Why Arsenal are the BEST side in the Premier League: Brighton 0-3 Arsenal Tactical Analysis

Arsenal are the best side in the Premier League and it's been like that for some time now, in my opinion. And look, whether they win the Premier League or not, Arteta's side dominated Brighton like no one has done before and they've done that twice now this season. And in today's video, through a meticulous tactical lens, I'm going to look at and analyse how Arteta adapted to Zerby's intelligent changes in his build-up structures, how Arsenal took control of the ball with their ever-growing fluidity, touching on key individual performances along the way, including another Kai Havertz stellar showing. So with all this to come, let's get straight on in with it, starting with adapting to Zerby's Adingra-directed build-up. Arteta said after the game that Brighton did something similar to Liverpool away, which they never do, and they did it on the other side today. But what was this tactical tweak that Arteta hence prepared for? Well, against Liverpool, Esther Pignan was man-marked by Conor Bradley and drew Conor Bradley from the comfortable position defending Esther Pignan high and wide in Brighton's 2-4 build-up shape, to a much higher position as Esther Pignan moved deeper, sometimes even into Brighton's 2-3 shape. And what this meant was Kwanzaa was pulled from his half-space to mark Adingra on the wing. And I think combine this with Welbeck's false-nine position in Brighton's build-up that displaced Endo, this triangle of Esther Pignan, Welbeck and Adingra via combination play, third-man runs, ensured that they had a free inside left channel to attack against Liverpool and it caused Jurgen Klopp's team a lot of problems. But with Arsenal's weaker channel being on the opposite side, Adingra switched flanks onto Oleksandr Zinchenko and he would try to get joy against the Ukrainian when Jesus inverted to press van Gekker, leaving Lamptey as a free man to be found through neat triangles with Buleba because Zinchenko didn't back up the Arsenal man-to-man press. But this still left Gabriel and Zinchenko dealing with Adingra, meaning Gabriel had to be dealt with in a way for Brighton. And they did this by dropping Moda from that false-nine position in between the lines in their build-up like Welbeck against Liverpool, dropping him as deep as their pivot line at times. And Arsenal's man-to-man press meant Gabriel followed Moda all the way and this isolated Adingra against Zinchenko. However, of course, as we know, Arsenal are phenomenal out of possession and Arteta reacted just like he said he did. Jesus remained this time, marking Lamptey, and Havertz instead was tasked with shadow-marking the pass to the full-back. Reiss matched up then with Buleba, who did actually turn incidentally, Reiss one time, which I think adds him to a list of his own and you can probably tell that little bit tired just being a second or two late on his jumps to the Brighton number six. But with Gabriel still tracking Moda all the way deep, the only way to access Adingra now for Brighton was either Adingra coming deep or sort of that perfect combination play when Arsenal are a split second off like they were here, which of course rarely happens. But you have to accept that Brighton, with their courage and their technicality, will puncture your press at times. But Brighton also took advantage of any diagonal decompactness, I think, from Arsenal. A hit Adingra with a long ball when Arsenal were transitioning sometimes into a mid-block. But all in all, Arsenal had a really, really good plan out of possession to manage this Brighton team and Arteta, I think, is coming up with even more innovative ways to ensure Jorginho is not exposed athletically in between the lines in our press too, because as I've And Jorginho paired up with Pascal Grosz. And this physical match-up of these profiles meant Arsenal could go man-to-man against Brighton's 4-2-4 build-up and ensure there were no mismatches when Brighton transitioned into their settled play shape, which was a 2-3 build-up, mostly Belayba the deepest and then Grosz moving higher into the left-hand-sided half-space. But if it ever was the other way around and Grosz dropped, the two Arsenal midfielders would offset their heights and sort of move up and down like a pendulum, with Rice covering the space in between the lines instead. But of course, dominance also requires in-possession ascendancy, and Arsenal's fluid on-ball structures and responsibilities really enabled this. Because let's talk Arsenal's initial build-up now, who set up in a 4-2-4 like Brighton, and in recent games we've seen this actually keep Odegaard out of doing his all-phase central midfield role and moving into the pivot, because Rice and Jorginho have operated as a more traditional pivot alongside each other. But against Brighton, what was really nice to see was this really fortified build-up from Arsenal, and it was great to see Arteta using all of his build-up leaders, including Zinchenko, and sharing this responsibility to try and pull apart and manipulate this Brighton man-to-man