How Arteta Just REIGNITED Arsenal's Season in the NLD | Arsenal 2-1 Spurs Tactical Analysis

Arsenal fans, we needed that, didn't we? The occasion felt weighty, the baggage coming into the fixture was heavy, but this was an Arsenal team who breathed every single bit of it in. And in today's video, we're going to focus on analysing what catalyzed that, starting with how Arsenal's full backs in Durian Timber, but especially Myles Lewis-Skelly, helped establish a real team-wide balance, the knock-on effects for Declan Rice's usage, and how Martin Oerdegaard accommodated this. And at the end, talking about William Saliba, how he set the tone for this Mikel Arteta Arsenal team, alongside, as ever, so much more. Welcome back to the Harvey Grayson YouTube channel. I'm so glad you found us or are joining us once again. Now, I've got a seminar in about an hour, so let's get on with it, starting with those Arsenal full backs. I've done multiple videos now on the channel covering Myles Lewis-Skelly, but every single game, I find myself, and I'm sure it'll be the exact same for you people watching now, in shock as to the rate of development game on game. But why do I think he was so crucial in the North London derby? To set the scene, this was his first action of the game, snapping in on Dejan Kulesevski, then having the presence of mind to open up the pitch for himself and lay in Sterling on his weaker foot. For parity, this was Timber's first involvement, dispossessing Son and breaking a line with a carry. Our full backs were touch tight to their men off the ball, but it was their thrust and flexibility they provided on the ball that was the key. After Timber wins back the ball, look at how Myles instantly darts into that high pocket. Now, this specific movement has a real big impact, because we're going to speak more about this when looking particularly at Declan Rice himself, but enabling Rice to do both sides, high and low, of that box-to-box left centre mid role is what gets 100% of him out of it, being able to help out lowering the pivot next to party, knowing that there is someone else who can provide bursts, carries and combinations in the smaller spaces higher up. Of course, this leaves us better protected as well, defending transitions with Rice lower, and also our uber-fluid full back on the other side, Durian Timber, balancing things out nicely, tucking into our midfield three in our high possession 2-3-5 shape. But the rotations between Declan Rice and Myles Lewis-Skelly were a joy to watch. Here we settle into more of a 4-3-3 build-up shape, and as we shift into the final third mode and find some stability, Rice tells Myles to sit as he breaks high this time, and as it works its way back round to the right-hand side, we kickstart our rotations here too, as Timber ghosts on the underlap, Stirling holds the width, and that space is created for Odegaard deeper as we recirculate, pivoting from side to side, from full back to full back, it's Myles who is now the more conservative midfield inverted option. And to tangent away just for a moment, I don't think we've clocked how lucky we are to have Myles already Premier League ready in the absence of Calafiore. Calafiore, whom has been the left back I've wanted to see whenever Rice has played in that left centre mid, because he gives Rice such a good balance, and until now we've rightly kept Lewis-Skelly safer and lower on the ball. Remember me talking about after the Brentford game, about how Myles Lewis-Skelly and his already ridiculous physical levels, as they continue to grow, will be able to translate the complete package he has on the ball already into the final third too, sustaining himself like Calafiore can do. Well, it's coming sooner rather than later, and the different zones that Mikel is increasingly allowing Myles Lewis-Skelly to take up, as we saw yesterday, shows that he trusts Myles to do that too. And this exemplifies what I'm talking about, crunching into Sarr, not stopping there, giving us legs in the carry, and then going to overlap Trossard, who wins the corner, or the corner that wasn't a corner, for the equaliser. I do not need to tell you already what Myles gives us as a receiver, a press breaker technically, and now these bigger distance skills too, just make him absurdly complete. And he has more levels to go physically too. We've already seen how he suits the out-ball situations our left back is given, carrying us up the pitch. In this scenario here, as Erdegaard drops deeper, he nips on the outside and gives us that burst forward. And I've been talking about burst and thrust, and I've also been talking about trust, haven't I? And Mikel being okay with Myles also taking these much lower left centre-back type positions in possession, of course is another way to give Declan Rice a role that can carry us forward a bit more, starting from low. But it's a small detail, Myles in these left centre-back zones for me yesterday, that was really telling, because it's the one zone that we haven't really seen Lewis Skelly take up yet on the ball for Arsenal. And as I've said, I've watched a lot of Myles, but this moment here had me genuinely staggered. We've got Kulishevsky carrying up the pitch with probably a 10-yard start on Lewis Skelly, and he not only recovers, look at the ground power here, but he gets his body ahead, then into a position where he's just holding you off that he does so well, waiting for you to get impatient, and then rolling past you in that sort of carefree, really good, arrogant manner. And then, if it wasn't enough, he breezes past Brennan Johnson too. And the balance that him and Durian Timber enabled for us, as ever with our full-backs, is so important. A team that centres so much on breaking games open from wide, the value of having a right-hand side, for example, set like this, with Odegaard deeper, Timber high-pocketing, having someone who can maintain width in Saka's absence, and give Odegaard that depth and time to work the overloads and play those half-space crosses to the back post like this. Those overloads at the back post cause Spurs so many problems. But enough about our full-backs, let's talk more about Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard