Crystal Palace 0 – 2 Arsenal | Tactical Analysis

 

• Arsenal opened up the 2022/23 season with an impressive 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
• Arsenal played in a 4-2-3-1. Arteta deployed a high press, whereas Patrick Viera wanted to play out from the back and have possession, Palace resorted to hitting Arsenal on the breaks. Palace played in a 4-3-3.

The opening 20 minutes was all Arsenal. Gabriel Jesus created havoc in and around the box and Arsenal’s first big chance came when Gabriel Martinelli put wide a close range shot. It was a loose pass from Zaha, and with Arsenal counter pressing aggressively, Jesus pounced on it, brushed aside Doucoure, dribbled through the maze of Palace players and had his shot blocked by Guehe. Martinelli got a chance on the rebound but the shot rolled wide.

Space for Zinchenko to run into on the far post

20’: Martinelli made up for the miss soon after, as Bukayo Saka’s deep corner was headed into the six-yard box by a running Oleksandr Zinchenko, who was unmarked at the far post. A brilliant set piece. Martinelli made no mistake and headed it home into the bottom corner. 1-0 Arsenal.

Zinchenko makes the run unmarked

Zinchenko's header assist

Martinelli gets at the end of it for a perfect finish

Arsenal had a couple of more chances till the end of the half but The Eagles started growing in the game as Arsenal’s high press drained the energy levels. Crystal Palace had a couple of good chances of their own when in the 42^nd minute they had a freekick and Eze, Conor Gallagher’s replacement looped it to the far post. Anderson headed it back and Edouard flicked it very close to the goal. It was Ramsdale’s quick reaction that forced the save. A big save it was.

Ramsdale's quick reaction save

Palace’s second chance came in the 46^th minute Edouard had a shot blocked by Saliba, got the ball back and attempted a tight angle shot which had to be deflected over the goal.

Second Half!

Crystal Palace started on the front foot creating chances, with long balls from Joachim Andersen. That’s where the main source of the threat came from. Once again, Ramsdale was called into action when Ben White was caught on the ball and Eze came in a one on one with Ramsdale. Ramsdale’s quick movement stopped the chance.

Another crucial save by Ramsdale

Palace realizing the defensive issues with Ben White started more attacks from that side and White eventually got booked for tugging Zaha’s shirt through a tactical foul.

Around the 70^th minute Arsenal had one of their own chances through a quick freekick. White slid the ball wide for Saka and Saka had to fire it high and wide as he was forced to the byline.

83’ Tierney replaced Zinchenko. Nketiah on for Jesus.

Two minutes later Arsenal struck again. The Gunners had quickly worked the ball up the field, as they had been doing throughout the game whenever Palace was playing a high line. A switch with Nketiah passing it to Saka, and Saka whipped a cross in which was deflected by Marc Guehi into his own net.  2-0 Arsenal.

 

Arsenal in possession

As Palace had 4 players at the back, Arsenal were looking to form a front 5 to exploit the gaps with the wide wingers Martinelli and Saka pushing up into the wide spaces, Odegaard, the ‘10’ pushing into the half space and Gabriel Jesus pushing down into zone 14 with a quite a bit of flexibility in his game as he’s a Pep Guardiola player.

Arsenal's front 5 between the lines vs Crystal Palaces 4 in defence

What Arteta was doing last season was also based on Pep’s model with the left back pushing up into the half spaces like Cancelo does. Yesterday was a change of tactics. Zinchenko stayed deep, tucked in forming a double pivot with Partey and Arsenal forming a 3-2-5 in attack. In fact at time Ben White would also invert and Arsenal would be in a 2-3-5. It was Xhaka stepping up into the half spaces and making runs. Inspired by Xavi Hernandez?

Arsenal resembling a 2-3-5 at times

Palace sitting deep in possession waiting to counter attack. Palace were looking to target the wide areas behind Arsenal’s inverted full backs. And that’s where Anderson came into play, who has a good long range pass with Ayew and Zaha being the quick runners into the channels. And that’s where Palace started to look like a 4-2-3-1 on the break with Eze behind Edouard.

Anderson searching for the long ball channels

Arsenal’s counter pressing

Here’s what Arsenal did when they lost possession. Palace would try to build up from the back in a 4-3-3, with Anderson driving up the ball into space. Arsenal instead of sitting in a mid-block like last year, deployed a really aggressive high press and went with a man-to-man marking scheme. As soon as the goalkeeper played the ball to one of the defenders in the box, Gabriel Jesus would trigger the press by blocking the passing lane to the other center-back. Odegaard would run in to mark Doucoure, Partey and Xhaka going for the other two midfielders. Now here’s the trick, Martinelli wasn’t marking the full back, he was stationed in the half space responsible for marking two player, Anderson and Clyne(a bit of what Klopp does).

Arsenal's man-to-man pressing scheme

On the other side because Zaha is a dangerous attacker and they didn’t want to leave Ben White in a 1-on-1 situation with him, it was Odegaard who pushed up to press the other CB Guehi and Xhaka would mark Doucoure, leaving Saka to help out Ben White when needed. Still a man-to-man press. Because of this Palace didn’t have a shot on target till the 42^nd minute.

How did Crystal Palace break out after Arsenal’s earlier dominance?

As Arsenal was up 1-0, and Palace had a couple of dangerous chances on goal, Arsenal decided to contain them and sit a bit deeper. That gave Palace the space to build up. This also had an impact on the way Arsenal were building up. It changed from the first half where Arsenal were attacking the spaces. Now, it was Arsenal becoming transitional because of sitting a bit deeper. So the rest of the team was deeper and Jesus and Saka would go on the counter attack with long balls coming in from behind.

Anderson dribbling into space and again going over the top looking for the wide channels

So the question for Arsenal now is, how does this go along into the season where there’s one Arsenal pressing high and controlling the game and the other Arsenal sitting deeper and more transitional. What they have to keep in mind is that there will be more technical opponents along the way.

Without the ball Arsenal start to look more fragile and the match ended with both teams having attempted 10 shots each with 2 on target. Surprise fact: Crystal palace ended the match with 57% ball possession with a pass accuracy of 86% to Arsenal’s 81%.

Mikel Arteta has won 50 league games as Arsenal manager after 98 games in charge. That makes him the second quickest manager to achieve this feat after Arsene Wenger, who did it in 4 fewer games.

Arsene Wenger and Mikel Arteta

This is only the second game Crystal Palace have lost at Selhurst Park by 2 or more goals under Patrick Viera. The other was against Liverpool 1-3.

None of Arsenal’s last 18 games have ended in a tie. That’s 12 wins and 6 losses. It’s the longest ongoing run in the competition among the 20 current sides. In 2018, the Gunners had a longer run.