There was so much packed into Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Sunday that it is difficult to know which thread to pull at. Arsenal had a phased game plan that involved starting with Blackstenius and Maanum in attack and looking to be compact and try to hit City on transition and go over the top of City’s back line.
Jonas Eidevall confirmed to Arseblog News post-match that he had a plan to then get pace on the flanks in the second half with the game a little more stretched. But now we have a new Arsenal Women Arsecast with myself and Jamie Spangher analysing each weekend game, I will limit these pieces to be a little narrower and focus in on one specific aspect. You can listen to mine and Jamie’s breakdown of the whole game here.
I am going to focus on how Arsenal played away from Manchester City’s press, since that often defines these encounters (you can go back and read the analysis piece from this game in May if you are so inclined). I asked Jonas Eidevall about it after the game and he confirmed it formed a big part of the game plan https://arseblog.news/2024/09/jonas-eidevall-reacts-to-manchester-city/.
‘I think you can see throughout the game that we have a clear plan about how we play out from their pressure, which I think is one of Manchester City’s real strengths. Overall, I think we did that very well. We created a lot of opportunity as a result of being really good in our build up.’ Let’s look at how Arsenal played out through City’s pressure.
If you did read the analysis piece back from May, you will see that Arsenal usually use a box shape to build against City. City press with their wide players and are excellent at forcing turnovers in those positions, so Arsenal, in a lot of cases, wanted to avoid playing the ball to the full-backs where City really want to press teams.
As Zinsberger gets the ball here, she waits for the box shape of the two centre-halves and the two central midfielders to assemble in front of her.
Kim Little runs into position and that box shape is assembled. Emily Fox is not in the frame and Katie McCabe is well out of the picture.
Zinsberger finds Little who immediately knocks the ball back to Wubben-Moy. Look at how aggressively positioned the wide players are in Lauren Hemp and Aoba Fujino.
On this occasion, Arsenal do get suckered into playing wide too early and Wubben-Moy’s attempted pass to Fox is intercepted by Lauren Hemp. Fortunately, it is inconsequential on this occasion but it’s a good illustration of how difficult City are to play through.
When Arsenal have tried to play through City’s press under Jonas Eidevall there have been two key tactics. 1. Keep the ball central and don’t get suckered into playing wide too early. And 2. Wait for the City wide players to press then lob the ball over the heads of the City wingers straight to the full-backs. Essentially, you don’t involve the full-backs until the City wide players are totally out of the picture. Here’s an example of the latter, from the resulting throw-in, Wubben-Moy goes back to Zinsberger.
As Zinsberger gets the ball, Fujino is very committed and we can see Cooney-Cross and Codina signalling to Zinsberger to float the ball over to McCabe.
Zinsberger clips a perfectly flighted ball to McCabe, Fujino can’t recover and Arsenal are away.
When Cooney-Cross goes back to Zinsberger here, we see that tactic again.
Once again, Hemp is very committed so Zinsberger pings the ball over her head to Emily Fox. Alas, on this occasion it has a touch too much on it and Fox can’t gather the pass. But the idea is clear.
Once again, as Arsenal build from Zinsberger here, we see the emphasis on keeping the ball central. Only this time, either Kim Little isn’t quick enough to get back or else Zinsberger should wait another couple of seconds for the box shape to form. But she plays the ball to Wubben-Moy.
You can see Arsenal’s box shape is not organised at all as Wubben-Moy passes the ball into Cooney-Cross to keep it central. She should probably break the mould and pass wide to Fox here but you can see why she doesn’t given she was burned trying to do that a few minutes previously.
Cooney-Cross touches it around the corner and Miedema has read the pass like a book, intercepting from Kim Little. With Zinsberger out of her goal, Miedema is centimetres away from shooting into the net. This is because Arsenal weren’t quick or patient enough to assemble the box shape between the centre-halves and central midfielders. Arsenal were probably too keen to keep the ball central here at the expense of making the best decision.
Post-match, Eidevall praised his players for what followed, ‘What pleased me a lot was that we turned over the ball in build up 30 or 40 seconds before Frida scores the first goal. It really shows what we are about as a team that we don’t start to question if that is the right way, we just make small adjustments and 30 seconds later we are successful with the same pattern and we get the result of a goal.’
Once again, Arsenal keep the ball central in building out. Hemp rushes to close down the goalkeeper and abandons her post on the left wing.
From here, Little turns and spins the ball wide. You can see what a high risk manoeuvre this is because Miedema does read it and if she intercepts here, Arsenal are in trouble. If Kim bore a little fault in what happened a few seconds earlier, having the belief and the accuracy to forget that and immediately land this pass is immensely to her credit.
Look at how far Emily Fox is able to travel with the ball unchallenged before releasing it for Caitlin Foord. City press well with their wide players but if you play past that pressure, you can expose them in wide positions. Foord collects this pass and Arsenal score from the cross.
As the ball drifts back to Zinsberger from an overhit City long ball, she drops the ball to the floor and again waits for that box shape to assemble between the centre-halves and central midfielders.
Zinsberger waits for Shaw to press her and plays the ball into Cooney-Cross. Again, the City wide players are positioned aggressively.
