After Arsenal crashed to a damaging 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta inevitably came under scrutiny for electing to change his system.
Takehiro Tomiyasu is another option, but Arteta’s use of Zinchenko was a more positive choice that helped Arsenal dominate possession in the first half.
They have more problems against runners from deep, and therefore Havertz starting his runs from midfield rather than attack made sense.
Here, he was outmuscled by the Villa centre-back Diego Carlos, who was named man of the match at full time.
Here’s another, slightly different type of situation: Havertz exploiting space in the channel to get onto a Leandro Trossard ball in behind.
This was never going to work; a looped header towards the far post, where Trossard was lingering, would have been better.
This Arsenal move involving Jesus, Odegaard, Saka and Ben White down the right was excellent and resulted in Jesus having a blocked shot.
This situation, in which Zinchenko overlapped Trossard and then chipped the ball to the far post, was particularly frustrating.
Mikel Arteta’s decision to alter his system was unavoidably questioned following Arsenal’s devastating 2-0 home loss to Aston Villa at the Emirates.
With the much-maligned Oleksandr Zinchenko starting at left-back, Gabriel Jesus starting up front, and Kai Havertz moving to an attacking-midfield role after playing up front in recent weeks, Arteta went back to his earlier season tactics. Judge only based on the score, which was a terrible decision. However, as always, the situation is a little more nuanced.
These two modifications essentially went hand in hand. Zinchenko’s return wasn’t a huge surprise because Jakub Kiwior didn’t play well at left-back in the midweek 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich. Takehiro Tomiyasu is an additional option, but Zinchenko was a better play by Arteta, who helped Arsenal control the ball more of the first half.
As Zinchenko moves into that area, it consequently made it possible to use an attacking option in the left-center midfield slot, freeing up a midfielder to act as a bonus attacker. Havertz, a member of a new breed of inquisitive players who have functioned as a No 8 and a No 9 this season, fills that role.
There were a few encouraging moments spread throughout the first half. Villa’s high line has presented significant challenges for opponents this season, and when a striker starts their run high up against them, the defense is especially skilled at stepping up to catch them offside. It made sense for Havertz to start his runs from midfield rather than attack because they are more vulnerable to deep runners.
It was frequently Zinchenko who attempted to find those runs, as evidenced by this lofted ball in behind that Havertz heavily touched.
Additionally, Havertz was put through on goal by a longer pass; however, the move was stopped short of a delayed offside flag.
Next, Martin Odegaard was able to locate Havertz’s run into that channel. Diego Carlos, the center defender for Villa who was named man of the match at full time, outmuscled him in this instance. The fact that he was crucial to Villa’s success—especially in the first half—illustrates how much Havertz’s movement caused issues.
Here’s an additional instance of a slightly different kind of scenario: Havertz taking advantage of a gap in the channel to get behind a Leandro Trossard ball. Although the shot is a little muted, the threat was present.
It’s true that Jesus’s play has been a bigger problem than the rest; ever since sustaining an injury during the previous season, he has found it difficult to reclaim his goal-scoring ways.
His movement to get onto Odegaard’s ball in behind is excellent here, and it’s encouraging that he was aware to bring Bukayo Saka in.
But instead of sprinting towards the goal, Jesus checked and stayed on the edge of the box. This is a regular occurrence for him when he’s not at his best. Trossard, who is requesting a pass at the far post, is another noteworthy observation.
This is an analogous circumstance. Observe that Trossard is once more requesting the ball to be on the distant side. Saka has the ball in behind down the right after Odegaard makes the vital pass.
Jesus chooses to go to the far post, but he is unable to catch up to Carlos in time to get there. Perhaps lining up in between Villa’s center backs would have been a better move here, facilitating Saka’s pass.
Saka attempts to drive the ball across the box instead, but it is stopped.
Here we see Odegaard freeing Saka once more. This time, Jesus is waiting for a ball between the goalkeeper and the defense in a good position. Saka hits everyone with a cross after spotting players at the far post.
Further poor choices were made by Jesus. Saka crosses from the left to Jesus at the far post in Arsenal’s next attack, and he attempts to beat Emi Martinez at the near post with a header.
This was never going to work; it would have been better to loop a header towards Trossard’s lingering position at the far post.
Excellent play down the right by Jesus, Odegaard, Saka, and Ben White for Arsenal ended with a blocked shot for Jesus.
While Trossard was making a great run for a comeback in space on the penalty spot, he was most likely within his rights to take this shot.
Arsenal frequently found themselves in favorable positions, but they found it difficult to match the cross with the appropriate run.
Especially frustrating was this sequence of events, where Zinchenko covered Trossard before chipping the ball to the far post. With Saka out injured, Arsenal had no one present.
Saka, on the other hand, also had trouble choosing the best decisions. Odegaard made yet another brilliant pass to move behind Lucas Digne.
However, the issue was a small miscalculation with his left foot’s outside edge that caused him to go wider than he would have preferred.
As a result, Saka was forced to shoot at the near post rather than cross the goal line by Pau Torres, who was able to cross and narrow the angle.
However, Arteta’s team should have taken the lead five minutes before halftime as Arsenal dominated the first half and only just managed to avoid conceding when a defensive blunder allowed Ollie Watkins to hit the post.
Despite all of Odegaard’s insightful commentary, this opportunity was merely the result of a fortunate bounce, as his shot was diverted into Jesus’ path. That once was a wise decision made by Jesus. Trossard got his pass, at last, after a long time.
This clearly ought to have been a goal, as the behind-the-goal angle shows.
Arsenal seemingly lost the game in the second half even though they didn’t win it in the first.
In stark contrast to the first half, Villa dominated the game almost entirely. After the game, Unai Emery stated, “The only way to win here is to keep possession.”. It would have been challenging if we had attempted to run behind for ninety minutes. We were going to keep building after the break, evading their press, and we started holding up the ball more with (Nicolo) Zaniolo. “.
Even though Arteta made some substitutions to avoid becoming too tired before a tough second leg against Bayern, there is definitely cause for concern.
He clarified that Emile Smith Rowe had been substituted for Odegaard due to health issues. Perhaps even more important, another change occurred at that same moment when Jesus left and was replaced by Jorginho instead of another attacker. At that point, Villa was applying more pressure and Arsenal wasn’t trying to complete moves; instead, they were just trying to establish some sort of footing.
However, there was something to Arteta’s initial strategy. More than anything else, Villa was troubled by Havertz’s runs into the channel. The fact that Arsenal was unable to take advantage of these opportunities was due to a combination of poor choices, poor goalkeeping and defense, and unfortunate circumstances.
Naturally, this doesn’t change the fact that Arsenal may have lost the title as a result of this outcome.
