"We won our last Premier League game
5-2 and we won here 3-0 so in the Premier League we have scored eight goals
against difficult opponents. Overall it was a convincing performance.”- Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal produced their performance of the season so far as
they thumped Manchester United 3-0 to leapfrog their opponents into second
place in the Barclays Premier League. A breath-taking brace from Alexis Sanchez
and a clinical Mesut Ozil finish epitomized the Gunners’ dominance in a
devastating 20-minute blitz that all but sealed the points for Arsene Wenger’s
charges. Arsenal produced their performance of the season so far as they
thumped Manchester United 3-0 to leapfrog their opponents into second place in
the Barclays Premier League. A breath-taking brace from Alexis Sanchez and a
clinical Mesut Ozil finish epitomized the Gunners’ dominance in a devastating
20-minute blitz that all but sealed the points for Arsene Wenger’s charges.
That sounded so good I thought you would love to read that again. You’re
welcome!
Form and history were both in the away side’s favour coming
into this one- United had won four games on the spin, scoring 11, a run which
had seen them rise to the top of the domestic league. Arsenal’s season,
meanwhile, lurched from dizzying heights to tumultuous lows in the space of
four days- the euphoria of a 5-2 win over high-flying Leceister City was
tempered with a 2-3 reverse against Greek champions Olympiacos, a defeat which
left us propping up their Champions League group.
Manchester United were unbeaten in their last four visits to
the Emirates, where they last tasted defeat four and a half years ago; and
Arsenal had only beaten United once in their previous 13 league encounters.
Last season’s corresponding fixture ended 2-1 in United’s favour in what was
their first away win of the season, so we really approached this one with
trepidation and anxiety rather than optimism.
THE LINE-UP:
We reverted to the tried and tested Starting XI following yet
another indifferent showing in Europe, with the inclusion of Gabriel an
enforced change thanks to the hamstring injury that Koscielny picked up in
midweek. Francis Coquelin also came back to marshall the midfield, taking the
place of the now injured Mathieu Flamini. Theo Walcott was given another run at
centre-forward having impressed in recent weeks, with his budding partnership
with Alexis coming to the fore, and the pair were soon to have telling
contributions to proceedings very early on.
THE GOALS:
This segment normally comes after “the set-up”; but with all
three goals coming within the first 20 minutes, what to do eh? The home side
came flying out of the blocks, so relentless was our pressure that United took
four minutes and 11 seconds before their first touch of the ball in our half.
They struggled to deal with our pressing high up the pitch and thus our first
goal came: United attempted to play their way out the back, Coquelin
intercepted, lovely interplay between Ramsey and Ozil saw the German released
in space into the box, and his low cross was turned in at the near post by the
most outrageous of back-heeled flicks from Sanchez. We had to wait for all of
74 seconds before we doubled our advantage. United gave the ball away straight
from the kick-off, another deft flick from Sanchez released Walcott into space
down United’s right, and Walcott squared the ball to Ozil who made no mistake
with a placed first-time effort that left David de Gea stranded. 12 minutes
later and the Emirates was in a full-on state of delirium as Arsenal broke
again from inside their own half, Walcott turned and passed the ball wide to
Alexis, who cut back onto his lethal right foot and absolutely smashed it into
the top corner after bulldozing his way past a sorry attempt at a tackle from
the beleaguered Matteo Darmian.
All three goals were quite reminiscent of goals that Arsenal,
in seasons past, would concede against the “big teams”-two of the three came
from lightning-quick breaks from our own half. A flourishing partnership
between Alexis and Walcott resulted in a brace for the Chilean, and Theo ended
the game with a couple of assists to cap off a brilliant all-round display.
Alexis has now scored six goals in the space of eight days, although,
interestingly, he did not have another shot after his goal for the rest of the
game.
THE SET-UP:
“I believe in the first half we
started very strong and decided to press very high and to play with great pace,
and we did that very well. In the second half we decided to be disciplined,
control the result and we did that very well. We had two aspects in our game
that was pleasing and we were convincing today.”- Arsene Wenger.
From a tactical view-point, the above quote sums everything
up very nicely. Arsenal’s blistering start was rewarded with the goals they
merited. I wrote in my match preview how Arsenal had created more chances and
taken more shots than any other side prior to this weekend, but were only
converting at a rate of one goal for every fifteen shots, but yesterday was
entirely different. We scored three goals from our first four attempts on goal,
and Ramsey really should have added to that tally when Sanchez picked him out
in space on the edge of the six-yard box but the Welshman could only fire high
and wide.
Manager Arsene Wenger had set up his side to hit hard and
fast, and with a 3-goal cushion to sit on, Arsenal could afford to drop in
numbers whenever United had possession, a tactic that was especially evident in
the second period. Arsenal ended the first half with 47% possession, but were
content to let United pass the ball in front of them as they kept it nice and
tidy at the back, and looked to perhaps increase their tally on the break. This
tact saw United actually end the game with 62% of the ball, but this possession
was largely pedestrian and too one-dimensional for their cause. Of United’s 631
attempted passes, only 322 (51%) were actually forward passes… the other 309
were either backwards or sideways.
Arsenal with just 38% overall possession were always incisive
and dangerous in attack, while Manchester United were lackadaisical and
routine. That they dominated possession could also be illustrated by the fact
that United had four players who completed more passes than our top passer
(Cazorla-49/56), and they also had 173/232 passes in our final third. But consider
this: Of United’s 9 goal attempts, only 2 were inside our penalty box. In stark
contrast, of our 12 attempts, 9 were inside United’s penalty box. United created
eight goal-scoring chances from 173 passes in our final third, we created 10
chances from just 60. Not to shine the spotlight on individuals, but Bastian
Schweinsteiger had 40/51 passes in our final third yet only created one
goal-scoring chance. Meh.
Prior to the game, the manager had spoken about ensuring that
United do not get the opportunities to hit us on the counter (as has been the
norm for so many years), and I think it worked out brilliantly. The potential
havoc that Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial can cause on their day was negated
in its entirety by stellar displays from Bellerin and Gabriel. Martial ended
the game with just one shot and one chance created, but best of all he was only
2/10 on dribbles completed. Bellerin did well against Depay, as the Dutch
winger was hooked off at halftime after an inept 45 minutes- 0 attempts, 0
chances created, 0/3 on crosses, 1/3 dribbles, and 9/12 of his passes going
backwards. An overall encouraging defensive display after the shambles we had
to endure in midweek.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH:
With a brace today capping off a week which saw a return to
goal-scoring form, it would be hard for me to overlook Alexis Sanchez. Two goals,
two chances created, nine ball recoveries (joint second) and 4/4 on tackles, it
was another gut-busting, all-action display. But (plot twist) I will overlook Sanchez
and award my man-of-the-match gong to Arsene Wenger. Tactically speaking he got
this one right from the go. Arsenal, in the second half, played as a 3-goal
lead allowed them… sensible, taking only calculated risk when going forward on
the break, and still had presentable chances for Ozil and Giroud, and
Oxlade-Chamberlain hit the crossbar with a lobbed finish late on.
Taken in greater context, we have finally seen Arsene Wenger
modifying his tactical approach to “big games” over the course of 2015. The next
time someone tells you Arsenal never get results against big teams, invite him
or her to consider our record against Manchester City, Manchester United,
Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham in 2015 which reads: WLWWDDWDLWW.
Enjoy the win, there’s an international break coming up so there’s
plenty of time to re-live this one till we go again against Watford in a couple
of weeks. Till next time folks.
*Image and quotes courtesy of Arsenal Media*
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