Mr Arsenal Blog's "tactics weekly".

23rd September

Welcome back to Mr Arsenal Blog's "tactics weekly". Well, what a game that was, Manchester City Vs. Arsenal. I thought it was absolutely enthralling and to be honest NOT good for my heart that is for sure. In the first half Arsenal were absolutely outstanding, looked solid and created many chances and were without a shadow of doubt the best side out of the two, but then (as often happens in football) we were slapped with the old "sucker punch"!! In the second period, Man City changed themselves about tactically, brought on another central midfield player in Jack Rodwell, who has recently joined from Everton, clearly intended to stop us dominating in midfield as we had so evidently in the first half. This worked. We struggled a litte bit in the second half to play with the same speed and vision as the first, but in the end got our reward for a solid and impressive showing overall, when Koss The Boss slammed home from a corner kick on the turn!! So, what were the key tactical observations of Arsenal today? Who stood out from our line up, and what can we take from the game?

Firstly, much was made before the game of the shape with which The Arsenal would set up with for this match. The selection of Aaron Ramsey raised a few of the proverbial eye brows, as it meant that we were playing, effectively, with four central midfield players on the pitch. Many people have questioned Ramsey's ability over the last year or so, but I have always been clear in my mind that he is certainly a very talented player and one that is improving year on year, and playing with and being selected for the Olympics with Team GB, I believe, will have given him a massive amount of confidence to express himself and play for the Arsenal first team. But on to the tactical side of this selection. Playing four central midfielders, I believe, allowed us to really be comfortable on the ball, interchange positions easily, and change the point of attack. Also defensively I believe it helped us as well, because when we lost the ball, Ramsey or Cazorla, or whoever was on the wing at that specific moment, could tuck infield and really pack out the midfield and minimize the amount of space that Manchester City had to play in. I believe this worked, especially in the first half. In the second half it changed slightly, mainly down to the fact that as I said above City brought on Rodwell which meant that they had another man in the middle of the park to really stop us from playing so much in the middle, which nullified us. But all in all I think that Ramsey helped us a lot today, I was very impressed with his composure on the ball, his passing, his work rate as well, and I expect to see a similar system played in the big games where we need to be really disciplined in the midfield e.g. Vs Chelsea next weekend - (come on you gunners!!). The movement of these players in the midfield, in the first half I believe really helped us to create chances, thus it was a key tactical observation of this game, Arsenal Vs City.

Second point that I have to make from this game is the issue of "zonal marking" at set pieces. Now those of you that know what this is, will know that the Manchester City goal came from a corner, and many seem to believe that this was directly because of this "zonal marking" system that we were implementing. Now Gary Neville and Jamie Redknapp on the Sky Sports "pannel" at the game were also talking about this as a real big issue from the game, and basically said that they were not supporters of this tactics. Now, I am not going to sit here and type and tell Redknapp and Neville (who by the way is the best pundit around), however I am not so sure we should just write of an implementation of a tactic, based one goal where to be fair Vito Mannone should have done better and dealt with the cross before it even got to Joleon Lescott (who headed home at the far post). The system works essentially by the defence standing in a line, and then attacking the ball as it is crossed in, rather than marking an individual. It basically requires the players to get up and stay strong, and head the ball away and beat the opposition to the ball. I think that we should see how it goes on that front, but you have to say that in 5 premier league games we have only conceded 2 goals, and only one was from a set piece so something must be going right, especially when you consider that one of our fixtures was away at Stoke, who are arguably the most effective at corner time! So it is probably not right to just "throw in the towel" and just change our system. Either way it sure is an interesting conunderum for Arsene Wenger and Stevie Bould to consider, however it was a key tactical point from today's game, and sure if we concede more goals in the same manner that we did today they will HAVE to change this system, but for now should continue (in my opinion).

I believe that our Gunners did us proud today, as other big teams in and around us in the league, will go to the Etihad Stadium this season and quite frankly get entirely out played, out fought, out powered e.t.c. e.t.c. However we didn't we bossed the first half, were unlucky not to score in that period but had ourselves to blame for not finishing of some great chances that we did have. Despite these chances we went behind, but then had the courage and the team spirit (which I believe can no longer be questioned) to carry on playing, trust in our principles and each other and get through, equalise and in the end deserved to win! For these reasons it is very hard once again this week to pick out my Mr Arsenal Blog's man of the match as there were many standout performances all over the park. Santi Cazorla was magical once again, his balance his distribution his ability on the ball is just fantastic, and quite frankly I just relish watching him every week in my club's kit, he is one hell of a signing. Carl Jenkinson's improvement in the last year was so evident today as well, and he deserves strong consideration. I thought defensively he was solid and disciplined and when called on out wide especially by Scott Sinclair in the first half he showed them the line, was disciplined and more often than not won the ball back well, and then dealt with it calmly and cleared his lines one way or another. He was also much improved going forward, and was like a thing possessed at times he really was, powering to get on the end of passes and looking to get the ball into dangerous areas. I was mighterly impressed! Koscielny of course got the goal for us, and also played very well, as did Gibbo who seems to have added an extra dimension to his game this year, but it is defensive colleague Per Mertesacker who is my man of the match today. I thought he was absolutely outstanding, the amount of tackles and interceptions he made was staggering (7 in fact), he was strong, disciplined, played the ball well when he needed to and just played with such discipline and calmness which to be fair should be expected from a 80 cap German international! He saved our bacon on many occasions today he really did, especially in the second half when City turned up the pressure, and for these reasons, for an outstanding performance he is my man of the match.

As I said the fact that the decision of who should be man of the match is very difficult every week at the moment, and that is a sign of what I keep banging on about: the strength, depth and the ability of our squad at the moment. The only player that was a let down today to be honest was Gervinho, but only because of his finishing his all round play was quite good and he can't be questioned for his effort or work rate that is for sure. It is very exciting have such a strong squad at the moment, and I am just so excited to think that we can add Wilshere and Rosicky to this midfield, Sagna to the back but these guys have ALL got a fight on to get in the team, as it is going to be very difficult to displace any of our guys at the moment as they are all on good form. And this is what can make us successful, as I keep saying competition breeds success, and that is what we have in abundance at the moment it's very exciting!!!!

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!!!

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