Arsenal Vs Wolves: The space is out wide

Arsenal host Wolves on Sunday afternoon. In preparation for the match, there is a clear way to hurt this Wolves team: out wide. Unai Emery should exploit this.

As the Premier League season rumbles on towards the third international break of the year, Arsenal look to end the first three months of the year on a high, hosting newly-promoted but most certainly dangerous Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday afternoon. Wolves may have slipped into the bottom half after a defeat to Spurs last weekend, but this is no gimmie, not by any stretch of the imagination.

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Nuno Espirito Santo has his team playing some excellent football. They are well-drilled, disciplined, and extremely aware in the system that they play, which is very similar to the 3-4-3 that Antonio Conte played at Chelsea two seasons ago.

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The system is ideal for playing on the counter-attack. With two wide centre-halves and two wing-backs, it allows the two wide attackers the freedom of not having to track the opposing full backs on overlapping runs — Eden Hazard and Willian or Pedro benefitted greatly from this under Conte. As such, the two wide attackers can stand behind the opposing full backs when defending, knowing that if a turnover comes, a clearance into the wide channels can instigate a break. The space to attack is the wide areas.

But the same can be said the other way. The primary weakness with playing with a back-three is the isolation of the two wide centre-halves. When the wing-backs are committed higher up the pitch, the centre-backs can be pulled into wide areas, often forced to defend one-on-one against a far more mobile and direct attacker — this happened once when Arsenal lost 4-0 to Liverpool at the start of last season, with Mohamed Salah and Saido Mane repeatedly driving at isolated centre-halves that have been pulled into areas that they do not want to be in.

Although Unai Emery does not have traditional wingers to exploit these spaces out wide, like a Mane or a Salah, in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang off the left flank, he does have a terrifyingly quick attacker who is willing to make runs into the spaces behind the right wing-back. Aubameyang does possess both the athletic qualities and spatial awareness to make those timely runs off the ball that can exploit the wide spaces that the back-three presents.

This, for Arsenal and Emery, is where the game will be one or lost, defensively and offensively. Can they open up a diligent Wolves defence that has only conceded 12 goals all season, three of which came last weekend against Spurs? Conversely, can they contain the counter-attack, something that has undermined this team throughout the season, even if the goals-against tally suggests otherwise?

Usually, football matches are won and lost in the midfield. The pressing and counter-pressing of each team, the control they are able to exert through possession. But on this occasion, I have a feeling it could be the wide areas where the game is won and lost.

The Wolves system is designed to overload the flanks to harness the power of the counter. Can Arsenal and Unai Emery handle such a threat?