Arteta’s Unpredictability, Pep’s Tactical Tweaks: Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal Tactical Analysis

Manchester City nil, Arsenal nil, may not be a game that screams in-depth tactical analysis, but that's exactly what I feel like it deserves. I'm going to be covering today how Pep Guardiola forced Arsenal so deep, Arteta's elite out-of-possession principles displaying themselves once again, and I'm also going to touch on and discuss the key moments of the game and the season to come, finishing where I believe both Arsenal and Manchester City can improve and move forward in these final nine games, and where Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool now sit in relation to one another. Welcome back to the Harvey Gratian YouTube channel, I'm so glad you found us or are joining us once again, and with all this to come, let's get straight on into it, starting with how Manchester City forced Arsenal so deep in the game, because Arsenal certainly didn't intend to defend as deep as they did and have just 28% of the football. In fact, multiple times, especially early on throughout the game and towards the start of the second half, Arsenal tried to switch to their man-to-man press, with Havertz pressing the ball and shadow marking Diaz, Rice stepping onto Rodri, the winger inverting onto City's outside centre-back, and the full-back for Arsenal backing up the press. But Pep changed his build-up, just as he did at the Etihad last April, although that was in a different way, and Arteta and Arsenal did not see this coming. It was a build-up with lots of rotations for Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, some of which I'm going to cover now. In initial build-up for Manchester City, Ortega was used as a centre-back, situationally, in possession, and this moved one of the City's centre-backs, Ake and Diaz, but mostly Nathan Ake, into the pivot alongside Rodri, and here they're trying to make up for John Stones' absence, but this was also almost exclusively from goal-kicks, moving and inverting that centre-back into the Man City pivot. Of course, Nathan Ake is not quite John Stones in the small spaces, and the City pivot alongside Rodri didn't receive a pass from the back line that punctured Arsenal's line of press until the ball was played into Rico Lewis, I think about 68 minutes into the game, and Rico Lewis's inversions were another frequent structure that Manchester City relied upon, and Arsenal's jump, they tried to jump onto this pass infield into Lewis straight away with Declan Rice, and Arsenal all season have been suffocating in these areas of the pitch, especially in the centre out of possession, but their approach had to focus on zonal compactness yesterday, because they were forced back. I think even Rodri struggled to receive the ball in these positions, in between the Arsenal lines, because it was so compact, and with Rice tasked to follow him in the build-up, it made progression for City really, really hard, especially without, like I said, that auxiliary passing option, which is John Stones, but back to Manchester City for now, and how they did take control of the game on the ball, because just like at the Emirates earlier in the season, Guardiola opted to swarm the deep midfield with competent ball players to make up for, like I said, absentees, but also as a security measure, I think, and out of respect for Arteta's Arsenal. It is also, though, vital to add that this game was nothing like the one at the Emirates earlier in the season, where Arsenal won 1-0 in many other respects, because Arsenal that day sustained pressure to a much greater extent, and attacked through settled possession. At the Etihad on Sunday, it was much more a fence through transitions, going long instead of baiting the City press a bit more, and playing through the thirds, but back to the Etihad match, Bernardo Silva was also a key rotation to keep an eye on, moving from holding the width on the right-hand side into a sort of midfield three for Manchester City, as opposed to his role as sort of a six in Rodri's absence at the Emirates, and this move subsequently made Akanji the sort of width holder on the right-hand side, but the most interesting thing, and the most interesting rotation that Pep made in his in-possession build-up structures yesterday, was Matteo Kovacic, who shifted to a left centre-back in-possession in City's sort of back three shape, and this in turn moved Nathan Ake to the central centre-back position, with then any of Akanji, Rico Luis, Bernardo Silva joining Rodri in the pivot or a midfield three. I mean, Kovacic is naturally very difficult to press, and I think with him in these deeper areas, and also players like Bernardo Silva rotating into the midfield too, City once again overloaded that Arsenal press like at the Emirates, and got control of the ball. However, Arsenal are, in my opinion, the best out-of-possession side in world football, and they made it near impossible, or I think as hard as a team can possibly make it, for City to find joy in the final third. So how did they do this? Well, as I've said, Arteta certainly wanted to use his aggressive, suffocating man-to-man press more often, and be a bit more hybrid between the use of a zone and a man-to-man press, but things do not