How Arsenal just proved they are TITLE FAVOURITES | Man City 2-2 Arsenal Tactical Analysis

There was a different dynamic, a different edge to normal in the game against Manchester City and Arsenal on Sunday, and won that, for me, felt like Arsenal, even with the context of the second half and that Trossard red card, felt like Arsenal were the protagonists. In today's tactical analysis I'm going to talk about the possible shift for the first time in a rivalry that's really starting to boil now, but alongside a forensic breakdown of both halves of football, starting with City's fast start, Arsenal's counter punch, and then trying to make sense of where we ended up. Welcome back to the Harvey Gresham YouTube channel. I'm so glad you've found us or are joining us once again, and let's get straight on in with it, starting with a fascinating first half. Two teams constantly battling, oscillating, jostling for superiority. Arsenal would have been expecting a City storm early on, and they got it. So we're going to first look at how City created their bright start, but then how Arsenal counter-punched them. Arsenal's intention was to maintain defensive aggression across the pitch. Wherever possible, they formed that man-to-man press when City were building from deep, painting this picture most often. City with a single pivot, Akanji and Diaz splitting wide, Guardiola and Walker high on the touchline, Bernardo Silva available to drop in and form a double pivot and be that extra body from higher up when necessary. Arsenal matched this, Rice this time from the right-hand side pushing through onto City's number six, Saliba backing up the integrity of the man-to-man press by following onto Ilkay Gundogan and party managing Bernardo Silva's movements. But what caused Arsenal the most problems in the first 5-10 minutes was not Bernardo's vertical drops, but it was his rotations with Savino. Initially, Martinelli had quite an aggressive role out of possession, springing out of Arsenal's 4-4-2 mid-block to press Kyle Walker, giving at times real big spaces between the lines for Silva and Savino to interchange and lure party wider, giving him far too much space to try and marshal. For Haaland's opener, Gundogan probably, if we're nitpicking draws Rice further than from an Arsenal perspective, they would want him, you know, wanting him to be nice and compact, tight next to Thomas Party. But this is all academic when you look at the decoy in the movements that Bernardo Silva has. Calafiore is also a split second and I mean just a split second off Savino and Haaland then stampedes through the middle. So manipulating Thomas Party's positioning, creating big spaces between the lines. Straight away though, that space after this goal was no more for City. Their shape in settled possession, Manchester City, was this 3-1-6 or as I like to call it a 3-1-5-1 and it was up against now an Arsenal mid-block which pivoted the other way after the Haaland goal. Martinelli now stayed deeper, allowing Kyle Walker to have the ball and this became a theme in the game. Arsenal would remain narrow and compact. Martinelli compressing the spaces on Arsenal's left-hand side, meaning the rotations between Bernardo Silva, Savino and Gundogan didn't have the same effect. Savino was actually left free and then Martinelli and Calafiore would fly out to try and double up on him. Saka became the more jumpy of the two wingers now. He would track Guardiola into the high left pocket he occupied in City's settled shape with Bernardo Silva now marshalled better on the opposite side and Gundogan floating in and out of the pocket in a role very similar to the one he played in the summer for Julian Nagelsmann's Germany. But when the ball was moved to the City left-hand side, Saka was now the one to jump onto Akanji and access to Jeremy Doku became limited and City became very right-handed centric I thought. This maintained intent from Arsenal to be aggressive was the absolute key. They have an ability of course to improvise, to maintain compactness. For example, here where Walker moves high and wide, Bernardo Silva becomes free and Trossard fills in. But there remains an effort to always punch back despite for the 15-20 minutes following the Haarlem goal, it being more about clogging space and growing in confidence for Arsenal and a confidence that would soon transpire on the ball. This was compounded by Calafiore's equaliser, that moment of off-the-cuff magic to show Arsenal have their own unstoppability in their ranks too. And of course this came from Partey releasing Martinelli in behind and Martinelli was really the equilibrium to Arsenal's attack and it's why I maintain his importance in these games despite, or these types of games, despite his recent performances, he's a balancing act, someone who stretches, provides