Why Arsenal 's Biggest Weakness Was Exposed Against Porto

Hello there chums! That's a new one, yes, I'm trying it out. Adam Cleary here from 442 and after a shock 1-0 defeat in Porto, Arsenal's Champions League qualification looks a little bit more precarious than we thought perhaps it might. Now, don't get me wrong, I still do think they'll qualify but they do face an uphill task to do so given that Porto seem to have identified this Arsenal team's Achilles heel, the mid-block. Okay, I'm going to put that away because it's quite unprofessional. This is the Arsenal side that lined up against Porto, it is the same 11 that scored, let me check the data banks, like 11 goals against Burnley and 40 goals against West Ham. It has been solid at the back, rampant through the middle of the pitch and lethal in front of goal and yet, Arsenal recorded an xG against Porto which looked a lot like my bank account. In fact, I'll not labour this point because I know a lot of people don't care about xG but it's actually worse than this because this is their total xG across the game and this was their open play xG. That really sucks. So what was the problem then? Did they forget how to play football? Did their brains fall out? Did they eat too many francesinas? What's one of those? Great question. It's a delicacy in Porto that's like layers of bread, cheese, meat, bread, meat, cheese, bread then covered in like a tangy, tomatoey, meaty gravy. I had a couple of them and it made me sweat and I could then see God. But no, it was none of these things. Porto simply employed a defensive structure against Arsenal that Arsenal have repeatedly, this season, struggled to break down and that is the mid-block. Now, if you have never heard that term before, do not worry. A mid-block is simply a defensive structure that teams will employ where you push your defenders up the pitch but you also sit your attackers off so you try and congest the middle part of the pitch. Now, you may have heard of the term a low-block which is exactly the same thing. They're both designed to stop you getting played through but a low-block is done pretty much in your third of the pitch so there's no space in behind for balls over the top. But a mid-block, a little bit more ambitious than that, you do it in the middle of the pitch, your goalkeeper then has to sort of sweep up in behind in case they do go over the top but the benefit is if you do then turn the ball over, if you win it back, you're much closer to the opposition goal. From the very first couple of minutes of this game, Porto were very happy to allow Arsenal's first line of build-up, usually the defence, sometimes David Reyes, sometimes Declan Rice, to have the ball in their third of the pitch but as soon as they tried to move into the middle, be it with a run or a pass or anything, then they would hound them. And from the very first minute, like over and over, we saw these long periods of possession from Arsenal where they would move the ball from left to right trying to find some kind of gap in this mid-block and Porto just simply would not give them one. On the rare occasion they were able to find somebody in this space between the lines and get a pass into them, they were man-marked from behind so they could not get turned and the ball just came straight back. Now the thing is, Arsenal aren't stupid, they know this is something they occasionally struggle with and Arteta has, several times this season, found new and innovative ways to pick through this kind of defence and they did try pretty much all of them last night. Martin Erdegaard, sometimes he will drop away from the A position and go as far back as he can to get on the ball. Fine, said Porto, you're welcome to do that but we still won't let you turn with it because we know what you can do. They inverted Ben White over into the middle and allowed Bakayo Saka to drop to create this little bit of space on the right-hand channel but Porto just refused to take the bait. In fact, actually Arteta tried loads of different things with Ben White. He was allowing him to go beyond Saka down the right-hand side and even if the space was there, was allowing him to just run into the forward line to see if one of the midfielders in the part of the high press would go with him and create a little bit extra space but no, that wasn't the rule. Porto had a back four that was pushing right up to the halfway line and whether it was Saka or White or Erdegaard or Trossard, whoever ended up in that space, that was their job. Nobody was getting dragged out of position in the press. Nobody was falling for the bait and pushing too high up to create a space in behind them. They were so disciplined, so dogged, so determined and you do need those three things by the way. Like any team in the world can set up like this against Arsenal but it only works if you apply it really, really well. Like it's not just some magic formula that beats a Mikkel Arteta side, it's how you do it and they did it so well. Like if we look at Arsenal's average positions across that game, just nobody is getting a touch of the ball anywhere near this central area of Porto's half. Like even Trossard, who was normally the centre forward in this system, kept having to drop out to the left-hand side because it was the only place he could get on the ball. Havert, who sometimes pushes up from the eight, couldn't do it around here because there was just no service to him. Like this is Trossard's heat map against West Ham and this is Trossard's heat map against Burnley and I know he's not like a centre forward or centre forward, part of his job is to be that focal point. This is his heat map against Porto, just couldn't get the ball and so the pattern went on repeating itself. Arsenal were going from left to right, not able to get