always go to plan, meaning Arsenal had to set up in this uber-compact 4-4-2 mid-to-low block. Havertz and Odegaard here drop onto the midfielders, with Jesus and Saka also staying narrow to ensure that there's no space to play balls into the half space in between the Arsenal lines to where Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden were operating as those interiors, and then Rice and Jorginho would manage that space as they always do really well in the pivot, and this denial, I think, of central access to Manchester City's main threats of De Bruyne, Foden, Haaland, meant that Pep and City, they had to go wide, and due to Guardiola's prioritisation and maybe safety measures of sort of trying to overload the Arsenal press and dominate the build up of the game, it meant Guardiola and Akanji were often the two wide men in City's 3-2-5, holding the width on the left and the right, and of course these aren't the 1v1 options of Grealish and Jeremy Doku. I think for me the game, straight away watching it, looks set up for explosion via the substitutions like the Emirates earlier on in the season, and look it's made even harder of course out wide for City when they're funnelled that way, and Saka and Jesus drop all the way back into the last line forming a sort of 6-2-2 which is Unai Emery-esque at Aston Villa, and sort of this stops City's main way of creation from wide, those sort of wide overloads and those underlaps which try and pull the full backs, White and Kivio, out of possession. Saka and Jesus added those extra bodies to really stop that, and when Arsenal were in this really deep shape in low block, Kevin De Bruyne, not getting much central access to him, was forced to come and receive the ball outside of the block, and of course here in a position where De Bruyne, Trent Alexander-Arnold, these guys really excel in breaking down compact shapes and finding the space in behind, and this is where Arsenal's back line defended the box to sort of an elite standard, and they didn't allow De Bruyne, or Rodri really, the space all game to hit those sort of diagonal clips in behind that they're so good at to run us off the shoulder of the defences. I mean subsequently though, if we're talking about how City could have 72% of the ball, when Arsenal did regain the ball, City were of course in a better place to counter-press reliably in comparison to Arsenal in their sort of zone shape, and this forced, when Arsenal did get possession of the football, this forced them back to Raya oftentimes, who had a really subpar game with the ball at his feet I thought, and this meant Arsenal could not hit their outlets as reliably as I think Arteta would have liked, for example Havertz against Diaz and Jesus against Lewis after that Nathan Ake injury, and sort of get themselves up the pitch, which would allow them of course to be more unpredictable then with more of the ball in their own build-up, trying to build through the thirds as opposed to just launching balls long all the time to play over the City man-to-man press, and I think Arteta definitely had a solution to sort of Raya not being able to hit maybe the outlet balls as reliably as he would have liked, and that was with Ben White as that late runner off the shoulder, starting him sort of high in possession, either as the widest of our front line or in the half space, and I think this often loses a body actually in the Man City press, because Foden, we saw yesterday, sometimes is stuck in between and then follows White into the last line, and it gives Arsenal then, or Arteta would have hoped it gave Arsenal, a chance to build out from the back more reliably, but that didn't quite materialise, but White was an interesting solution for Arteta, keeping him high and being an outlet that he has been much of the season, using his dynamism I think to a really good extent, but unsurprisingly this was the second most long balls David Raya has played in an Arsenal shirt, the only other game with more was the Liverpool match at Anfield, and the only reason for that was Arsenal's higher level of possession on the day, the actual proportion I think of launch balls in relation to Raya's touches was much higher on Sunday at the Etihad, if these outlets, in particular Ben White was the release valve, or tried to be the release valve for Arsenal at the Etihad, City's release valve also came in the nature of a defender and a full back, but it's a little bit different, and this is where I'm going to touch on Guardiola's performance, because it was a very assured performance from the Croatian yesterday, he looked really powerful defending transitions against the Arsenal attack and Saka in particular, and at times almost single-handedly I think carried the Manchester City team through their build-up and up the pitch, and looking back to the Emirates once again, Arsenal allowed Guardiola and Akanji, the withholders on Sunday, and sacrificed them as that potential release valve for City in possession, for that outer possession ascendancy, not in their man-to-man press like it was at the Emirates, but more in their central compactness that they had on Sunday. But I think back to Guardiola, I think he is someone that just has a profile, I think that's destined to perform well for Pep and in the Premier League, and