3 key battles that could decide Arsenal’s crucial clash with Man City

2. Midfield: Reducing the distances

Arteta made some tactical tweaks against Southampton on Friday which saw Thomas Partey drop into the defence to start the build-up. This led to huge distances between him and Martin Odegaard, and left Zinchenko isolated in midfield as Fabio Vieira ghosted his way through 60 minutes.

With Granit Xhaka a doubt going into the game, Arsenal need to address this. If he’s out, Jorginho can provide the stability Arsenal need in the form of a double pivot, because a failure to do so could see Kevin De Bruyne run riot and exploit the spaces left in that area.

Going to a double pivot would also allow Odegaard to operate more as a #10, rather than a right eight, which would give him slightly more freedom to orchestrate play in the final third, and reduce the dependency on him to come deep to receive the ball.

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