Arsenal – Manchester City: Guardiola’s Defensive Gamble Almost Pays Off (1-1)

Erling Haaland’s early goal set the stage for Arsenal to chase the game, and they looked in control against Manchester City’s first-half pressing. In the second half, Pep Guardiola took an unexpectedly defensive stance with a low-block back five, and almost secured the three points before Gabriel Martinelli equalized for the Gunners late on.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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The previous iteration of this fixture saw Arsenal bag a resounding 5-1 win at the Emirates Stadium. With City having refreshed over the summer though, surely things would be more competitive this time around.

Both sides had good weeks prior to this match, with Arsenal picking up convincing wins over Nottingham Forest and Athletic Club, while City followed up their Manchester derby win by overcoming ten-man Napoli in the Champions League.

Mikel Arteta went with a 4-3-3 formation here, with Jurriën Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, and Riccardo Calafiori as the back four. The midfield consisted of Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, and Mikel Merino, while Noni Madueke and Leandro Trossard flanked striker Viktor Gyökeres.

Meanwhile Pep Guardiola once again went with an unchanged selection in his 4-3-3 system. Abdukodir Khusanov, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, and Nico O’Reilly made up the back four, with Rodri sitting in front. Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders were the number eights, with Phil Foden and Jérémy Doku playing wide. Erling Haaland then led the line up front.

Arsenal comfortable but behind

Arteta’s side started the game in a fairly confident manner, looking stable on the ball and evading City’s pressing in many cases. However, there was one moment that made a difference, as City managed to escape an Arsenal counterpress in the middle of the pitch and release the marauding Haaland who put his side 1-0 up before the ten-minute mark.

Arsenal were mostly building up in a 3-2-4-1 shape against City’s 4-3-3 pressing. Timber would form the back three alongside the center-backs, while Rice usually stayed deeper alongside Zubimendi.

Arsenal in deep buildup against City’s pressing.

Madueke then started wide on the right, while Merino was in the right halfspace, trying to play on the shoulder of Reijnders. On the left, Calafiori and Trossard rotated between left wing and left halfspace.

Although they were often unable to convert their control into clear chances at the sharp end of the pitch, Arsenal were very comfortable against the City press, retaining the ball with authority and being able to progress the ball past City’s midfield when spaces appeared.

Bernardo Silva was often more aggressive than Reijnders in pressing, jumping up closer to Haaland, especially with Rice dropping deeper. City sometimes struggled to control all of the central passing lanes though.

If Rodri shifted slightly to the right to cover Bernardo Silva’s jumping forward, the central lane towards Gyökeres’ feet could open up for Arsenal. If Rodri remained more central, the halfspaces could become more vulnerable, for instance through Trossard moving in dynamically from the left.

Merino playing in the right halfspace also created dilemmas for Reijnders, who could not engage against Zubimendi as much as he may have liked. Zubimendi himself also showed one or two moments of dynamism. Although he was usually the midfield pivot, once or twice he intelligently spotted the opportunity to move away from the ball and get behind City’s midfield when space opened up.

As the first half progressed, Arsenal showed midfield diamond structures a couple of times with Rice moving further forward to leave Zubimendi as the pivot. This helped them overload the space between the lines more against a City side who were becoming more passive.

Gunners leave it late

Despite Arsenal’s control over the game, they were not quite able to convert this into chances, with City’s defense being able to smother the danger once the midfield was beaten. Arteta decided to inject some extra creativity at half-time with the introduction of Eberechi Eze in place of Merino. Bukayo Saka also made his return, replacing Madueke who had knee discomfort.

Guardiola also made one personnel change, bringing Matheus Nunes on for Khusanov. City continued to be quite conservative by their standards, sitting in a mid or low-block 4-5-1 shape as Arsenal tried to push forward.

It’s rare to see such a sparse passmap from a Guardiola team.

The introduction of Eze did help Arsenal somewhat. He often positioned himself in the right halfspace, and Arsenal could focus their attacks down this side with Saka on the right wing too. Arsenal were dominant, but still not quite creating clear chances.

With just over twenty minutes remaining, Guardiola did something unexpected by switching to a back five. Nathan Aké was brought on for Foden and stationed himself at the center of defense, leaving City in a 5-2-3 shape without the ball.

This signaled a clear intention for City to continue to sit deep and soak up pressure, as they had been doing for a while already. Their attacks were mostly longer passes to Haaland and attempts to use his and Doku’s pace on the counter. With a five-man backline, they could perhaps prevent their backline from getting stretched by Arsenal’s wide attacks, and defend the box with an extra aerial presence.

City in their five-man backline. 

Going into the final fifteen minutes, City’s outlook became even more conservative when Haaland was replaced by Nico González. This meant Doku moving up front and Reijnders to the left of midfield in a 5-4-1 shape. The only question now was whether Arsenal could break through this deep defense from City.

Arteta rolled the dice again going into the final ten minutes, bringing Gabriel Martinelli on for Timber. This essentially saw Zubimendi moving to right-back in the short spells that Arsenal were without the ball, with Eze in central midfield. Martinelli would play from the left wing, and Trossard more centrally, although he was also replaced by Ethan Nwaneri soon afterwards.

For all of City’s deep defending, the moment where they were finally breached was one of the rare occasions where they had been able to temporarily push up a bit higher. Eze picked the ball up in a seemingly non-threatening situation in midfield, but found a great floated pass into the path of Martinelli running in behind, who lobbed the goalkeeper to equalize.

Takeaways

On the one hand, Arsenal were in control for most of this game. They evaded the City pressing very well in the first half, looking composed and authoritative on the ball. They struggled to break down the deeper City block, but were able to call upon their attacking talent to eventually find a way to equalize.

City were very close to pulling off this result after Haaland handed them the early lead. The extremely defensive outlook from Guardiola in the second half was unexpected but was not executed badly. Perhaps this strategic choice had as much to do with the physical load that his players had borne this week as much as anything else, but it shows a willingness to adapt away from aggressive football that has not always been associated with him over his career.

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