genuine threat and at his best fear factor when running in straight lines. From 35 minutes onward, City's onslaught had taken it out of them probably and it was Arsenal's time to impose themselves on the ball up till half-time. The base template for Arsenal, the blueprint, was similar to the Spurs away game. A fixed double pivot of Thomas Partey and Declan Rice, a double false nine pairing in and our foundation was the same 4-2-2-2 or 4-2-4 that we had against Spurs. But let's talk the tweaks within this structure. Early on, we saw the type of relationship between Rice and Durian Timber that I was calling for when they were both on the left-hand side. Early on, Timber, we actually saw him invert infield often straight away with Rice pulling higher. But the general idea was to maintain our base with Declan Rice in the pivot with Timber pinching into those higher right pockets. There was a level of interchangeability to this as you'll be seeing on screen now and it's a really nice balanced fluidity. But the nominal structure then that we tried to form in our settled possession was this, that box midfield with Rice providing sturdiness and quick circulation on the right-hand side of the pivot. Timber in the higher pocket alongside Trossard mirroring that. We found these shapes increasingly more getting joy playing through the Manchester City press which started out in a 4-1-4-1 zone and then transitioned into a full-blown man-to-man. This is the build-up for the corner that led to Gabriel's first headed chance. There is more nuance you can see and confidence in Arsenal's movements in the build-up now. Slightly staggering their pivot, Calafiore dragging and drawing on the inside, compressing the pitch and then recirculating. All of a sudden the spaces from front to back in Manchester City's zone seem a bit stretched. Gundogan is unable to rectify this and Rice turns nicely, combines with Saliba and then bumps it into Saka. Gavardiol is left in between Saka and Timber who is freed down the line and then follows this up by finding Saka on the underlap. And that leads to Arsenal corner number one. I hope that this was reciprocated from you guys but I could feel through the screen this burgeoning sense of belief from the Arsenal players that they were genuinely on top in the match and we will return to that feeling and its importance later. That vying for superiority I felt from City had waned in this game. Arsenal were the ones at the end of the first half swaggering a bit around the pitch. The team of protagonists. There was a shift yesterday as I've alluded to earlier and it's unfortunate because it may well have been more pronounced if Trossard hadn't been sent off. That's just my opinion on proceedings but let's get our teeth into Arsenal on the ball a bit more now. As we've said, suddenly Manchester City's press just before half time and that Trossard red card was being beaten more. Here, Calafiore, as he does so well, creates a new angle to receive, darting into blind spots. Things quicken in tempo. There aren't too many touches in midfield. The attack gains frequency and power. Calafiore actually gallivants through the middle of the pitch now before Timbaugh moves higher and Calafiore tucks in again. And I really liked how Arsenal's system was allowed to pivot from one fullback to another yesterday. The nominal shape was this 3-2-5 with Calafiore in a back three and Timbaugh high between the lines on the right-hand side. But as soon as Calafiore offered a moment of invention, a moment of swashbuckle, we would create a similar shape to what we saw against Spurs last week and the team would accommodate Calafiore's more interesting and block-breaking movements and Timbaugh then would drop in. There were many more subtleties growing out of our in-possession play now. That was the most encouraging thing from the game on the ball. Here, Rice swings into a back four or here where Calafiore rotates with Gabriel in the left centre-back role, getting the big Brazilian free in the pocket and then releasing Gabriel Martinelli. This is something we hadn't seen before Calafiore's arrival, but in his cameos on the pitch and of course his full debut yesterday, we're seeing more and more. Arsenal, of course, got their second goal, one I thought was their money's worth and as I said, I felt something had shifted in the dynamics. It's now four games unbeaten for Manchester City against Arsenal and I think it is a fair debate to say that it at least feels like the pendulum is tilting. But there was, of course, that moment of contention. And look, I'm not going to try and offer you more than what's already been said, but if a moment of complete inconsequence is the moment you choose to exact the most extreme punishment for an action that hasn't been even officiated with the same level