Arsenal: 4 things we want to see vs Manchester City

3. Exploiting Man City’s High Line

They will keep you penned in. They will camp in your half. They will shift you about side to side. They will have you following one man and then immediately another. Man City will do Man City things.

Other than taking advantages of set pieces, which Manchester City also happen to be annoyingly brilliant at (they’ve conceded just one set piece goal all season) the route to their goal tends to come from quick transitions back to front that exploit their high line.

Leicester found joy in this way when they went to the Etihad recently. Their first goal after half-time saw the ball fed quick through City’s first lines of press to immediately hand them a numerical advantage. For the second one, it required some lovely footwork from James Maddison but the aim remained getting it out of feet from the back with pace and into the forwards.

Defensive structure is clearly vital in this. Arsenal are more compact out of possession with their 4-4-2 shape as they aim to force the ball wide, thus having people positioned in areas where they can receive the ball quickly is paramount.

Then, of course, you need the transitional runners to stretch and provide options in behind. Martinelli and Saka’s superb pace are dangerous weapons in these moments, but it still requires pin-point accuracy and technical control to navigate through this Man City team before the opportunity even arises where their high line can be exploited.

Oh, and their defenders are very quick. Hope that Oleksandr Zinchenko starts at full-back.

Continued on next page…