Arsenal Vs Barcelona: Playing out from the back

On Sunday night, Arsenal closed out their pre-season with a 2-1 loss to Barcelona. The most telling aspect of the match was the importance of successfully playing out from the back.

Arsenal ended their pre-season activities with the toughest challenge of the summer: a trip to the Nou Camp to face Spanish champions Barcelona. And, while the Gunners eventually fell in a last-gasp 2-1 defeat, there were plenty of positive performances, conclusions to be drawn, and periods of the match.

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While I do not mean to be so reductionist and put this down to one simple aspect of the match, you could follow the pattern of the game on how well the Gunners were able to beat the suffocating high pressing of the Catalan side.

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Take Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opening goal as a clear example. It came during Arsenal’s best period of the match as the first half came to a close. The goal featured some excellent play throughout the team. Granit Xhaka and Joe Willock combined nicely deep in their own half to break free of Barca’s initial press. Later, Xhaka then found Mesut Ozil with a searching, progressive through pass, which opened up the attack as Ozil fed Aubameyang and the centre-forward made sure of the rest.

The move — and the overall period of play for about ten minutes or so — all stemmed from Arsenal’s ability to play through the high press, combining with nice passes, good movements off the ball, and progressing the play into advanced areas, rather than inviting Barcelona to push high up the pitch and suffocate the space. This is how a modern team plays, and Unai Emery’s men did it superbly.

But they could not maintain this level of execution throughout the match, and during the more troubling periods of the pitch, it was their inability to first protect the ball in deep areas and then release pressure with accurate passes forward that continually allowed Barcelona to dominate the game.

In the end, this growing pressure led to Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Bernd Leno making their fatal mistake. The own goal was simply a mental error, a lack of communication and clear decision-making the fatal flaw. And that all stems from the pressure that Barcelona were able to put on their visitors because the whole game was played in one half of the pitch.

As we have seen with this Arsenal team in prior seasons, when they are given time to dictate play, they are extremely dangerous. Xhaka’s piercing passing comes to the fore, Mesut Ozil begins to drift around, prodding and probing his way through the final third, and there is a foundation to be creative from. But they can be pressed into submission, such that that foundation is difficult to establish in the first place.

If Arsenal are to have success this season, they will have to master playing out from the back when the opponents attempt to press them. It has been an issue in the past. It was an issue here. But there have been signs of some improvement. Those signs must now begin to pay dividends.