and get out of their half. Crosses and set-pieces were not always dealt with but it was these little details that resulted in such situations.
Zinchenko saw a lot of the ball in front of the low block while chasing the game but the spaces were too large for the Ukranian to showcase his ability to play through the lines. Both Xhaka and Martinelli/Trossard were not on the same wavelength in terms of their rotations to find the spaces and this summed up the overall attacking performance. Nketiah did not seem to do enough in terms of moving around to receive the ball at feet and cut a very isolated figure up front.
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