Arsenal 0-0 Manchester City: A lack of creativity
A 0-0 is hardly surprising when neither side have any true motivation to take all three points. For Arsenal, the season is over. For City, with the result at Old Trafford, a point was a good result, with Spurs still yet to travel to the City of Manchester Stadium.
Arsenal lined up in their now-familiar 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 system, bolstered by the return of Robin van Persie after so many months out. Theo Walcott was providing pace on the right, with Samir Nasri central and Tomas Rosicky cutting in from the left.
Manchester City dropped Emmanuel Adebayor at the expense of Patrick Vieira, meaning they had the ability to play either 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 – they went for the latter, with Craig Bellamy providing the clearest support for Carlos Tevez on the rare occasions City got into Arsenal’s half.
The most noticeable thing about Arsenal was how deep Robin van Persie came to meet the ball, drawing Kolo Toure out of position to try and confront him immediately. It was a reminder that Arsene Wenger’s switch to a system with a lone frontman was not because he wanted to play a traditional lone striker (eg Nicklas Bentnder, as well as he has done in recent weeks) but because he wanted to play with a false nine, and van Persie’s movement and awareness on the ball was very good in the first half, with Samir Nasri often getting forward to become the furthest player forward.
At the other end, Carlos Tevez was trying to do a similar thing to van Persie, but Tevez received no support whatsoever from the centre of midfield (with City effectively playing three holding players there), and Craig Bellamy found it hard to get forward enough to be an attacking threat. Arsenal actually did well to counteract the threat of Tevez and Bellamy’s pace, and to stop the midfield supporting the striker - Sol Campbell and Mikael Silvestre played extremely deep, which meant that City wouldn’t play balls in behind for Tevez to chase, their midfield was also generally forty yards away from Tevez when he got the ball in the opposition half.
Both Arsene Wenger and Roberto Mancini made similar changes in the second half – putting a targetman on and dropping their previous lone striker into a deeper position, forming 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1 shapes. City’s change was first, as Emmanuel Adebayor came on – and the presence of Carlos Tevez snapping at the heels of Alex Song was actually better defensively for City than the presence of Patrick Vieira in front of the back four. Arsenal’s change saw Bendtner come on for Tomas Rosicky (who had been Arsenal’s most lively player) and they begun to loft crosses into the box, but to little goalscoring threat.
Manchester City followed what is fast becoming the official way to play against Arsenal – defend deep and narrow, make sure there is little space between the lines, and let Arsenal cross the ball. There can be few occasions this season when Arsenal have threatened so little by playing their way through the centre – and the physical nature of the defending by Kompany and Toure at the back, and Vieira and de Jong in midfield formed a tough ’square’ in front of Shay Given that Arsenal found difficult to penetrate.
This was an awful game and any attempt to make it exciting through prose would be pointless, so check out the Chalkboard analysis instead, which is far more insightful.
Arsenal 0-0 Manchester City: A lack of creativity
“Manchester City followed what is fast becoming the official way to play against Arsenal – defend deep and narrow, make sure there is little space between the lines, and let Arsenal cross the ball.”
Totally agree, and it’s so frustrating that Wenger doesn’t do anything about it. Arsenal need to move the ball quicker when possession is turned over to take advantage of that window of opportunity when the opposition’s players are out of position.
After watching Spurs play against Arsenal in this way, it seemed obvious that this is how to nullify their attacking style. But how many other teams have tried it so far this season? Is a fully fit Van Persie and/or Fabregas good enough to break through?
It sounds like Man City didn’t even bother attacking the Arsenal goal – but otherwise it’s hard to criticise them for playing like this away from home while at the same time admiring Spurs for doing it at home.
One of the least creative Arsenal games I’ve seen this season. The way they were playing, they wouldn’t have scored even with 80 minutes of added time. It’s frustrating how little responsibility the creative players took, with plenty of moves resulting in pointless crosses from Sagna or Song, instead of more patient buildup.
‘Tomas Rosicky (who had been Arsenal’s most lively player).’
I took a look at the chalkboard and Mr ‘lively’ had 21 successful passes with just 1 good pass in the box. I am getting tired to watch Rosicky passing sideways and backwards. What bothers me is that, beside that 1 pass, he had NO attempts to play a through ball in the box.
