Arteta ramps up Xhaka’s LCB role in build-up

As I have written in previous articles, Xhaka is perfect for the LCB role Arteta has carved out for him. There is less pressure than in midfield and more opportunities to split opponent’s defensive lines. Against Sheffield United, during build-up, Xhaka dropped more regularly into this LCB role. Luiz, Mustafi, Xhaka, and Torreira created a diamond vs. Sheffield United’s 5-3-2/3-5-2 shape. This diamond reduced the spaces between the players and encouraged quick combination play, which helped Arsenal bypass their press.

Arsenal outnumbered Sheffield United when they didn’t push their wing-backs up. As shown below, Arsenal are able to create an attack after playing around Sheffield’s 5-3-2 shape.

Xhaka’s LCB role contributed the most fluent performance from Arsenal’s left-side of attack under Arteta. Another factor was Ozil’s position on the left.

Ozil moved to the left

Arsenal’s shape vs. Sheffield United (H) Arsenal’s shape vs. Man Utd (H) Arsenal’s shape vs. Chelsea (H)

Arteta has mostly played Ozil in the right-half space, but vs. Sheffield United he moved Ozil to the other side. Lacazette shifted slightly closer to the right-side and Pepe operated more inside.

Ozil improved the left-side of attack with his combination play and smartly moved between the Blades’ RCM and CM, forcing them to stay narrow and away from Saka on the wing.

Ozil and Martinelli replicated Aubameyang and Lacazette’s movement; Ozil dropped into the left half-space and Martinelli made the run in behind. Ozil specializes in finding space and with Xhaka’s passing ability Arsenal had no issue building attacks on the left.

Since Ozil had moved to the left, the right-half space was more open. AMN moved into a RCM/RAM in possession sometimes, which was an effective idea vs. their 3-5-2 (AMN gave the ball away so nothing came of it).

Defensive strategy of mitigating counterattacks is limiting attack

Arteta’s defensive approach has worked as he has averaged 1.01 xGA in the Premier League so far, which is considerably lower than Emery’s 1.53 xGA (FBref.com). However, Arsenal are having attacking issues because of Arteta’s emphasis on mitigating counterattacks. For instance, AMN doesn’t push forward much because Arteta has preferred having three players in the centre (Xhaka, Torreira, AMN) for defensive transitions. I also noticed that sometimes when the full-back had the ball there was space ahead of Torreira, but he never pushed forward.

Arsenal simply don’t have enough numbers in attack at the moment. The right-side struggled because Pepe was double marked by United’s LCB and LWB. This was a result of AMN not overlapping Pepe, which would have attracted one of those United defenders away from Pepe.

Torreira and AMN are incredibly important because of their ball-winning ability and if either venture forward Luiz and Mustafi would be exposed. In other words, Arteta is compensating for the lack of physicality of his CBs by asking Xhaka, Torreira, and AMN to stay back. An obvious solution is to buy a CB who is better-suited for defending counterattacks (Think VVD at Liverpool). By adding this type of CB Arsenal could commit another player to attack (AMN -> Bellerin).

The deficiencies at CB are also not letting Arteta implement a high press because Arsenal would be susceptible to long-balls over the top.

Finally, I would say that Arsenal’s open play defensive performance vs. Sheffield United was solid and most of the ~ 1.00 xGA was from set-pieces. Regardless, Arsenal should have been able to finish off the game with a second goal.

There is more to write about, such as Torreira’s increasing importance, the RCB problem, new formations, and Ceballos’ role. However, time is limited and I am trying to convey the main lessons learned from each match. Hope you enjoyed, please subscribe to the email list and follow me on twitter!