Analysis: Arsenal

Unai Emery brought summer recruit Lucas Torreira in for his first Premier League start of the season, as central midfielder Matteo Guendouzi dropped to the bench. Arsenal continued in a 4-2-3-1 structure, with Aaron Ramsey in the number 10 role, and Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang providing support out wide. Alexandre Lacazette led the attack.

The Gunners remained loyal to their approach of building out from the back, but loose passing from Granit Xhaka in the early stages of the match invited unnecessary pressure on to his back line. With central defenders Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos splitting along the sides of the penalty area and Torreira moving higher in line with the advancing full-backs, Xhaka offered the closest option in the central lane. Ozil would move inside during their deep build, finding space to receive and attack from a central position – but a lack of splitting forward passes meant the German’s inside movements were not hugely effective.

They did eventually take control of possession and their first opening came through a wonderfully slick passing move, when Ramsey dropped between Xhaka and Torreira before the ball was worked to Hector Bellerin for a first-time cross into the box. Despite making inroads with the ball against a narrow 4-4-2 structure, they were vulnerable during the transition into defence. Xhaka and Torreira would be pulled back into the centre, leaving Everton’s speedy wide players free.

Arsenal’s possession lost its rhythm towards the end of the first half, as the visitors’ condensed structure proved difficult for the rotating midfield to play through. They continued to build from the back, but inaccurate passes into midfield resulted in limited success. Everton inevitably regained possession with relative ease and promptly attacked the magnified spaces between Monreal and Papastathopoulos, who was forced off through injury and replaced by Rob Holding towards the end of the first half.

The hosts required more urgency if they were to break the deadlock, and the midfield increased their movements in behind the defence in the opening moments of the second half. The deeper midfielders, Xhaka and Torreira, could now loft balls over their opponents’ defence and penetrate the back line. Everton’s back four started to drop a few yards deeper when the hosts possessed the ball in the midfield third – this created more space in between the lines, as the visitors’ midfield bank of four failed to mirror their defence’s dropping movement.

Despite the increase in space between the lines, progressing the ball past the first line of pressure proved challenging. With the Toffees stepping high and on to the double pivot of Xhaka and Torreira, the hosts’ back line was forced to play straight passes into the full-backs, who were squeezed against the touchline. Recovering possession was then straightforward for Everton, allowing for quick counter-attacks to be launched.

After Everton’s spell of high-pressing faded, they dropped into a mid-block – this enabled Arsenal to build far more comfortably into the middle third. Movements behind continued to stretch the gap between the defence and midfield, as the space for Ozil and Ramsey to link the play grew. A patient pattern of short passing in midfield led to Lacazette giving Arsenal the lead with a sumptuous curling effort into the top corner.

The lead was quickly doubled, with more direct play from the back line helping the ball to be worked into Lacazette. A mistake from centre-back Kurt Zouma resulted in Ozil again being found in behind, and the German unselfishly squared the ball for Aubameyang to tap home, via a deft flick from Ramsey – although replays showed the goalscorer to be in an offside position. The goals calmed both crowd and players, who now looked far more relaxed in possession.

Everton looked to hit back immediately and became more direct in their approach, sending early long balls to Dominic Calvert-Lewin – but with the young forward challenging Holding and Mustafi in the air, the hosts’ back line could easily recover the ball. Even if he did win the ball, Xhaka and Torreira would be close by to apply immediate pressure on the second ball.

The fresh legs of substitutes Alex Iwobi and Danny Welbeck later ensured Arsenal could continue to run in behind their opponents’ tiring back line. With the Toffees’ defence retreating, the midfield were once more afforded more space in the midfield third, where they could maintain possession and strategically take the sting out of the game. Emery’s players were largely untroubled for the remainder of the contest, comfortably running down the clock to earn a fourth consecutive league victory and a first clean sheet of the season.