of consistency in the other games, then what are we really coming to? But as Arteta said last week, this team has thick skin. It wasn't then and it still feels fruitless now to complain. But with so much football to play, we need to find a way to pick ourselves up as this team always does and go again. These players dug in and almost conjured up a miracle in the second half. Let me explain now. I say miracle because you are simply not meant to do what Arsenal did in that second half. Surviving 55 minutes against a footballing school of thought in Pep Guardiola, which has quite literally shown time and time again that if they are playing with a man up, it's only a matter of time before you get overrun. And you might say that ultimately Arsenal were undone, but they certainly weren't broken for me. It was a moment of relative anti-climax after the second half had gone away. Hardly anyone would have expected a typical Pep 11v10 to go. That defensive rear guard display from Arsenal was one that you will very rarely see anywhere. As an Arsenal fan myself, I felt enormously proud. The connection between player, manager and fan feels even tighter knit. So how did Arsenal manage to defend so resolutely against City despite Arteta electing not to leave Havertz up front like he did when we went down to 10 men against Brighton? We began set up in a 5-4 deep defence, something that was quickly switched to a 6-3 because City simply found it too easy to stretch as wide before finding the space back in the half spaces or back in the centre of the pitch, which eliminates having that line of four midfielders for Arsenal in the first place. Martinelli shifted back to a back six. It was all about, though, for Arsenal, endeavour, communication, and it was also about sacrificing the right spaces because there had to be sacrifices for them. For example, if the ball was recirculated to a Kanji or Walker in the half spaces, Arsenal would typically apply no pressure and focus on shifting back as a unit. If Diaz received it in the centre, again, no pressure. And largely the same went for Mateo Kovacic when he dropped a bit deeper. But this is where timing is so important. As soon as a more presentable opening was fashioned for City or they found a tiny bit of space in the pocket, Arsenal would jump hard and fast. And this, of course, leaves spaces in behind you. So you have to pick your moments so intelligently and go together as a unit. Here is Calafiore doing just that. And there were countless other examples of this. I mean, we can, of course, speak of the question of what Manchester City could have done a bit better. I think getting Foden and Jack Grealish on earlier was a definite solution. Grealish because of the sense of timing that he has, his ability to suck players in. And Foden, of course, for those edge of the box shots, I would have put Foden in that right-handed half space outside the box. And Guardiola, instead of being higher in the pocket in those same deeper positions on the left-hand side, getting your best long ranges outside the block. But also for the left-hand side, giving it some cleaner circulation to the left wing with Guardiola's left-footedness. Overall, though, as I've said, as an Arsenal fan, I was, to be honest, beyond crestfallen yesterday. Not only did our incredible efforts in the first and second halves, as different as they were, feel undermined by a decision. We can all have our own opinions on one way or the other, but it's also we know these points matter. However, the most prominent emotion was still pride, and this feeling that the pendulum is starting to swing. For the first time, maybe, in an Arsenal and Manchester City encounter, I felt like I said, we were the ones with that subtle swagger of a team who have pipped the other's number. That may well be too much of an extreme for you Manchester City fans, and that's fair enough, okay, because it's going to go, I believe, right to the wire, this title race again. But I didn't feel as much of an inevitability on your end. Again, Kevin De Bruyne is out, but for the first time, I arguably felt this was the other way around. Look, on the channel, we're going to talk more and more about the rest of the season, how Arsenal build from this result very shortly in the week coming up. But good things are coming, Arsenal fans, and this result is the type of foundation you invest everything in, and I'm more confident in that than ever. Thank you so much for watching. I really hope you've enjoyed. I only ask you to like, comment, and subscribe at the end of the video, because hopefully that means you found it enjoyable or informative in whichever shape, way, or form you derive that from. There's going to be lots of Arsenal content coming from me coming up. Catch you in the next one. Thanks so much. See you later.