United at Old Trafford is always a tough prospect. United at Old Trafford, against a Mourinho team, is easily going to be one of the most difficult games Arsenal will have all year.
The difficulty from an Arsenal perspective is that Mourinho teams are notoriously difficult for Wenger’s teams to score against. In League play, Arsenal’s last goal against a Mourinho-led side was Gilberto Silva in 2007.
The added difficulty is that Arsenal haven’t beaten Man U at Old Trafford in League play since 2006. That was when Adebayor stole a goal after Fabregas dispossessed Crynaldo and slipped in a through ball for the big man.
There formula is simple: take top quality players + have them control space around their 18 yard box + play for the counter = probably going to get a result against Arsenal. Rotational fouling is part of the formula sometimes as is cynical timewasting. The big component, though, is accepting that a point isn’t a bad result. That’s not to say that they aren’t going for it, they are trying to win, but rather that they just are playing a cagey match.
And there is nothing wrong with this tactic. Recently, Wenger used it against Bayern, twice, and against Man City. He’s used it against Barcelona several times and even won the FA Cup using this tactic against Man U.
That said, this match was slightly different. In the first half, Mou United invited the attack, conceding possession. But in the second half, they attacked and actually dominated possession until Wenger made the change to bring Coquelin off.
The possession chart for United looked like this:
Moreover, United was using possession as a weapon against Arsenal. When they were out of possession, they were forcing Wenger’s side into poor shots from distance. When they were in possession they were keeping Wenger’s men from getting any shots at all. Other than Alexis’ header in the opening 6 minutes, where the match was contested at both ends of the pitch, Arsenal didn’t get a shot in the box until the 88th minute when Giroud scored. And Arsenal didn’t even get a shot, much less a shot on target from the 38th minute until the 88th minute.
If you look at the chart below, you can see that the first half was a pretty even match but the second half was a much more contested match. United probably should have come out on top but that single moment of brilliance by Ox, turning his marker, getting in a good cross – and that single shot by Giroud – got the result.
| Arsenal stats v. Man U 11/19/16 | First half | Second half |
| Possession | 60% | 49% |
| Shots | 4 | 1 |
| Shots allowed | 6 | 6 |
| Dribbles | 6 | 3 |
| Dribbles allowed | 6 | 5 |
| Tackles | 6 | 15 |
| Was tackled | 6 | 15 |
| Corners | 1 | 3 |
| Corners allowed | 5 | 5 |
| Aerials won | 10 | 13 |
| Aerials lost | 7 | 4 |
| Dispossessed | 3 | 12 |
| Possession Won | 3 | 8 |
3 – Chances created (key passes) by Arsenal (Walcott 6th minute header to Alexis header; Alexis 38th minute backpass for Elneny long shot; Ox assist for Giroud header)
82 – Passes attempted by Mustafi (led all players)
63 – Passes completed by Mustafi (led all players)
40 – Passes completed by Aaron Ramsey
22 – Final third passes completed by Özil (led Arsenal)
12 – Final third passes completed by Aaron Ramsey
9 – Tackles by Coquelin, 7 won possession, 2 were absolutely brilliant (led all players)
4 – Tackles by Ramsey, 2 won possession
4 – Interceptions by Monreal (led Arsenal)
0 – Interceptions by Ramsey
7 – Defensive aerial duels won my Mustafi (led all players)
0 – Defensive aerial duels won by Aaron Ramsey
4 – Fouls suffered by Aaron Ramsey (led all players, tied with Pogba)
3 – Fouls committed by Aaron Ramsey (led Arsenal, tied with Pogba)
1 – Shots by Giroud
0 – Shots by Aaron Ramsey
15 – Passes from Elneny to Özil (most common pass combo)
7 – Passes from Ramsey to either Elneny or Monreal (his personal most common pass combo)
10 – Goals Giroud has scored from off the bench (all Arsenal matches)
1 – Good reason to have a team that is deep enough to bring Giroud and Ox off the bench late
@7amkickoff
Sources: Opta, my personal database, some spreadshit I just made up
Soooooooooooo…..?
Try using your cognitive abilities.
8 – Goals scored by Giroud of his last 9 shots on target! And many of us still doubt him…
Ollie’s goals off the bench might win us the league this year.
The only numbers you’d want to bother with frankly is the points Despite the largely disappointing shedding off 4 points from 6 , we are still only 2 points off of media anointed and high flying Liverpool and City. Should CHelski fail to capitalise and take all 3 points, we will also be within breathing distance to them. This isn’t to say we need not work out our kinks and that we could have been better or that the road ahead is easy but it is a long road still and some people need to dial back a little. The… Read more »
Agree that Elneny doesn’t offer enough going forward but I’d have rather had Ramsey next to Coq instead of Xhaka if only because I think he adds extra energy off the ball and drive on it. He was poor out wide though and I hope that’s the end of Wenger using him there. I disagree with starting Ox at right back though, that was clearly a desperation move and it happened to pay off. Jenkinson did well defensively too, kept Martial very quiet for the most part and stopped a few crosses. Sanchez also needs to be more disciplined with… Read more »
Arsene kept using Cazorla out wide for a long, long time too. I think we seriously need to re-evaluate our choice in wingers. All the other big teams have a winger that can run down the byline and cross/cut in. Going both ways(into the middle and out wide) creates that uncertainty and makes it harder for defenders to mark. If the ox works on getting better, he can be a serious weapon down the right. His cutting-in game just needs finishing. Going out wide, his crossing needs to be consistently good.
