Arsenal Vs Wolves: Unai Emery lost the tactical battle

Unai Emery has made great progress at Arsenal. But in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Wolves, he lost the tactical battle to Nuno Espirito Santo. Here’s why.

In a piece prior to Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Wolves, which you can read here, I ended with the following line: ‘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?’ I think it is fair to say that they couldn’t.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

Unai Emery set up as he always sets up: a 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders that are there to cover for full backs that are afforded the license to push into advanced areas of the pitch and provide attacking width in the final third. For Wolves, that immediately provided an opportunity; for Arsenal, it immediately posed a problem.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

The 3-4-3 system that Wolves employ is designed to beat teams on the counter-attack on turnovers. A back-three or five, depending on the position of the wing-backs, supported by two screening central midfielders, are tasked with being disciplined and compact and the funnelling the ball forwards as quickly and accurately as possible, especially into the wide channels where the two wide attackers are waiting to pounce.

This tactic is what Nuno Espirito Santo’s team is defined by. Like Antonio Conte and Chelsea in the title-winning 2016-17 season, it is an approach that exploits the power of the counter-attack, and it has been wildly successful — Wolves are the only team other than Liverpool to not lose to Manchester City this season. It does not take long to work that out. They have played the same way all year. But Emery and his players were ostensibly unprepared.

Specifically, the space in behind Sead Kolasinac down the Arsenal left flank was a particular avenue of joy for the visitors, particularly when Rob Holding was pulled into wide areas to cover — this is not really Holding’s fault. He has no choice but to come across and attempt to hold up the Wolves attack, but his lack of natural speed makes it difficult.

In the second half, Emery did shift to a 4-3-1-2 formation, introducing Matteo Guendouzi for Alex Iwobi, adding another central midfield and sacrificing a winger. That did help Arsenal contain the Wolves out-ball to an extent, but, as they began to chase the game in the latter stages, the Wolves threat grew again, especially through frighteningly quick substitute Adama Traore.

The problem for the Gunners was the Wolves system. And its designed destruction of a back-four-based shape. That is why Chelsea were so successful under Conte. The system was perfectly devised to exploit the weaknesses of formations that almost every other team in the Premier League used. To combat Conte’s Chelsea, Arsene Wenger matched them up, man-for-man, in a 3-4-3 shape. I would have liked to have seen Emery do something similar on Sunday.

Wolves being the better, more dangerous team is not necessarily what is so frustrating about this draw. Instead, it is how it happened, the predictability of their method of attack and the lack of response from Emery and Arsenal to deal with it. Emery lost the tactical battle on Sunday. Thankfully, he seems like a man who is quick to learn from his lessons.