[ad_pod ]
While Unai Emery has by no means revolutionised Arsenal’s style of play from last season, there’s one marginal adaption he’s made that will be pivotal to beating Tottenham in Sunday’s North London Derby.
Tottenham’s Potential Game-Plan
If Chelsea’s performance on Saturday seemed painfully familiar to Arsenal fans, that’s because it closely resembled the kind of displays the Gunners often put in when visiting their divisional rivals during the final few years of Arsene Wenger’s reign – their possession-retaining passing game being ripped apart by the sheer velocity of the opposition, knowing winning the ball back in dangerous areas on a handful occasions will be enough to seal the win.
Although Mauricio Pochettino has shown an increasing tactical flexibility with every season of his Tottenham tenure, and while Spurs won’t have the benefit of home advantage this weekend, it’s likely the Argentine will try and take a similar approach to the Emirates Stadium, one where his players press from the front to keep Arsenal playing in their own third and force them into costly turnovers of possession.
Beating The Press
Unless Emery intends to completely reinvent the wheel and go completely route one, Arsenal will need to beat the press when they face Spurs on Sunday. It requires great skill and bravery on the ball, but there’s one important difference between Emery’s style of play and Wenger’s that should give them a stronger chance of doing so, rather than being caught out in possession in the same manner Chelsea were last weekend.
Under the Spaniard, Arsenal’s percentage of forward passes (out of total passes) has increased from 27% to 29%, and that small but important revised emphasis on vertical passes has been evident in the Gunners’ two best goals of the season so far – Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s strikes against Fulham and Leicester respectively. While there was plenty of intricate linkup on route to the net, the key difference is how Arsenal continued to drive the play forward from back to front.
It’s been a while since Arsenal scored counter-attacking goals like that in the Premier League, and the added dose of directness gives a new edge to a team that became increasingly one-dimensional and passive under Wenger’s watch.
On Sunday, that may even mean bypassing the midfield at times, but with Aubameyang on the left and Hector Bellerin overlapping on the right, Arsenal certainly have the pace to hit Tottenham on the counter instead of trying to slowly break them down with possession football.
Which team is the dominant force in London right now? Playmaker FC’s Tom Skinner has a very unpopular opinion on the matter. Check it out in the video below…