press, as I'll talk about now. But firstly, it's important to touch on that Declan Rice next season will of course move back to that traditional number six role that he was playing in the first half of this year, and take control again, as Jorginho will not be starting and we will have Odegaard and hopefully that athletic upgrade on Partey and Jorginho, as well as someone to replace Partey's progressiveness on the ball. But back to beating Brighton, because the most typical build-up shape for Arsenal was Odegaard drifting into their pivot, receiving deep alongside Jorginho and Rice in the left-hand side at number eight, and he operated in these initial shapes alongside Kai Havertz, and with this pair being so close to each other, it gave us definitely a proficiency in the second balls if we went to Kai Havertz, and with this box of players in our midfield, it invites a lot of rotation, because we also saw Rice move into that left centre-back slash left-back berth, as he did against Manchester City in the Community Shield final, which allowed Zinchenko to either push high and wide or invert into midfield. Rice also at times dropped as far back in between the two centre-backs, receiving the ball facing play, as did Jorginho and sometimes Martin Odegaard, and this created a really nice rotation where Zinchenko would move into the left-hand-sided half-space as a result, drawing Idingra with him, who was man-marking him, meaning as Gabriel was pushed to left centre-back, Arsenal had suddenly created space to carry out and progress up the pitch, and this was, I think, really good understanding and tactical intelligence from Oleksandr Zinchenko, and there were loads of these examples. With one of our two controllers between the centre-backs, we created at times a midfield three with Zinchenko joining the other two, again trying to overload that Brighton man-to-man press, pull their wingers central to create space out wide, or draw their centre-backs into uncomfortable positions too high up defending the halfway line, and I'm going to touch on this last point now, because like Brighton do, Arsenal, with these two players in the false nine, they pull the opposition centre-backs forward, creating 1v1 situations for their wingers, and in the 4-2-4, White can push high and wide and be another dynamic outlet for Arsenal, and in this example, he receives from Jorginho's mid-range line-breaker, and Estupinam is caught between pressing and retreating, and Saka, of course, has his brilliant chance, and I want to finish with just one last example of how Arsenal rotated these build-up responsibilities to manipulate that press. Here, Rice again drifts into that left centre-back position, but under pressure, so Jorginho and Zinchenko are in close proximity to him, and I think this links to us at a post-game saying that the Arsenal team were really connected on the ball. Baleba, who was man-marking Declan Rice, is now out of the game, he's in the top right corner, he's completely out of the centre of the pitch, and Raya, who I think on a tangent had one of his best games in an Arsenal shirt in terms of being brave to bait the press and find the free man and step into a situational centre-back position at times, but now there's that space created for Odegaard, who had evacuated the Arsenal build-up, to receive in between the lines and get on the turn and attack the space. All this enabled Arsenal to gain control of the ball, and this image here that I'm going to show now, just half an hour into the game, is us camped in the Brighton half, super aggressive with our positioning, right before we won the penalty. And here we're in our nominal 3-2-5, but you can see the increased fluidity Arteta is now affording his players to take up in different positions, and become a bit more creative in how we break down defences. Of course, Odegaard is in the pivot here, dropping deep outside of the block with Jorginho, but he's on the left, Odegaard. White holding the width, pushing Saka inside, who has rotated with Kai Havertz too, and we can see also Rice's potential just ahead of Odegaard here as a box-crasher from the left eight, with Jesus as a winger on the left, who I think now is really starting to show his capacity as one of the best, if not the best, hybrid forward on the planet in terms of someone who can play across the front three. Every zone here for Arsenal is completely occupied, the distances between the players are so small, with Brighton completely camped in, and let me tell you this, this does not happen to a deserby Brighton side too often. And look, we also even saw Jorginho in like the right eight, right interior position sometimes, and I'm not saying this is optimal in any regard, but here it facilitates Odegaard dropping outside of the block, and shows, I think, the levels of confidence and expression that Arsenal and Arteta's team are operating with now. I think to limit Brighton with no periods of sustained pressure yesterday is tremendous, especially with the level of fatigue some of the guys are operating with at the moment, and also to mentally recover after a very tricky