now, because with Miles' growing ability to occupy more zones, and Rice's truer box-to-box usage yesterday, Odegaard wasn't needed as much to come very deep as often. He still had lots of touches, the most touches in the team, but when we are talking about a potential signing like Martin Zubimendi, someone who can play in more of a stricter pivot with Declan Rice, while offering Rice the freedom and the licence to move forward, as we saw yesterday, Odegaard's touches become concentrated, slightly higher, and in the final third, it looks something like this, still allowing Timber to be that backboard option, and that hard-to-contain mover, high and central. With Odegaard, like I said, in the final third, still allowed to roam deeper. But what we saw so much more often is not so much a real deeper presence from Odegaard, but in deeper phases, and in and around the middle third, he would often have balls punched through to him in the pockets like this. And what I liked about Odegaard's game, actually, against Spurs, is there was a simplicity that was really effective, releasing Sterling here quickly, something we need to see more often to get the best out of Raheem in particular. And Odegaard's movements deeper still occurred, of course, like him here rotating with Timber in the middle third in that right centre-back slot, but they became more sporadic and, dare I say, simpler in a really good way, especially with what Myles and Declan were giving us on the left-hand side. I think, overall, we had a real nice semblance of team-wide cohesion. Here, we stretch Spurs in our base build-up, Rice and Myles actually rotate in and out, Odegaard shuttles wide to draw out Basuma initially, leaving that ball on for party on the inside, and Basuma gets left in this in-between space. Timber leaves the back three to underlap and we win a corner. Sure, this is compounded by the spaces that Angers Spurs at times can leave open when you attack them quickly, but this was so good to see. And I want to finish with this idea of balance for Rice, because as we've spoken about before, we've seen the downsides of a more unprotected defensive transition for Arsenal, for example, in the corner that led up to Spurs' goal. Now, this is something that I just want to bring up more and just voice out there, because I don't necessarily need to or want to criticise it when, otherwise, Rice's usage across the 90 minutes was so, so good. It's also, leading up to the corner that Spurs scores from, a really proactive break from Sarr, and we reset in the corner, and we should deal with the individual corner better. But again, straight after the goal, we found this shape once more, and I think just picking the right moments is so key to allowing Rice to give us everything he can as that true left-centre mid, as a real proper box-to-box. I mean, look in the second half, for example, how he attached himself to Kuleszewski, how we pressed slightly differently with Trossard following Poro inside, Rice not jumping as high and hedging his bets, but staying more rigidly on Kuleszewski. It was three, four, five times that he tracked Kuleszewski's runs, won the ball back for us. Because I think on this channel, a lot of the times I've said that I still probably see, longer term, Rice being used lower for Arsenal. Well, more on that later, in the Martin Zubimendi video. Because with a left-back like Myles or Riccardo Calafiori, Erdogan still allowing to drop and facilitate, but mostly now in the middle and final thirds, Rice is able to show an offensive repertoire, boasting ball striking, box crashing, carries, and of course his longer range passing when anchoring too, in a six or an eight position. And I think the bottom line is, removing the tag line of a six and eight and just giving him a balance and partnerships and relationships around him that give him that license to show how complete he is. Also, just quickly, it was great to score finally from a high turnover, wasn't it? The second half still emphasised a lot of improvements that need to be had in this regard. And again, fatigue definitely accentuated these issues. But Trossard's equaliser was a really nice way and a good example in clear decision-making all round. It's a brilliant pick out from Erdogan. And also, even though Leo isn't a runner-type winger, and nor is he particularly cheating high, but he starts ahead of Pedro Poro, that's the key. And with continued improvements in this department, as I called for last video, we probably force another goal or two and kill the game much earlier against Spurs. Let's finish though with William Saliba, because I want to mention the tempo, as I said at the start, that he set for us in the back line. With Lewis Skelly doing a lot of left centre-back-y type things. Saliba wasn't actually always the central centre-back, but these examples show what he gives us as that back-line technical leader. Here, he's pressed by two Spurs players. Many would be forced back to David Raya, but he uses Solanke's momentum to spin him, then draws on Kulishevsky before hitting it back to Lewis Skelly. This is him taking the initiative and switching to Trossard after receiving in midfield. This was one of his seven out of eight long balls completed, and just how it seems that he never placed a foot wrong. He looked to isolate the wing as well, he looked to move the ball with the speed of a guy, knowing that we were really trying to suffocate this Spurs side. And obviously, he was brilliantly foiled, as ever, by Gabriel, and I think either centre-back, Declan Rice or Myles Lewis Skelly, could have won the man of the match for us in the end. And that's where we'll leave it for today. Of course, with Aston Villa coming up in such a short space of time on Saturday, legs will be tested again, especially after such a high exertion physically and mentally. But I'll say it again, there is still so much more to play for this season. And this North London derby victory feels like a result that can do so much good for jump-starting our season once again in the new year. But thank you so much for watching. Get down in the comments down below. I'll catch you later. See you later.