Arsenal See Smiles All Round in Formation Tweak

Wingers Drifting Infield

Whatever side of the argument you sit on, the case for Pepe being less effective when he’s tasked with hugging the touchline is a valid one. After the season he had before he joined he was expected to be dangerous all over the pitch, it just hasn’t been the case.

The FA Cup final win over Chelsea remains his best game in an Arsenal shirt, one that didn’t see him confined to having white under his boots all afternoon with movements infield encouraged. Both he and Nelson did so throughout on Thursday.

Tucking inside to open the spaces for Cedric and Kolasinac to overlap into, this worked in tandem with making dummy runs to draw defenders out of position to make room for Eddie Nketiah to run at. The striker picked up great positions, aided by the space made for him from Nelson and Pepe’s intelligent running.

When on the ball – which was most of the evening – it left Arsenal lining up in a system that more closely resembled a 3-2-4-1, with the wingers sitting in behind Nketiah and the full-backs adding to width either side.

Arsenal have come painfully unstuck in Premier League fixture with their flat forward line, one which sits more rigidly as an attacking 3-2-5. Static and blunt, passing lanes are cut off and whoever sits in the double pivot has no option but to go wide.

Against Rapid Vienna, adding the focal point up front moving beyond the four-man attacking line stretches teams, in turn creating space either for wingers to attack diagonally, or for deep midfield runners to penetrate the box.

As per Orbinho, Our 11 shots on target were the most in single game under Arteta and the most since September 2018, while Pepe and Nelson’s five chances created each where the most in a single match since November 2019.

It may seem simple, and again the opposition were awful, but it worked a treat against Rapid Vienna. Even though Nketiah put in a solid shift, the thought of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang having that room to manoeuvre is reason for optimism.