Arsenal: 4 tactical reasons behind 2-0 Leicester win

What a win. What a run. Arsenal made it seven matches unbeaten in the Premier League and nine in all competitions with a 2-0 victory away at Leicester on Saturday to continue a remarkable turnaround of fortunes.

September and October have been rather enjoyable. After a horror August that had everyone questioning the direction Mikel Arteta was taking this team in, the contrasting emotions that have followed in the seven matches since has taken the division by surprise.

There had to be improvements. Not solely down to faith in the manager to oversee them, but partly because it couldn’t realistically get any worse than three defeats without a single goal scored.

Having his full complement of players available has played a huge role. All five of the summer signings have made an impact since their arrivals and the quintet, not for the first time this season, were all on the pitch at the end of the King Power win.

4 tactical reasons behind 2-0 Leicester win as Arsenal extend unbeaten run to nine matches thanks to goals from Gabriel and Emile Smith Rowe

From the jaws of crisis there is new hope in north London.

After seeing off Aston Villa in the most complete performance of the season, how the team would fare making the journey north to Leicester was always going to be interesting. Tactically everything was spot on against the Villans, and replicating that success against a direct rival for the European places would constitute the biggest sign yet that a corner has been turned.

Arsenal past that test with flying colours.

There were tactical notes in the performances – the majority being on show in that spectacular opening 25 minutes – and also other, less coached, aspects that helped Arsenal see out the three points. Four in particular stood out.

1. High Starting Line With Bravery

Jamie Vardy loves playing against Arsenal. He hasn’t scored more goals against any one opposition in his whole career.

And where is his biggest threat? In behind. One aspect of playing this Leicester team that has to be taken into account is the danger they pose exploiting the spaces between goalkeeper and defenders.

What Arsenal did in those opening stages was trust their talent and play to their strengths. The signings of Benjamin White and Gabriel have always been with an eye on allowing the team to adopt a higher line with athleticism to cover, and the approach centred on heightening Arsenal’s positive aspects as opposed to adjusting for Leicester’s.

White played a brilliant role in pocketing a striker who is among the best in the Premier League at taking advantage of gaps in behind. His and Gabriel’ speed across the grass is superb and when the passes were made down to Vardy in the channels he was always well positioned to cover.

The high line also had Takehiro Tomiyasu and Nuno Tavares pushing up and forcing the Foxes’ wing-backs into their own half. Much in the same way as they did against Villa, the front-footed approached kept the pressure on and Brendan Rodgers had to change his system at half-time to accommodate that.

It was brave and it was bold. Most important of all, it worked.

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2. Albert Sambi Lokonga Sitting Deeper and Following Youri Tielemans

On the ball it wasn’t Sambi Lokonga’s best game with a few loose passes, but his job in the east Midlands was all about providing a screen and nullifying Youri Tielemans’ central threat.

His fellow Belgian is in superb form and across the whole Premier League there are few more complete midfielders than him. He was quiet in this one.

Playing as part of a central midfield duo in front of a three-man defence, the deep runs he makes to support James Maddison and the strikers are a key feature of his game, where he can either take a pop at goal or look to feed through balls into the spaces in behind.

Every time he tried to break lines Sambi was keeping a watchful eye, covering the spaces in front and positioning himself well to cut off passing lanes.

This worked brilliantly as Arsenal played on the front foot in the opening exchanges, by which time the two goal lead prompted some less than desirable dropping off.

Everyone sat too deep into their own half, which was the result of Leicester upping the tempo as much as it was Arsenal feeling they could see the game out from there. But, even when it was more backs to the wall, the team kept Leicester mostly at bay and Sambi’s screening job in midfield and on Tielemans was key in that.

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3. Varied Build-Up Which Allowed for Central Progression

Arsenal have multiple tools at their disposal now to help them build out from the back. The additions of Gabriel and White offer on-the-ball ability that can pick passes long and short, just as they can carry possession through the lines.

Thomas Partey in front of them is a Rolls Royce with mobility and vision in equal measure to help, while Aaron Ramsdale is bringing elite distribution in goal unlike anything seen with Bernd Leno.

And what Arteta’s side did cleverly on Saturday was occupying Leicester’s wing-backs so that they could punish them through the middle. Forcing their shape into a back-five, as mentioned, almost acted as smokescreen to play in central areas.

Tavares would operate as the spare man in build up down the left and Alexandre Lacazette would drift off into the right pockets to pull defenders out of position.

Keeping Leicester occupied gave Partey more time on the ball to pick passes, feeding the runs of Emile Smith Rowe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and overrunning the hosts all over the pitch. Their use of wing-backs was to their detriment and Arsenal found a way to turn what is supposed to be a benefit.

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4. Making Pressure Count

There is nothing especially tactical about this, but it’s something that plagued this team for near enough the entirety of last season: when they were on top they never made the moments count.

While these ‘spells’ never truly looked like being threatening as Arsenal couldn’t fashion a chance in a month of Sundays, the routine of having possession for the opening quarter, getting punished with the first opposition attack and then failing to create anything of note in a final flurry was a rinse and repeat occurrence.

What Arsenal are doing now is taking advantage of their dominance. The quick starts are becoming synonymous with this team but without the two goals scored in those opening 18 minutes the remaining 72 could easily have passed by with diminished confidence and less security.

Key in that is set pieces. Possession football, tiki taka this, and tiki taka that, is all well and good. It can look nice and it’s the signs of an intelligent team. But to have actual threat on dead balls is fundamental in the game: you can score when you’re playing poorly and add variance to your threat.

The game could and probably would have panned out entirely differently had the early goals not been taken. They built a foundation and shocked the home side before they’d even had chance to gather their thoughts.

Next up for Arsenal is broaden these periods of dominance, which they’re already showing positive signs of doing, and having someone like Smith Rowe fine-tuning his goal threat means when they do come around the chances of capitalising and punishing the opposition increases exponentially.

Making pressure count is a huge step forward for this team, especially away from home in tricky encounters.