MNUvARS
Formation
Soskjaer came up with same diamond 4-4-2 formation he used in Champions League.
On the ohter hand, Arteta put Partey and Elneny together in the middle for the first time and benched Xhaka and Ceballos. Arteta planned a very tight man-marking in midfield. He dropped Xhaka for the worries that Xhaka lacks agility and might get past too easily.
First Half: How Arsenal suffocated United.
1. Zonal Man Marking
Arsenal put their defence line very high with tight man marking. Lacazette marked Fred, Partey-Pogba, and Elneny-Bruno. However, players did not leave their alocated zone when their markman shifted to other zone. Below gif shows Partey has no problem changing his markman from Pogba to Fred and Pogba again.
2. Tight press from Centre-halves
[see first gif on Zonal Man Marking section]
If Mancheseter United succeeds to bypass Arsenal's tight midfield, attacker Greenwood or Rashford faced tight press from one of Arsenal's 3 CBs. United usually performs very speedy counter attack. Through tight man-marking press, Arsenal effectively blocks United's attackers to face the goal and slows down United's attack.
3. Tactical foul play
When above two approaches are unable to perform, Arsenal players committed tactical foul to stop United's attack from the root. Arsenal's first half intent is very clear. To not expose to any threat and dominate the game. However, Arsenal's attack just like United's, was rather dull. Both teams faiedl to register a goal in first half.
Arsenal's left-hand side build-up play in first half.
- Rectangle: Pinning
- Line: Luring
Arsenal as usual tried their build-up play mainly through their left side where Saka, Tierney and Aubameyang is located. Saka is crucial in this process. Saka either pins or lures United players out of position and through this crack Arsenal builds the play. Above are two cases in which Saka pins Mctominay so that Tierney can play 1 on 1 with Wan-Bissaka, and in later case, Saka lures both McTominay and Wan-Bissaka out of position so he can exploit the space behind through wall pass with Aubameyang. However, Wan-Bissaka blocked Saka very well.
Arsenal dominated the first half. Nonetheless, Arsenal's lack of creativity left first half goalless.
Second Half: United changes shape to 4-2-3-1
United's first half performance was dire. Their central oriented depth play didn't see much light due to tight press Arsenal pushed. United's players simply couldn't face the goal. Solskjaer sought solution on both flanks. With Fred and McTominay on double pivots, Pogba and Greenwood were relocated to left and right flank respectively. Pogba had bad time suffering Partey in first half. Solskjaer put Pogba on left wing for there he can get away from Partey's shadow. United are now playing width play to bypass Elneny and Partey.
Pogba on left wing
United gave up on speedy counter attack. Instead, they tried to build play from their left side where Pogba faces Bellerin. However, United's attack were very cautious in that two pivots Fred and McTominay wasn't much involved in attacking play. Pogba had better performance on second half, but United's attack in general was rather dull. Bruno, who usually thrives between the lines had a nightmare of a match this time under the shadow of Elneny.
Pogba commits foul inside the box.
Level of concentration and commitment was the differential that made a goal in this match. Arsenal, though they had wonderful performance, lacked creativity but they tried and tried again to get inside the box which resulted in PK.
Level of concentration and commitment
This sums up the match pterry well. 91 minutes on the clock, Elneny presses United's defenders like crazy dog. United's midfielders don't help much. In contrast, Arsenal players join Elneny organized.
Final Whistle
Arteta brought up another masterclass tactic to battle United. And his players performed the game plan perfectly.
For United, Bruno and Pogba simply lost the duel to Partey and Elneny. In my opinion, Bruno was worse than Pogba in this match. However, it wasn't just Bruno's fault. Bruno usually thrives between the lines with his extreme awareness of teammates' positions, and facilitates attack through one-touch pass. But in this match, those movements from teammates were almost dead and was blocked by tight man marking of Arsenal defence.
It was a perfect win for Arsenal except that their attack seemed rather dull. They couldn't create much chances through open play. And their main attacking route through Saka was blocked by Wan-Bissaka pretty easily.
Arsenal's concerns for creativity still remain.