first 10 minutes shows the emotional maturation, I think, of this Arsenal squad in recent weeks that we've touched on. We just saw a lovely balance to our in-possession approach today. There was lots of nice rotations, of course, but it was not overly fluid, and every single key zone was occupied. Havertz has a long ball option to play over Brighton's man-to-man press as well, of course, and this mix of sustained pressure, direct progression to Havertz, and also to Jesus as our sort of main 1v1 threat, isolating him against Lamptey, and sort of using the best dribbler at the club to the best extent. And add width play to this, and you have a synergy, I think, between patience, tempo, and real dynamism to this Arsenal attack. And add Martinelli, and it's a really, really nice dynamic. And obviously, when that second goal went in, that triggered Arsenal a move away from the suffocating press to really that 4-4-2 mid-block, using Martinelli and Trossard as wide men with fresh legs, meaning they could drop into the last line to double up against Dingra, Pedro, and Sisso, but also cover the distance to be a threat on the last line, as we saw for Trossard's goal, which was almost Alexis Sanchez against West Ham-esque. And I spoke about, at the start of the season, about Arsenal finding their inevitability trait, and I think in their impenetrable defence, they certainly have done that. And we were talking maybe about the other end of the pitch initially, but that just shows how unique this Arsenal team is as a side. And I want to finish now with touching on an individual, because of course we've done that throughout this video, but I want to really focus and hone in on Kai Havertz now, because a lot of you know much my channel has been built around championing Havertz as a signing and naming his best position and main role in this Arteta side as a centre forward. Mikel, at the end of the game, commented on how he saw Kai initially as being able to cover the two attacking midfielder positions and the centre forward, and I think that capacity for him to be able to fill in as our left or right interior, which is more like a right-hand-sided number 10 and a left-hand-sided shadow striker. Also, though, to specialise as that Rom-Deuter type, which this centre forward position at Arsenal really allows him, is just top player platforming for Mikel Arteta. And next season, I think we'll see a lot more of him, not just in the centre forward, which is where his best position is at the moment, but also at the tip of a diamond, playing that Rom-Deuter type role in Arsenal's sort of three-diamond-three or three-one-six shape, as we saw against Nottingham Forest at the start of the season. But injuries have got in the way, and more on that in another video. And I want to highlight a few examples of Havertz's capacity in this centre forward role at the moment for Arsenal, to just really augment what I've been saying over time in these videos. Because first, the goal. Take that double movement that Havertz makes on Lewis Dunk, which is absolutely lethal. And that sort of zone dominance that we have been talking about, that phrase, really applies here. Making Havertz that sort of six-yard box specialist, something that is his long legs, his aerial ability, and how awkward he is to defend really enables him to do. And next, though, I want to look at him in that Rom-Deuter flow state from centre forward. Arsenal, of course, give the perfect conditions for him to be this space invader or investigator, with lots of combinations for him to drop into pockets and link play, rotate and exploit or create the space for teammates, make third-man runs. And if he can add that level of domination, being ruthless and sort of holding a zone at the right time to this, whether he starts or not down the line, you have just simply a unicorn player in the squad who, remember, can also hold up the ball against the most physically imposing centre-backs, carriers with him up the pitch with the ball in transition, and also give us the out-of-possession ascendancy and those sort of marginal gains that he gives us. And lastly, just to finish on that relationship he has with Jorginho, talking about sort of that greater rhythm right to this team at the moment. And these connections, I think, really help for Arsenal, allowing us to stretch a back line as well, or here have Jorginho as an overlapper, which I think caused some laughs from Mikel Arteta in the Arsenal squad. But they will sort of connect over any distance, it's telepathic almost, and these connections are another great way to break down blocks in these bits of associative play, and players like Kai Havertz or Jorginho are really easy to strike up connections with on the pitch. But that is all for my tactical analysis today, I really hope you've enjoyed it. I only ask you to subscribe, like, comment, whatever, at the end, because hopefully you found the video enjoyable or informative, whichever shape, waveform you derive that from. But I've really enjoyed talking to you, I really hope you've enjoyed the video, I'll catch you in the next one, see you later.