in the long run I think he's destined to become a real hit for Manchester City. As I've sort of alluded to, it was a game of many phases, but before I touch on where I think the sides could have shown a bit more biting edge, I want to highlight the main reason Arsenal were able to to get away with playing as deep as they did yesterday, and not being able to sustain possession in settled play, really transition into their 3-2-5 shape, or their 2-3 shape, and really had to sit deep, because of course Saliba is imperative to all of this, and allows us to be so much more compact out of possession in comparison to Rob Holding last year, and suddenly with Saliba and Gabriel, Arsenal have a backline brave enough to fight Haaland on the halfway line, and when we press aggressively to stay up high and back themselves, defending the channels instead of dropping back, Saliba of course defends these channels to a world-class standard, and next to Gabriel they have this unbelievable partnership to defend the box, stay composed on the ball, and also mentally stay there for the whole of the 100 minutes. However, there is one Arsenal player even more important in these games, and you've probably guessed it, but it is Declan Rice, but I want to highlight just one moment, not his overall package, which of course everyone and myself included have covered to such a large extent, but a specific situation that Manchester City always create against teams, because we've been talking about the spacing between the lines with relation to Manchester City, and this is an area of play that they love to really kill teams and take control of the games and exploit that space, and they did this against us at the Eti had last April, with Partey joining our press when we sort of matched up with City in their 4-2-4 build-up shape, but this meant there was loads of space for Kevin De Bruyne to dominate those knockdowns and second balls from Erling Haaland, who pulled and then subsequently pinned Rob Holding, and the whole of Guardiola's plan was to suck Arsenal in and exploit that space in between the lines, and they did that to a devastating level, and of course Saliba instead of Holding, as we've already touched on, plays a massive role in this, but Declan Rice, by virtue of being in the same space and covering in between the lines that Kevin De Bruyne sort of assumes, is why I think he's even more important, and it's why I was actually a bit tentative with Jorginho being the deepest of the midfielders yesterday, but of course we never really saw him exposed as much because Arsenal defended much deeper, but when Kevin De Bruyne creates his own transitional moment, he's absolutely devastating, and he's the quality to either carry the ball away from a whole defensive setup and score from outside the box, or play a pass into the space behind weighted perfectly, but Declan Rice stopped this I think two, three, four times in the game, and the best example I think comes around the 54th minute mark, and he puts out the fire before it's even started, and these moments do not just define games, but genuinely I think define titles, where teams get their marginal gains against the opposition, and this won't be spoken about because nothing arises from these situations, that's exactly what Declan Rice is important to do, and I thought I had to touch on that today. I mean interestingly, Arsenal could have really used a Kevin De Bruyne type creator yesterday, because Odegaard as we know is a much different type of creator to Kevin De Bruyne, and his zone of influence as we've spoken at length about on the channel, does not extend to hitting really those long range passes into the space behind, or those devastating line splitters, unless he drifts centrally, or into that sort of left-hand sided half space, where again as we've spoken about, he becomes much more vertical in his on-ball temperaments, and his body angles I think are much more conducive to being a different type of creator, a more Kevin De Bruyne-esque style, even if he sort of can't carry the ball quite as powerfully as the Belgium, and this moment when he drifted across to the left-hand side occurred exactly yesterday, when Trossard was played in, and from a split second I thought that was the game for Arsenal. Frustratingly though, Martinelli, he was on the right, to ironically, he was put on the right, to be closer to Martin Odegaard, who hadn't really had the space, or allowed the time, to drift to more central and left areas the whole game, because he didn't sustain pressure enough. Martinelli was kept on the right instead of the left, and Trossard just obviously didn't have quite the pace to really keep the distance he had created from Manuel Akanji. But I want to finish the video with, what could either team have done to improve, and where does this put them, in relation to Liverpool, who of course now are top of the league? And this section is going to focus Manchester City fans more on Arteta and Arsenal, but I will start with Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, but after that, if you don't want to listen to the Arsenal histrionics, then you can just turn off if you're not interested. But we will start with City and Pep, as noted, certainly a risk-averse game for both teams, and Pep's deep central