Arsenal: 3 tactical mistakes Mikel Arteta made vs Chelsea

A new week begins with further heartache as Arsenal fans are left to wallow in remnants of another defeat under Mikel Arteta. How many more days can be ruined as the after effects of a performance such as that filters through into everyday life?

Succumbing to a 2-0 defeat on Sunday, the season has kicked off with zero points and zero goals from the opening two matches, all topped off with a goal difference of -4.

Romelu Lukaku and Reece James combined to end the game as a contest after 35 minutes as their goals handed a dominant Chelsea the two-goal lead their performance merited, meanwhile Arsenal once again offered a poor (or fitting) example of themselves in both boxes.

Despite the beleaguering display, Arteta pointed to the volume of first team absences he had to deal with. For all the criticism, there is no shirking the unlucky hand he has been dealt.

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Arsenal: 3 tactical mistakes Mikel Arteta made against Chelsea in 2-0 Premier League defeat that contributed to a weak performance

"“It’s really challenging at the moment. We are missing nine players – and the majority of them are big senior players,” he told the official Arsenal website. “It’s what we have. We put out there a team that will probably be unprecedented in the history of this football club. “We have nine players out of the squad at the moment. I don’t know if it’s a hand [tied behind our back], but it’s a big part of the squad.”"

He’s not wrong. Without a £50m centre-back, a £27m centre-back, a £50m central midfielder, a £50m striker and another half-fit £50m striker, there is clear mitigation.

There was no Martin Odegaard either, who couldn’t secure a visa in time.

Would all of those have impacted the performance? Thomas Partey, Gabriel and White would have had some say, undoubtedly.

But the manager didn’t cover himself in glory. There were still mistakes made for the game that impacted the turn of events, those that even with the absences don’t give Arteta anything close to a free ride.

1. Being Nonreactive to Chelsea’s Strengths – More of the Same

Had Arteta planned to utilise a 3-4-3 for this game prior to White’s absence with COVID-19? This is something we’ll never know albeit being eluded to by the manager.

Even if he had set his team out all week to match the Blues’ setup before the unfortunate late news, then reverting to a back four would have not only disrupted preparations but also acted as a naive alteration to make based solely on availability.

While whoever would come into the right centre-back slot would not possess the distribution qualities of the 23-year-old, it would have at least put the players on the pitch in a position of greater defensive comfort to match their far superior opposition.

If the plan was a back four all along, it was a mistake. That system would have helped contain the wing-backs – in particular Reece James who must have been invisible to the Arsenal players – and handed the mediocre defenders a better chance of crowding out Lukaku.

Chelsea may well have been playing in red and white stripes since the approach to goal was eerily similar to that adopted against Brentford.

Aspects of the match, in particular the number of crosses attempted by Kieran Tierney, was reminiscent of the opening Premier League day, one that bore no fruit then and was never going to here. Granit Xhaka would slot into a faux left-back role with the Scot up wide and advanced in the usual scripted manner.

Nothing changed. A defender was ruled out and for some reason Arteta went for a more attacking system.

2. The Midfield Vacancy in the Opening Spell

The opening period of the game was always going to be the deciding spell of the match. With the scoreline goalless and the Arsenal fans back in a packed Emirates Stadium for the first time since March 2020, the crowd’s energy had to be maintained with some level of equality on the pitch. Nerves had to be settled.

Thus, the way Arteta set up the team in those early exchanges was a misguided approach to keeping Arsenal in the game for as long as possible.

Opting for a back four, that shifted into a back five on occasion as Xhaka dropped into defence to form a back five.

If it were three central defenders then the numerical advantage could have been made up still boasting Xhaka as the screening option in front and the wing-backs taking up wide berths. Instead, the midfield turned into a barren wasteland that presented the central Chelsea players with the freedom find Lukaku at feet.

Much like Tierney, Xhaka was asked to do too many roles. He can’t be a fifth defender and a holding midfielder, meanwhile Tierney can’t hold the advanced width and be tasked with covering for Pablo Mari’s many limitations.

All of which follows into the final tactical mistake.

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.