Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal – Tactical Analysis
Manchester City won 1-0 against Arsenal in an even match with few scoring chances.
Manchester City
Long pass
One of the keys was Arsenal’s pressing which forced Stefan Ortega to play long passes. Here we see Ilkay Gundogan with a nice first touch after a long pass, but usually those passes went to Erling Haaland, playing with his back to goal and attacking the spaces.
Haaland received a lot of passes from Ortega and also from the center backs, with Rob Holding suffering a lot in defence.
Matt Turner
The solution to this problem for Arteta was Matt Turner. He was very intelligent and quick to prevent Haaland from having any scoring chances after winning the duel with Holding. Turner played a great game with some good saves.
Manuel Akanji
In City’s defensive line we must highlight Akanji, during the first half he was constantly anticipating, winning all the duels, in one of the most dominant games of any center back so far this season.
Fábio Vieira
In Arsenal, Fábio Vieira had a great game, appearing in all areas, positioning himself at the back of midfielders or center backs and also very attentive in long balls to receive and finish the play.
Leandro Trossard
Trossard was also at a very good level. He is adapting very quickly to Arteta’s system, thanks to his time at Brighton. He showed his dynamism, good 1vs1 and accurate decision making when he entered in the box.
1-0
In the 58th minute Guardiola introduced changes, Julián Álvarez for Mahrez and Walker for Lewis. Walker managed to defend the problems that Trossard was causing and placed Álvarez next to Haaland. Precisely the goal came this way, Álvarez between lines, none of the center backs came out because of Haaland, the shot hit the post and the play ended in goal.
65-90
After the goal Arsenal dominated the game with the entry of Zinchenko, Odegaard and Martinelli. Zinchenko building the play, Arsenal started to put in a lot of crosses and Martinelli dribbling constantly on the left flank. However, the goal didn’t come and Man City advanced in the FA Cup.