overloads in the build-up, I think, exemplified this. But my question is, once this control was gamed over Arsenal, and I think it was always going to be hard for Arsenal to take control back of the game, and to mentally switch their mindset in that way, as maybe a Liverpool or Klopp side could do much more easily, and once this control is gamed, should Pep have brought his direct 1v1 threats on maybe a bit sooner? Around the hour mark, Doku and Grealish came on, and Arteta of course reacted straight away with Tomiasu up against Doku, and of course Trossard tried to help that out as well, matching up, and Ben White was left to deal with Jack Grealish, as there was never really that space for Grealish to play those incisive passes to the byline for the underlapper who plays the cutbacks for City. Let me know what you think, Manchester City fans, because once again, Pep was so good, world-class in tinkering and creating build-up shapes that Arteta couldn't prepare for and took the Arsenal players by surprise, but if we cannot even critique, of course, the best managers on the planet, then what's the point? I think if you argue that Doku and Grealish and the subs were timed right, then maybe you say Pep should have used Bernardo Silva as a right winger earlier, once that control was gained, as this was where the space was right, out wide, and with Gravardio, you can allow him to be the width holder on the left, but with him and Akanji, it just makes City a little bit more toothless in those wider areas, for that extra defensive security of course. I mean, some people might say, I don't really want to get drawn into this too much, but some people might say this was a bigger game for City to win than Arsenal, and we will get on to the Arsenal ambitions in this game soon, but before we cover that, I want touch on Kevin De Bruyne a little bit more, because when the choice was made to take Foden off as that left interior, and leave Kevin De Bruyne as that main central creator on, was enough done to manufacture positions for him, or give him runners to find? I probably say no, I actually do not think this is the strongest parts of Grealish or Doku's game at all, and Haaland was the only really man to hit in behind, and of course he was marshalled well by Saliba and Gabriel, but now for Arteta and Arsenal, it has been a mixed reaction I think to how we approach the game, sort of in the second half of the second half, with Arsenal potentially having the weapons to hurt, certainly a weaker than normal Manchester City back line, and I've taken some time to reflect, and I'm by no means pronouncing, I have an answer, but this is my view on it. I want to first say, from a mentality point of view, which we've touched on, I can see why Arteta elected not to go for it in the game, because Arsenal's recent history at the Etihad is abhorrent viewing, and we must remember Arteta is part of this recent history as a player, and has been through the pain that Arsenal have been put through at the Etihad, we haven't won there in I think, I don't know how many games it is now, probably 12 or 13 games since that 15-16 victory with the Cazorla and Giroud double, and Arteta definitely had last year's 4-1 loss at the Etihad running through his mind still, and this has informed I think our incredible record versus the top sides this season, and that has to be held in juxtaposition to any criticism he receives, because those experiences against City last year, and Liverpool in the past, have allowed us to become so flexible in these top of the table clashes, whether that is the deeper zone we saw against City, or mid-blocking the heck out of them at the Emirates, and sort of mixing in that hybrid press that Arsenal are so good at in their sort of suffocating man-to-man press with this zone as well, also going transition for transition, blow-for-blow at Anfield against Liverpool, who are seen as the conquerors of heavy metal football, and really going just toe-to-toe with them in that sense, and of course then the suffocation of Liverpool in our press at the Emirates, staying composed and asserting then our ascendancy as a team in settled play, and this is not a game Arteta wanted to drop deep for the whole of the 90-100 minutes of course, but it just shows how flexible Arsenal are in their approaches to these really top games, and yet this is not justifying him or the sort of approach, this is just providing a counter view, and reasons why I think we were more reticent, which for a 42-year-old manager who's looking to be the youngest ever Premier League manager to win a Premier League, it has to be taken into account because this guy is only 42 and the Arsenal team of course is still very young, you know maybe if we're looking at what Arsenal could have done to change intent and be a bit more ruthless, maybe a more strict or flatter midfield three with Erdogan on the left to facilitate that verticality that he has in his game, and stretch the city backline more, maybe that could have been an option, I think this ability to stretch Manchester City is key and overall it's what Arsenal really lacked on Sunday, because without Stones alongside Rodrie and also with Walker and then Ake absent in the game, Arsenal's marginal athletic game that I thought they had when sort