One other North London derby win left us with loads to speak about. There’s the way in which Arsenal dominated the primary half, making the most of Tottenham’s passivity out of possession to play out from the again calmly and pin Spurs again. Gabriel and Saliba may carry the ball out in opposition to an remoted Harry Kane.
Spurs had been stretched, with Odegaard and Xhaka once more enjoying exterior and behind the Tottenham midfielders, dragging gamers out of the again 5 to cope with them and creating house for Bukayo Saka to go after Ryan Sessegnon one-on-one. Defensively, Arsenal tucked Saka in deeper than traditional, monitoring Sessegnon, permitting Ben White to get tight to Son Heung-min. There was additionally the very good efficiency of Aaron Ramsdale.
However one specific factor of Arsenal’s strategy within the last third on Sunday actually struck me. And it’s due to one thing we did, and one thing Martin Odegaard stated, again in October.
“It was an ideal objective. We knew earlier than the sport he was going to be free in these areas and we practised that lots, to seek out him in these areas, and he made an ideal shot,” the skipper stated after Thomas Partey opened the scoring within the 3-1 win.
Anybody fancy a recreation of spot the distinction?
Partey’s shot that hit the put up on Sunday was only a few yards away from the place he scored from again in October. The White-Ødegaard-Saka triangle is there once more, with White goalside of Son. William Saliba is marking Harry Kane in case of a doable breakaway. And there are 8-9 Tottenham gamers throughout the final 20 yards of the pitch however none of them shut sufficient to problem Partey, block a possible shot, or put any strain on the ball.
We knew it then and we knew it once more this time round. Tottenham collapse when the ball goes out large and their field is threatened. Mikel Arteta is aware of it and he has made positive his gamers understand it too. Arsenal have taken 17 of their 36 pictures throughout this season’s north London derbies from exterior the realm. That’s 47.2% of the crew’s pictures in these video games.
Now, Arsenal aren’t shot shy from vary. The crew have taken 88 pictures from exterior the field this season, the fourth most within the league. however zoom out and you will note 31% of Arsenal’s pictures this season from exterior the realm, fairly near the league common. Solely Liverpool and Brentford take their pictures from nearer to objective on common, and that’s with each golf equipment having a a lot greater proportion of headed makes an attempt than Mikel Arteta’s aspect.
Tottenham’s defensive technique when in their very own third is to power the opposition to take poor pictures, nothing too near the objective. They pack the field and permit efforts from vary; a league-high 44% of pictures Tottenham have confronted have come from exterior the realm up to now this season. However Arsenal, as an alternative of attempting to stroll the ball in, because the well-known accusation historically goes, have leant into the place the house is in opposition to their native rivals and it has labored.
Often joyful to recycle the ball across the space, Partey has taken simply 12 pictures from exterior the realm in 15 Premier League appearances this season. He’s taking pictures much less steadily than in every of the final two seasons. But 4 of these 12 efforts have come within the two north London derbies. Equally, Odegaard averages 1.3 pictures from exterior the realm per recreation this season however has taken six pictures in opposition to Tottenham within the two derbies, 5 from open play, all from exterior the field.
It paid off for Partey in October and for Odegaard this time round. And it’s a stable plan, the house was constantly there in opposition to Antonio Conte’s aspect. If a ball is fumbled clear and bounces out into prime actual property — central, simply inside or proper on the sting of the field, it’s only going to fall to a purple shirt right here …
The identical is true of the primary objective, the place the Tottenham defenders outnumber the purple shirts and canopy the entire field to start with …
… solely to break down and find yourself ready the place a deflection or subpar clearance would land with an Arsenal participant with time to get a strike away.
The identical was true once more minutes later as Nketiah fired throughout objective …
Historical past repeated as Partey hit the put up with that crunching effort simply 5 minutes after that, and the identical house had appeared once more on the break a couple of minutes earlier. As Arsenal transfer ahead, they’re outnumbered once more and there’s no simple ball, with Son protecting Odegaard within the center …
… however Son is dragged to the ball as Ben White overlaps and the defenders don’t wish to be left one-on-one in opposition to Saka, opening up yards and yards forward of Odegaard as Saka pulls the ball again to him …
… on that event a advantageous effort was denied by Lloris but it surely was one other transfer much like the plans of the primary derby of the season. The ball is pullled again to the identical space scored from within the first half in October and the house is created by the identical overlapping runs from Ben white that noticed Arsenal create the prospect Gabriel Jesus scored from that day.
And it didn’t matter that Lloris saved this effort, as a result of Odegaard simply used it as a sighter.
The subsequent time the captain discovered himself in an analogous place he discovered the online, with self-styled hardman centre-back Cristian Romero making no effort to shut him down and right-back Matt Doherty monitoring a Gabriel Martinelli run so effectively that he continued to trace it after Martinelli had stopped operating.
Doherty comes inside to cease a through-ball to Martinelli however the Brazilian has already pulled large anyway and the defender simply retains shifting deeper. Between him and Romero, they’ve taken the choice for a ball in behind away however Odegaard has carried the ball 5 yards unopposed to get into taking pictures vary and the defenders forward of him have completed nothing to make the shot harder.
With a deserved second objective, Arsenal had been effectively on their option to a primary north London derby double since 2014.
It does, in fact, take high quality to attain from distance, however that doesn’t imply producing these alternatives can’t or just isn’t a part of a effectively thought-out plan. Arsenal had dominated possession and territory in opposition to Newcastle of their final league recreation as effectively however didn’t discover the again of the online. Six of 17 pictures that day got here from exterior the realm however simply three of these got here earlier than the 84th minute.
Discovering methods to interrupt down a cussed defence typically contains attempting to tug them out of place by letting them know you might be keen to shoot and able to scoring from distance. When Tottenham are in their very own third, they collapse as deep as doable to guard the field.
Arsenal knew that they’d discover pleasure in these areas in opposition to Tottenham again in October and, greater than three months on, their north London rivals have completed nothing to repair it.