Isn’t he suppose to be an attacking mid playing as a winger? He didn’t have a single cross in the box.
Just as Wenger was largely to blame for the Wigan defeat, he was largely to blame here too. I can’t believe he went 4-3-3 in this game – oh wait, yes I can, because he is the most stubborn and surely most single-minded tactician around.
It was very predictable that Citeh would go for three DMs, so how on earth did he think we were going to create chances with just one man up front who likes to come deep? Where Van Persie wanted the ball was the most congested area of the field. Wenger asked a player who hasn’t started in 6 months to play up front on his own, surrounded by 5 strong, physical opponents – is he expecting miracles?
I also can’t believe he dropped Bendtner to the bench. I know some Arsenal ‘fans’ seem to love to hate him, but his goals have kept us in with a title chance. He’s improved massively playing through the middle, and established himself as a key man with his much needed physical presence. So what does Wenger do when RvP comes back? He drops Bendtner. Now that’s the way to show encouragement to a young striker isn’t it, nice one Arsene.
Van Persie desperately needed Bendtner alongside him. With Bendtner’s height we could have bypassed their 3 DM’s a bit more, and when the ball went wide, our crosses would have had some chance of finding a man in the middle. It would also have given Van Persie the freedom to express himself after all the time out, knowing that Bendtner was up front through the middle.
But instead Wenger stuck to his newly beloved 4-3-3. I’m in awe of what Wenger has achieved for Arsenal, but I’m worried that all the unfair criticism he has suffered has made him too stubborn.
Agree 100%, I’m so cheesed off with his stubbornness and complacency.
I think he’s holding us back, he must adapt or adios.
Found the analysis on Vermaelem’s recent errors very interesting. As were Campbell’s quote about needing to train on our weaknesses. I think it must be demoralising to be a defender in this team, Wenger seems to neglect this side of the game flagrantly.
Agree with what you say about vanPersie and the false 9, watching him play is a stark reminder of what Arsenal have missed.
On the point of countering ManCity’s deep and narrow defence… Arsenal used to play this way. And in the transition between defending for long periods, and countering from deep, Arsenal would often find the likes of Henry and Ljungberg with acres of space to exploit.
Arsenal now play a Barca-style possession game which doesn’t use the space from transition between defence and attack but tries to fashion a chance through accurate passing and skill. This works when Fabregas, RVP, Arshavin, Nasri are all fit and available, but with injuries Arsenal lose that accuracy/class needed to make this work.
Barca have sought a Plan B through Ibrahimovic, and Arsenal have tried to that with Bendtner.
My point is, can Arsenal’s Plan B (when they don’t have the players to make the possession game work) be the deep-lying counterattacking system that used to work so well (with Vieira and Gilberto sitting deep in front of Campbell, Keown/Toure)? This could now be used to open up space on the counter for Walcott, et al.
Good idea. How exactly do you see that side lining up? Obviously Theo’d be a big part of it, but a lot our other players actually prefer the short passing game. Who (other than Theo) would you be looking to hit on the counter? Can’t think of too many other “willing runners” in this side like Freddie and Henry were.
Second big game now where Wenger has switched to a 442 when he’s put Bendtner and RvP on the pitch at the same time.
Perhaps he’s thinking of Chamakh/Bendtner + RvP/Arshavin partnership for next season?
@drwtw –
hope i’m wrong but I very much doubt he’s thinking about anything other than 4-3-3 for next season.
he only changed to 4-4-2 against tottenham because we were 2-0 down with 20 mins to go, and against city becuase it so obviously wasn’t working. by the time he changed things it was too late, especially saturday’s game, as Van Persie was knackered by the time Bendtner came on
Had the chance to watch this match at the Emirates, and while there were few chances, I thought it was a good example of a tactical stalemate. As ZM notes, City’s defensive lines were the same as Spurs’ last week, with the space for Arsenal’s creative players to play the final ball through the middle very tight. In the first half City seemed content to bypass the midfield and hope Tevez, Johnson or Bellamy would be able to latch on to a ball over the top, but Campbell and Sylvestre handled them. With Adebayor on the pitch he was able to hold up the ball and Tevez, Bellamy and co had the time to get up in support, resulting in some good lead up work that eventually petered out due to a lack of bodies in the box.