What went wrong? An analysis of Arsenal 2-2 Hull – Abel Hernandez’s goal.

Last Saturday afternoon, Arsenal looked to come back from the international break and reinvigorate a tepid start to the season whilst hosting Hull City. Last year’s finalists proved a tough test for the Gunners at Wembley and without the benefit of extra time; the results after 90 minutes were the same. The game this time around was perhaps less thrilling than final day, with Arsenal lacking conviction further up the pitch and Hull netting the only two opportunities they were gifted. The first goal was largely gifted to them by the referee (and the Arsenal player’s attempts to remind the referee of his duties), but for the second goal Arsenal can only look towards themselves.

Watch the goal here, courtesy of Arsenal Player.

Of course, if you had watched Match of the Day or any post match analysis, there would be a one sentence sound bite that summed up Abel Hernandez’s goal - “Per Mertesacker shouldn’t be beaten to the ball there”. Add in some cliché about him being tall, or somewhere commenting on his dearth of pace and you’ve pretty much nailed down your position as a Match of the Day pundit. However, upon closer inspection, the blame for the goal rests not only on Per Mertesacker, but also on mistakes that were made before and after his brief involvement in the play.

Firstly, we must start the play when Hull’s Andy Roberston picks up the ball in his own half. At this point Arsenal have a trio of centrally placed midfielders sitting goalside of the ball. Mathieu Flamini stays close to Mo Diame to cut off any potential attack into space from him and leaves centrally placed Santi Cazorla to press the ball. At this point, Jack Wilshere (closest to the centre spot) is not goalside of Tom Huddlestone but can see the Hull player in front of him. This doesn’t create a huge problem, Wilshere knows that a ball to Huddlestone is difficult and he has the pace to recover if the ball is played behind him.

As it is, Cazorla presses the ball and forces the pass centrally. Arsenal’s midfield trio are flattened, but Flamini keeps himself central and stays goalside of Diame, who has excelled playing between the lines of midfield and defence for Hull this season. The same cannot be said, however, of Jack Wilshere. Though he could clearly see Huddlestone when Robertson gains possession, he allows Huddlestone to run behind him and across him, to open up space in a more threatening position. At this point, Jack Wilshere knows he still has the pace to force Huddlestone away from goal, so all is not lost for the young Englishman.

And this is exactly what he does. As the ball is played Wilshere closes the gap successfully and forces Huddlestone to play the ball out wide, rather than drive at goal. At this point it looks like Jack Wilshere has recovered and Arsenal are again in a comfortable position. Flamini has retained his central position, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is also tracking back and the back four are in position and relatively comfortable.

But then, something changes. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain stops tracking back and Kieran Gibbs heads to close down Hull’s threat down the right hand side. Now, we aren’t privy to the discussions on the pitch or tactics at Arsenal’s training ground, so perhaps Oxlade-Chamberlain has been lazy here, or perhaps Kieran Gibbs was told to press high in these situations. Whatever the situation, Jack Wilshere sees the run of Tom Huddlestone and sees the space that has been afforded to him. However, instead of tracking the run, he yet again lets Tom Huddlestone run off the back of him and into a dangerous area. Instead of following the run of the Hull midfielder, he just points at where he is going for someone else to cover.

In fact, Jack Wilshere only ever turns his head to see whether Monreal or any other player is covering the run once Huddlestone has opened up the healthy gap between the pair (seen above). Wenger was quoted as saying he thinks Roy Hodgson isn’t playing Jack Wilshere to his potential by playing him as a deep lying midfielder – perhaps as well as stifling his creativity, it is also exposing weaknesses such as this in his defensive game.

In this situation, Monreal hesitates, but has, for me, landed on the correct decision. If you have to name two things you know about Tom Huddlestone’s playstyle they would most likely be that 1) he is a good passer when the ball is at his feet and 2) has absolutely no pace. Monreal will also know of the forward standing behind him, Abel Hernandez. Though Hernandez only started the game due to a pre-match condition with Nikica Jelavic, all of the Arsenal defenders will have been aware of Abel Hernandez’s ability as an athlete. Relatively tall, a fair bit of strength and a lot of pace. Monreal will also be aware of his defensive partner’s lack of pace. With Flamini a few yards off being able to cover Monreal effectively, the makeshift centre makes the smart decision of staying where he is, for if he goes and Huddlestone still gets to the ball first, Hernandez and Huddlestone are given a huge amount of space to work with. If Monreal meets Huddlestone, all the English midfielder has to do is put a simple ball past Monreal and towards the front post, and Hernandez beats Mertesacker to the ball. So I believe that, even with Wilshere not tracking the run, Monreal is right to stay where he is and at least challenge Tom Huddlestone to make a decent pass.

Of course, we all know that Tom Huddlestone meets this demand. Hernandez runs as if he is going towards the back post, Mertesacker realises this and back peddles. As Mertesacker is back peddling, Hernandez is able to attack the ball. The above image shows Mertesacker’s negative body position as Hernandez changes direction to move forward, which is why Hernandez is able to beat the German in the air so convincingly.

1-0, end of story, right? Wrong. Hernandez still has the trouble of beating Woijiech Szczesny in the Arsenal goal. Now, I will concede that if Hernandez wins the header as he does, the advantage is with him to score. However, I also think that this particular header should have been saved. Looking at the goal in full speed, you’d initially think that Szczesny has made a good effort at trying to claw out a powerful header. However, the replays show that if Szczesny had prepared for the incoming header correctly, he would have been able to save it.

It’s important to remember that the Polish keeper already got his fingers to the ball, thus was very close to saving it. These are the fine margins we are discussing when analysing Szczesny's part in the goal. Though being so close to keeping the effort out, looking at the above screenshot is a sorry sight for anyone who knows something about goalkeeping. The screenshot is not of the best quality, but Hernandez is just about to make connection with the header, and Woijiech Szczesny’s body positioning is dreadful. Not only are both of his feet off the floor (not clear in the screenshot, but very clear in video [for more on this, see Gary Neville’s analysis of the Liverpool Everton game earlier this season]) but his arms are arched upwards and his arms are behind his body. This means that A) he has to wait to land comfortably before being able to move his body and B) it takes him longer to extend his arms from this position than it would if they were more naturally level with his body. All of the above does not put him in a good position to save anything.

And actually, his position continues to get worse. As he lands, his legs spread far wider than he should position them. This wide stance may make him look more imposing, but it makes it much harder to dive effectively. Most junior goalkeepers are taught to keep their legs ‘shoulder width apart’ because this gives them a solid base if there is physical contact, but also allows them to very quickly shift their body weight onto the leg they need to in order to dive efficiently. As it is, the Pole in Goal has to shift his entire body weight across to his widely positioned leg before he can use it as a spring to dive off. This results in a slower reaction to the header, which is the small but vital difference between saving this and letting it in. What we see is a rushed and powerless dive from Szczesny, which not only doesn’t allow him to get to the ball properly, also denies him the momentum to divert the ball effectively.

Ultimately, though this was one of very few chances Arsenal conceded in the game, if so many players are going to make errors whilst defending it is easy to see why teams have confidence when facing the Gunners. One of their biggest assets last season was their ability to close out games effectively and this was a major reason they stayed at the top of the Premier League table for so long. This season, that ability does not seem to be present - and it is something Arsenal relied heavily upon whilst their forward line wasn't firing on all cylinders last year to win games.

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