3 – the number of goals Giroud has scored for us in the last 3 games he came off of the bench (58 minutes played)
100- The number of times am happy mourninho loses the 3 points.
Us scoring in the 89th minute had to kill Maureen. A draw is only a draw, but in this case, it had to hurt them.
yeah i watched it in a bar in manchester with all united fans and chatting to them they were pretty depressed in general with JM, Girouds goal seemed inevitable to them, even tho i couldn’t see it happening.
6 – number of points still ahead of Manure.
nice write-up as usual. I feel like, aside from the goal, our defensive performance was pretty creditable, and have the sense that this kinda confirms that?? i think this shows us that Ramsey is struggling to be integrated into this team and the way it plays at the moment (rather than the prevailing and mean-spirited opinion here that he is bad. if you think Ramsey is a bad footballer, you are a bad football-watcher.) That’s to be expected after a few months out but it’s a bit of a problem in terms of our midfield. With Ramsey playing like that,… Read more »
Anyone know Wengers longest undefeated streak in all competitions and where this run currently sits?
49ers?
Really dude ? Really 😀 LOL
There’s a big difference between being unbeaten in ALL competitions and being unbeaten in the league for 49 games.
In answer, I don’t know what is Wenger’s longest streak, but maybe someone does.
I believe it’s 21, and I think The Arsenal currently stand on 17.
According to Wikipedia:
Record consecutive matches without a defeat: 28, from 9 April 2007 to 24 November 2007
No idea where this one sits.
I thought we were very stretched, and the midfield had enormous difficult picking up the second ball from headers initiated by either team. This was especially true off out clearances and goalie kicks. Perhaps the defense was playing deep fearing the spreed if ManU’s front line, but happened over and over. Do stats bear this out?
Have you ever considered making your analysis more visually pleasing for users?
Like this guy does: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization
Have you ever considered we give all our content away for free and it’s tough to invest money in stuff like that?
LOL!
I was hoping to see Wenger make some kind of change to hisvsystem when what we did obviously was not working. 88th minute for the first shot on target and it was luckily for us a goal. You would think he would attempt to try something else, change formation or make earlier subs etc. What is the point watching a team whom is completely neutralized and cant create a cup of coffee much less a goalscoring oppurtunity and then opt to do absolutely nothing about it. Someone need to tell him about this thing called Plan B and adaptation. Its… Read more »
Wenger is a patient man, for good or for worse. He believes that his starting XI has what it takes to win the game, even if they may be struggling. He thinks that if he lets them have at it for as long as possible, something might eventually click. There are games in the past when we are screaming at him to make changes but eventually the players who are already on the field finally make a breakthrough. There are also many other games when nothing happens and the team remain abject till the final whistle. Not defending Wenger, just… Read more »
Actually, I think it’s less to do with belief in the team that started the game and more to do with the efficiency of the substitutions and the timing for which the sub would have the highest impact. Wenger has previously stated that studies have shown the optimal time to bring on a sub to have a direct impact on the game is around the 70th minute mark. Reason being it gives the substitute enough time to get up to the speed of the game and also has the benefit of the substitute becoming warm just as the defending team… Read more »
22 – Final third passes completed by Özil (led Arsenal) What’s Ozil’s season average? Was this match lower? From memory Ozil struggled to get into the game and certainly didn’t have the impact we needed, But, that said, he wasn’t alone. I felt that the front four all failed to get involved meaningfully. United seemed to achieve the holy grail of effective pressing high, without conceding space at the back. I suspect this is because we were more or less ineffective in the midfield, not offering good options, nor able to support Alexis and Ozil when the ball was played… Read more »
7amkickoff start sending your articles to Arsenal may be Wenger will borrow some ideas from them. However, it should be noted that Ramsey is not a bad player but, i do not think he’s good enough for our system. He slows our moves down and not as intelligent as he’s suppose to be in CM position. though, that’s his position but he should improve his awareness. Ozil was not in the match and i was massively disappointed in him having propagated the blueprint with which we beat Chelsea. Great point from Old Trafford. That Giroud goal is what I called… Read more »
The inclusion of Rambo made Valencia ‘shine’. IF there was a true winger in that position I don’t see where valencia would terrorise as they keep on saying. As gifted as jenko is from my view was it weakened our defenceline. As on one wing Nacho was not given much support and jenko and theo isn’t the ideal combo. And as we all saw their goal was cooked from the Nacho/Rambo wing. And when we gave their defence something to worry about we got our goal. How i wish we did that as early as when Rooney got on. Anyway… Read more »
Oh and i forgot. However Le Coq isn’t in any france squad gets me thinking. What is the meaning of World Class?
The reason we gain possession is not Coq’s replacement but Mata’s replacement.