of a full 11 is fielded for both sides, is made even sort of stronger by these absentees from Manchester City, so I say in terms of stretching the game, my favoured option probably wouldn't even be to have moved Erdogan in this specific game to the left, but have Jesus and Saka certainly in the second half swap wings, Saka on the left, Jesus on the right, and it gives us, I think that gives us much greater 1v1 ability to go on the outside of the defenders, as Kivi or Jesus isn't this kind of relationship and Saka of course has to wait for the promotions of Ben White, which isn't always, we don't always have the conditions available for that, and suddenly by not changing personnel at all, we have a much better in behind capacity as a team to hurt City more, and this greater carrying potential and threat in behind also stretches to the Manchester City midfield and our central carrying, which is a great way to eliminate Rodrie at times, sucking him out of positions, but I think as soon as Jorginho is included, and I'm not saying that's the wrong choice of start at all, but I think as soon as Jorginho is included, that probably shuts off the central carrying aspect for Arsenal, and it's something Uri and Timba gives us in abundance whenever he's back fit, but maybe when Jorginho is substituted off, you can start using Havertz and Trossard as that centre forward slash shadow striker relationship, start to overload the central areas ourselves and create false transitional moments, keep Martinelli and Saka on the last line or more central at times themselves, and really try to outrun City in those central areas. I think that was probably a way that we missed out, hurting them at the Etihad. I mean personnel wise, I don't really have any grievances to how we ended the game, it was the City blueprint that I've been talking about the whole season with four centre backs, Martinelli, Havertz, that traditional pivot of Partey and Declan Rice, but just maybe not the intent to go with it, and this can happen at the Etihad, but I'm really intrigued for you guys to let me know what you think. Maybe a fit Uri and Timba, as I've alluded to, change of things and allows us to be a bit more adventurous, but I'm still a bit stuck either way, so I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments below, because I know there has been of course general praise for how we defend in the game, but there has been a bit of a general split of maybe we could have gone for the game a bit more, and it's certainly something that I'm sort of competing with in my own mind. But in conclusion, I'm not saying either approach necessarily is better or worse, and Arteta and Pep both went risk averse going into the game, in comparison to someone like Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool, who would I think embrace that game state that Arsenal had found themselves in and really gone with it, gone for it, and neither is necessarily right or wrong, again that's not what I'm saying, but it speaks to Arteta's use of the squad, which has been a point of debate on the channel, and it's certainly where it differs to Jurgen Klopp, right, who places individual conditions in these states. I think he prioritises them over how his team reacts to the opponent, which is what Guardiola and Arteta, certainly Arteta, focuses on much more. I think Arteta can blend both of these aspects of his management together, and he has the ability, like we've seen in the past, but it's normally very late that he makes the changes, when sort of push finally comes to shove, and I don't want him to be someone that holds off, but of course he's 42, like we've touched on, he's young, and he has the ability to blend that sort of braveness and courage into his management style, like we've seen so much, with that more risk averse nature to conserve our bodies and also the game states that we find ourselves in. Because I think it's so difficult to sit here from an outsider point of view and debate sort of this management style, when it's hard to hold a view and really look inside the entire situation and perceive how players are feeling, maybe people are carrying injuries, maybe people are so tired, maybe that 19-day game break lost a bit of sharpness in the players. So there's so many unknown quantities, and this is unrelated, but these approaches are probably why Arsenal and Man City are where they are this season and competing for the league, and also why Liverpool have been equally good and are competing for the league title too. But it's an interesting tactical debate that moves us from more direct coverage of the game that we started with, to the more hypothetical, and I really do enjoy this style of analysis and this more sort of thinking outside of the box analysis, it's what I have built a lot of the channel off of. But that is all from me, I really hope you've enjoyed the video, I've really enjoyed making it, and you've found it entertaining or informative in whichever shape or form you derive that from. That is all from me though, I'll catch you in the next one, thank you so much for watching, I only ask you to like, comment and subscribe at the end of the video, because like I said, hopefully you've found that entertaining or informative. I'll catch you in the next one, see you later.