Arsenal: 3 tactical mistakes Mikel Arteta made vs Chelsea

3. Mismanaged High Press

With the team put out by Arteta it became clear that he wanted his side to try and outnumber the Chelsea back three with four advanced options in the attacking third applying pressure.

Normally Gabriel Martinelli would be harrying the man on the ball but instead he was instructed to form a four-man lane to sit in front of the Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho, which would block off central passing lanes and force Chelsea into wide areas where Arsenal’s full-backs could get tight.

Thomas Tuchel rectified this by having Kovacic drop deeper to match the Gunners forwards numerically, with Kai Havertz also dropping off the front line to offer a lofted or driven option through the middle.

Once this tweak took place Arsenal were played through with ease and Arteta’s efforts to counter the approach were either too late or confusing to the players. With Kovacic running the show and Nicolas Pepe unsure who was in charge of pressing the Croatian, he was caught in no-mans land numerous times.

Sambi would try and bolster the numbers in the press which meant Rob Holding would push to Havertz and the resulting knock-on effects left Arsenal all at sea. The Belgian was caught between a rock and a hard place not knowing whether to press the ball and cut lanes or drop off for fear of leaving Mari one-on-one with Lukaku.

Being more aggressive later in the game, the damage was already done with Pepe’s weak pressing exploited and the positioning and communication around the halfway line found lacking.

While credit has to go to Tuchel and Chelsea for how they hurt Arsenal, Arteta couldn’t sort his team’s pressing out, leaving a confused Smith Rowe having to react to orders being barked from the touchlines to press higher having been set out to do otherwise.