Three key tactical battles that will decide Man Utd v Arsenal as Ten Hag’s in-form side take on Arteta’s league leaders
HANDS up if you had Arsenal top of the Premier League after five matches! Anyone? Anyone? No, us neither.
Not only are they top but they have a 100% record heading into the weekend clash with old rivals Manchester United.
This weekend will see Arsenal tested as they travel to Manchester United where they face a side who started the season slowly but have been finding their feet in the last three games.
There is no doubt that United fans were unhappy with the start to the season - as United lost to Brighton and then Brentford - and suddenly Erik ten Hag was facing early pressure.
Wins at home to Liverpool, away to Southampton and then against Leicester have seen United stabilise.
There is a sense that, especially at home, they will represent a difficult test for this Arsenal side?
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Here are three key tactical areas that we predict could decide this mouth-watering match.
The battle to control the midfield
The desire to control the centre of the pitch has been less of a concern in recent seasons as we have seen the rise of ‘transitional football’.
Many teams now look to play more vertically - see Leeds under Bielsa and now Marsch or elements of Liverpool under Klopp.
But there is still a need for teams to be stable in how they use the centre of the pitch.
Arsenal will typically look to line up in a variant of the 4-3-3 with their captain, the Norwegian international midfielder Martin Odegaard, drifting forward from playing as an ‘8’ in the midfield to behave more as a ‘10’.
When we see Odegaard moving into these kinds of areas he has the ability to drift into pockets of space before he receives the ball.
He then is a real danger to the opposition with his ability to thread passes through the line or to combine with the near-side winger to play around the defensive block.
Up to this point this season we have seen Man United using the likes of Fred, Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay at the base of their midfield and despite the physical capacity of McTominay in particular to cover space we have seen then struggle to control the space in front of their defensive line.
These are the spaces that Arsenal will look to exploit with the movement and creativity of Odegaard.
United have the perfect solution now in their squad with the signing of the Brazilian international Casemiro from Real Madrid.
Casemiro is a true ‘6’ who will sit in front of the United defensive line and limit the space in these areas that the opposition can play into.
His reading of the game and positional awareness is top level and we believe that his ability to control space will provide a solution for Ten Hag to prevent Odegaard from getting into open space in front of the United defence.
United will be direct and aggressive
When United went into the home game against Liverpool they were sitting bottom of the table having struggled to create any real threat in their opening matches against Brighton and Brentford.
They changed their approach for the match against Liverpool as they attacked in a more aggressive and direct manner with vertical passes played into spaces either wide to release the wingers or centrally to release the centre forward.
Now, with Arsenal expected to come out and attack in this game and commit players forward into the opposition third of the pitch, there will be opportunities for United to attack in this manner again.
United will leave their wide attackers and centre forward in relatively high areas.
They will press and look to win the ball back when Arsenal are playing out from the back but once the ball moves into the midfield these three players will look to be higher in order to look for the pass in transition.
Playing in this manner allows United to be more aggressive in situations where they win the ball back.
So far this season, Arsenal have dealt well with direct attacks and part of this is down to the decision to move Ben White from centre-back to right-back.
This is partly due to the return of Saliba to play as the centre-back on the right side but now Arsenal are able to use White as a more defensive option at fullback.
This will be effective against United whether they start this match with either Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial as the central striker as both of these players will tend to come over to the left side to receive the ball.
This will play into the zone where White and Saliba are ready to attack any direct passes.
Arsenal’s dangerous left-side
One of the most interesting aspects of Arsenal’s attack so far this season has been the way that they have attacked with an emphasis on the left side of the pitch.
When they signed Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City it was to play centrally as the ‘9’ but while he was at City he played relatively often from the left of the attack.
So far this season we have seen Jesus regularly drift out to that side and even rotate positions with Gabriel Martinelli.
This combined with the impact of Zinchenko and Granit Xhaka in possession where both are naturally left-footed has seen a lot of Arsenal attacks come down that side.
Now, that is not to say that Arsenal do not attack down the right side and this left-sided focus just creates more opportunities for Arsenal to switch the attack to the right where Bukayo Saka will look to isolate against the fullback on that side.
On the left side of the attack, we see Arsenal look to play through quick passing combinations to outplay the opposition and then release the likes of Jesus through and into space.
The movement of Jesus in these situations make him exceptionally difficult to defend against because he is so rarely positioned tight to the opposition central defenders.
Instead, he moves in and out and looks to drag players out of position in order to create space and time that teammates can exploit.
What does all this mean?
This game really could be tactically interesting. If Casemiro starts, this gives United a real chance to kill the threat of Odegaard in Arsenal’s midfield.
Diogo Dalot versus Arsenal’s play down the left? Arsenal surely have an advantage here and Saka 1v1 against Malacia will be a real test for the new United left-back.
And with United finally looking quick and direct in attack, it will be a test of Ben White’s ability slightly out of position.
It’s hard to call - a win for United would say that they are certainly on the right track after all.
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But a win for Arsenal, you’d have to start thinking they could be genuine contenders for…. third place.
For more tactical analysis, scouting and stunning data visuals head over to Total Football Analysis.
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