Chelsea vs Arsenal: 3 vital player partnerships

The way Mikel Arteta sets his Arsenal team up, or indeed how he sets them up when they’re not decimated by injuries, puts a lot of emphasis on partnerships.

Heading to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday to take on Chelsea will see another enforced change of personnel away from the norm, with up to four senior members of the group, all of whom are regular starters, likely to miss out.

Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey are already confirmed absentees for the rest of the season, with the likelihood being that Takehiro Tomiyasu and Alexandre Lacazette will follow suit.

This disrupts the sub-sections of the lineup that had contributed to Arsenal playing some of their best football in years prior to the meltdown that has unfolded in April.

Chelsea vs Arsenal: 3 vital player partnerships for Mikel Arteta’s side as they aim for victory in crucial Premier League top four clash

Pods of players are formed on the pitch – those that can be broken up into three or four groups dependent on how one views the team – and any time even one of those components it absent it causes unrest which filters through across the team.

Especially, that is, when you move your best remaining midfielder to left-back and force a disastrous domino effect.

In order to beat Chelsea it will require collective effort, everyone being at the top of their games, an efficient tactical setup that’s carried out effectively, a bit of luck, and scoring first. Oh, and Chelsea probably need to have an off day. Not too much to ask, right?

As for those selected, there are three partnerships across the pitch that also have to be united, solid and in tune with one another if the three-game losing run in the Premier League is to be brought to a welcome halt.

Here they are.

Gabriel Magalhaes & Nuno Tavares

As is so often the case, you sometimes lose track of how important a player is until he’s not in the team; when they’re unavailable is when you truly appreciate their value.

Tierney has been handed a different tactical role this season and his attacking contributions have softened, resulting in some criticism, yet now he’s out all hell has broken loose and the significance of his defensive contributions are being realised.

Nuno Tavares got the nod against Southampton and looks set for another crack of the left-back whip, and his partnership with Gabriel in this game will be tested. ‘Big Gabi’ and Tierney have been closer together geographically since Tomiyasu came out of the side, and their solidity in that department was a far cry from what we saw in the Palace game.

Gabriel and Nuno were all over the shop, with their distances either too close or too far. There was less of that against Southampton on account of the home side either not having or not wanting the ball, and with the duel No. 10’s that Chelsea have been using coupled with their wing-backs it will be a tall order for the pairing to keep tight in transitions and in their block.

One need only look at the reverse meeting this season, when Tierney tried to cover for Xhaka and Reece James had half of London to run into behind him, to know where the Blues’ threats lie. Absolute focus between Gabriel and Nuno throughout is essential. The left-back will want to maraud forward, possibly with Xhaka tucking in, but he can’t leave his partner out to dry.

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Granit Xhaka & Sambi Lokonga

It will be interesting to see how aggressively Arteta sets his team up. The defeat on the south coast saw a return to midfield for Xhaka, and although he was higher up the pitch than Sambi, who dropped in between the central defenders early on, it was still not the marauding No. 8 occupying one of the five lanes we’ve seen previously.

One would imagine it won’t be the same again here.

Chelsea’s setup will see them have two central midfielders and two No. 10’s in front. Getting their creative players between the lines and drawing Arsenal’s central midfielders out of position helps them create overloads either side and as much as Xhaka has shown his worth high up the pitch, he’ll be needed further back.

Primarily because Sambi is going to have a job on his hands.

He’ll still be central as a No. 6 with Xhaka pushing on in possession, but he will require the support and, crucially, the passing options either side if he is to avoid being suffocated in possession and being forced into unwelcome turnovers.

How these two link together in this match will be crucial. If they lose absolute control of the midfield and Jorginho can distribute through the lines then Arsenal will be up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

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Martin Odegaard & Bukayo Saka

A lot has been missing from recent performances: cutting edge, intensity, and speed of thought, just to name a few. But there is more.

Building up to the international break both Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka were unstoppable. It is no exaggeration to say the pair were operating at a world class level, even if they hadn’t come up against supposed ‘big’ sides during that run.

In the defeat to Crystal Palace their blossoming relationship was absent largely because Odegaard had one of his post-international stinkers; against Brighton it wasn’t there as Arteta fiddled with his system too much and had the Norwegian deep; and in the 1-0 defeat to the Saints it was tactical and performance based.

Starting out on the left on that occasion, presumably with an eye on having Saka protect Nuno, hope is that it won’t happen again. When Saka and Odegaard can combine, with the stand-in captain finding those pockets of room in the half-spaces where he can feed Saka through the full-back and the centre-back, it became one of the hallmarks of the improvement in performances and results.

When those two are on-song they are truly joyous to watch.

Arsenal aren’t expected to be dominating Chelsea for territory so the spells of possession in their third will be limited. In such cases you need to maximise your assets which means, in the most simplest terms possible, getting your best players closer together.

Because, boiled down, that is precisely what it is.