Arsenal Vs Napoli: Lucas Torreira, strikers set timely pressing tempo

Arsenal pressed Napoli excellently in Thursday night’s 2-0 win. And it all stemmed from Lucas Torreira, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette choosing the right times to press.

It was one of the best first-half performances of the season. After the disastrous 1-0 loss to Everton on Sunday, Arsenal hosted Napoli in a nervous Emirates stadium, tentatively confident about the team’s home form but acutely aware of the threat the opposition posed. A blistering first half very quickly put those fears to bed.

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The 2-0 victory was a consummate performance from the Gunners. And, in the end, it could have been a whole lot more if not for some more clinical finishing. But the attacking play, while creative and scything, was not the most pleasing element of this display. Instead, it was the work without the ball.

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Specifically, it was the cohesive pressing throughout the pitch. With Lucas Torreira reinserted into the heart of the midfield, Unai Emery clearly tasked his players with the strategy of timely pressing their opponents, suffocating the service into their two small strikers, Dries Mertens and Lorenzo Insigne, and making ball recoveries high up the pitch. The approach worked to perfection, and much credit must go to Torreira and the pair of strikers leading the line.

As Jurgen Klopp discovered at Liverpool, it is irresponsible to ask your players to conduct a full-pitch press for a full 90 minutes. Physically, it is an extremely demanding method, and over the course of a long season with lots of games, injuries and fatigue take their toll. More recently, Klopp has amended his strategy. Now, Liverpool press at certain times and drop at others, with particular keys indicating which defensive system to execute.

Arsenal played in the same manner on Thursday. They did not press Napoli incessantly for the whole match. It is very difficult to do and it could have opened up gaps late in the game. Instead, they picked their moments. And almost invariably, they picked the right moments.

This all stemmed from the work of the two strikers, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who were excellent without the ball, and Torreira’s decision to sometimes hare into the midfield and pressure the deep-lying distributors of Napoli. Watch the second goal back, and you will see this perfectly in action.

The move starts with a Napoli central midfielder having comfortable possession. He plays a five-yard, backwards pass to a teammate — this is arguably the most stupid pass in football. If you are to pass it backwards, at least give some distance to not invite pressure. Aubameyang, alive to the opportunity to press, rushes towards the ball. A pass is then played back into the midfield, but Torreira and Aaron Ramsey are already right on the Napoli player’s toes, waiting to pounce. Torreira wins the ball back and forces an own goal off Kalidou Koulibaly. This type of cohesive, connected, timely pressing was evident all night, and it was because of the work of Lacazette, Aubameyang and Torreira.

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When Arsenal play with the kind of intensity they did against Napoli, they are an extremely difficult team to contain. Speed, pressure and creativity in possession, they can cause the best teams in the world serious problems. But it all starts with clever, well-planned-out pressing. And on Thursday, thanks to Torreira and the strikers, they got it spot on.

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