By Vinay Shankar (Tactical Analyst)
A pivotal game of small margins as a poor second half was clinically punished by the defending champions.
Ben White’s recent performances have not been up to the high standards he’s played at this season and Tomiyasu had to be brought in in such a crucial game to mark Grealish.
In the cup game, Arteta went for a man-to-man approach without the ball to counter this City side and Holding was on the edge while dealing with Haaland. Saliba has the mixture of physical and speed to cope with Haaland in 1v1 situations much better and while the pressing wasn’t as aggressive as last time, the centre-backs were trusted to deal with the Norwegian the same way.
City was playing an unusual 3-4-2-1 formation with Silva as a wing-back and Arsenal prevented City from playing short as much as possible. The likes of Ederson and Walker were forced into blind alleys and played the long ball as the way out, which is unlike Pep’s style. One of their biggest threats, Mahrez, was isolated and City was second-best in the first half except for Tomiyasu’s mistake.
City looked unsure how to press in this new setup and Martinelli tucked in as a second striker to drag Walker in and leave Zinchenko in space on that side. Arsenal was not always quick enough to do this consistently and added to that, the good buildup did not have an end product to show for it. In big games, that's the biggest difference maker.
The start of the second half ended up setting the tempo that decided the game. Arsenal was incredibly sloppy with their passing and City changed their setup to overload the midfield. Jorginho was busy dealing with Gundogan and De Bruyne’s runs and mistakes made the team look very vulnerable. Suddenly, playing out from the back resulted in turnovers and forced more players toward their goal for support. Zinchenko and Xhaka dropped very deep to help and this prevented a way out beyond City’s press.
The buildup play was very rushed and the general patterns were not visible for most of the half. It could be a case of getting caught in the atmosphere but the pressing was slow and the mistakes with the ball would be punished by a top side like City. A case of superior quality on that day would not have hurt as much but rudimentary mistakes gift-wrapped to quality players is a much worse feeling.
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