Cooney-Cross goes back to Codina and you can see Kim Little signalling to loft the ball over Fujino’s head to McCabe.
McCabe comes back to Codina and Mariona has drifted into a central position for a pass. Again, we can see Kim Little signalling the pass and Codina finds her compatriot.
Mariona finds Foord and, again, you can see how much space Arsenal have to attack City out wide because the wide players commit to a very high press.
Once again, we see a commitment to playing out centrally here.
Now Arsenal have definitely bypassed Fujino, Little feels comfortable enough to go to McCabe at left-back.
Under no pressure, McCabe goes direct to Blackstenius in the channel and Arsenal create a gilt-edged chance, very similar to their winning goal in this fixture last season, which the Swede should score.
Arsenal became more confident about pinging the ball out to the full-backs quickly and missing out City’s wide players. We see that box shape assemble in front of Zinsberger here. Zinsberger once again picks a pass to Fox here with her left foot, floating the ball over Hemp’s head.
The next time Manu gets the ball, she once again pings an excellent pass out to McCabe.
Much like Fox for the opening goal, McCabe is now allowed to travel a long way with the ball without challenge and Arsenal are in a good situation.
We see another nice example of Arsenal playing away from pressure here as Cooney-Cross intercepts a Miedema pass and plays it first time to Kim Little.
Once Arsenal are away from the pressure and they are clear of City’s wide players, they look to play the ball wide and Arsenal constantly found space in wide areas in these scenarios. City manager Gareth Taylor said after the game, ‘Arsenal probably didn’t make enough of those situations,’ and I entirely agree.
Once again, we see Zinsberger wait for Fujino to approach before lofting the ball over her head to McCabe.
McCabe tucks the ball back to Codina, who finds Mariona. The Spaniard touches the ball back to Cooney-Cross who now sprays a first-time pass to McCabe. This was a really smart piece of one touch play in a tight area.
McCabe has acres of space to play with now. Once you play through City’s press, there is so much space in wide areas, as Arsenal found time and again in this game.
In the second half, we saw many of the same principles. Zinsberger goes to Wubben-Moy here and Hemp is ready to press.
With a neat sequence of one touch passes, Emily Fox is released into acres of space once again, her cross ends up being cut out by Kennedy.
This sequence happens during a very rocky period for Arsenal after Jess Park’s goal but we see some of the principles of playing out return. Zinsberger rolls the ball centrally to Cooney-Cross.
City’s press begins to look a little demoralised as they haven’t forced a turnover in some time now. Fatigue is playing a part too, as well as game state but Cooney-Cross is allowed to turn and carry the ball out of danger.
Cooney-Cross finds McCabe who sends the ball into the channel. The City right winger, Fujino, is only just in shot here.
And Arsenal have once again found a good situation in the channel.
However, during that rocky period, Arsenal did get it wrong too. Kim Little tucks the ball back to Zinsberger here, Fujino is aggressive in the press and is closing her down and Codina looks for the diagonal to the full-back too early.
It allows Casparij to spot the pass and sprint into an aerial challenge with Fox, winning the ball high up.
This is the reward part of the risk reward of City’s approach. They win it high up and Lauren Hemp is exactly where you would want her. She gets a cross into Bunny Shaw here and Zinsberger makes the save.
However, Arsenal do manage to expose City out wide again in more rudimentary style here as Emily Fox looks up and plays the ball up the line with City committed.
For the second time in the game, a simple pass into the channel from an Arsenal full-back creates a one on one situation which Russo should do so much better with.
Arsenal’s game model for playing away from City’s pressure was largely excellent and generated a lot of good chances and situations. Arsenal were not clinical enough with the chances and not ruthless enough with the situations they generated.
Thanks for this. Simple tactic but very effective even when they know what we are doing.
Speaking of Kim’s bravery, she led by example again even though it was a messy performance from her at times. LWM was a bit rusty but didn’t let it get to her. I loved seeing her send a few diagonal passes over the top to our forwards, Williamson-style, and the one for Mariona nearly resulted in an amazing goal.
Yes, Kim came out with a 100% passing accuracy but sometimes I wish she would risk dropping that down to 90% but making more forward passes. Also think she and KCC struggled a lot with getting in front of Miedema and Park when Arsenal cleared City’s crosses.
Was that in any way connected to Frida effectively playing as a second striker in a 2 with Stina more than as a midfielder? What we gained in one area, we lost in another?
I think that was probably a part of it, yes. We often play Frida against City to mark Hasegawa. But it is also a constant with Kim, I find. She does pass backwards a lot!
Very good, I was anxiously awaiting the analysis, it seems like the Bayern Munich men’s game uses the goalkeeper as a pivot and leaves Musiala unmarked, Zingenberg is improving his passing with his feet a lot, and I really noticed Emily Fox playing freely sometimes, and it seems like Arsenal is using more “positional play”. I noticed that both in attack and defense you could see a lot of Arsenal players positioned filling those sides. I think that if the attackers were more clinical in goal, Arsenal would have won, the attackers need to diversify how they have to score… Read more »
I think that Rosa Kafaji, Mariona and Emilly Fox will soon score goals, I hope it happens soon, this could be a boost of spirit for the team.