any incisive passes into the two. Number eight, when they did finally get down the there was no presence in the middle of the pitch to make it worthwhile. Now if you have been watching the channel for a while, you know we covered this earlier in the season when Arsenal's results started to tail off and part of the problem is Declan Rice. I'm at pains to point out this isn't a criticism of him, just something about his game. He does not have that sort of really risky incisive through the lines pass that perhaps Sinchenko or even Thomas Partey do. Which is why, and I mean to whisper this one, in the really really big games Arteta prefers to have Jorginho there with Rice as one of the eights and have it up front because he knows the really really good teams can kind of snuff out that first pass from Declan Rice quite easily. And he did try to address this in this game Arteta, he made that substitution, he brought Jorginho on to sit in the six to receive the ball to be more able to turn and possibly get that incisive pass through the lines that would open Porto up. But they were just too good at this mid-block and didn't let that happen. Like even here, this is position A1, Jorginho gets behind that first line of the press, that's exactly where you want him to be, they get the ball into him, but they are too dogged, they are too determined, they don't let him turn and the ball goes backwards. It was actually remarkably similar, I thought, to the Newcastle game last year when Arsenal had a lot of the ball but really struggled to create any clear-cut chances. Newcastle denied them all the space in the middle of the pitch and in the end they lost by one goal, for which some people thought maybe the goalkeeper should have done better. But we'll not, we'll not get into any of that right now. Now, you know football, you know what it's like, sometimes you've just got to hold your hands up and say, you know what, the opposition has done a number on us today, it ain't gonna work. But this is the big reveal, right? I think Arsenal knew they could not play through Porto and I think they decided we're not even gonna try. This is something I have been mulling over for some time now and I have no evidence, I have no proof, I have no statistics to back any of this up, this is just something I've seen with my eye. Sometimes in these games, Arsenal come across either a mid-block or a low-block, they can't play through them, so what they try and do instead is deliberately play for set pieces. Now the one bit of data I do have is how good Arsenal are set pieces. If we look at how they rank in the Premier League, they are undoubtedly one of the most effective and efficient teams for scoring goals from free kicks, from corners and even throw-ins. And there was just a little moment in this game with about 10-15 minutes to go, where I think it's Leandro Trossard, he gets the ball down the left-hand channel in what is actually quite a good position. And despite the fact it's late in the game and Arsenal have been pressing for a goal for a while, they're finally in down one of the sides, there's just nothing happening in the middle, there is nobody there already and there's also nobody who seems arsed about getting there. And right now, I am expecting Trossard to get his foot on the ball, look up to see if there's a cross available, realise there's not, and then have to sort of come back in and Arsenal sort of pile up the pitch and pen the ball to him. But that doesn't happen. Trossard, without even looking up, just plays the ball off the defender and wins a corner. Now obviously Arsenal don't score from this corner, but you probably would argue, given how good they are at corners, they had a much better chance of scoring from that than they did as if he tried to just work the ball into the box with no support. And honestly, I think this is a game plan Arsenal have on occasion. And again, this isn't me throwing shade, if that's something they're trying to do, then fair play, that's a really, really good idea, it's just not something you associate with like one of the big, big teams, like oh let's just, let's play for set pieces. A goal's a goal, like if they'd have walked out there winning 1-0, because Gabriel had bulleted a header in at the back post after he'd been knocking on the door for a better part of 80 minutes, I think we'd all be saying like, yeah, fair play, well managed. Anyway, yes, that's why they couldn't score against Porto. And if you want, you can just take this entire video as a preview piece for the return leg, because that is absolutely how Porto are going to play again. Anyway, Arsenal fans, I will see you Saturday when you play my beloved Newcastle United. My God, please, please be gentle. So if you'd like to watch the fallout from that game, you can subscribe to us here on 442. We are having an unbelievable month for views and new subscribers, and we're just, I'd said this last month that we so nearly broke the record, but we might do it this month, even though February is a shorter month. So if you've enjoyed this video, or anything we do, or you think you might in the future, please do consider subscribing to us here on 442. It does genuinely, honestly, truly, really help us out. In the meantime, you can get me, Twitter, Ex, Insta, Christ, LinkedIn, I don't know, at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, look how pretty that is, available now from all good retailers, and the crap ones too. Anyway, yes, that's it. I was going to include like a little five-minute bit about what a nice time I had in Porto when I went to see them play Barcelona this season, but it just felt a little bit self-indulgent, that. So instead, to play us out, here is some nice traditional Portuguese music over set to some lovely holiday photos. Goodbye!