Match date: 6 November 2013

Both teams are coming off of good league victories at the weekend, with Arsenal beating Liverpool 2-0 at the Emirates and Dortmund winning 6-0 against Stuttgart. Just a fortnight ago though, Arsenal and Dortmund met at the Emirates in a very tight, but good match, especially for the tactically inclined. Dortmund won on the night thanks to a Lewandowski goal.

This time, Klopp was back on the touchline and he set out the same side as the last match up, with the exception of Mats Hummels, replaced by Sokratis. Wenger too set his side out just about the same as the previous match, with the exception of Wilshere, replaced by Cazorla. With Arsenal’s midfield just about the same, the same issue as last match came about for Dortmund; their wide players would get sucked in a bit and it opened up the wide areas for both teams to play freely in from time to time.

Lewandowski v Arsenal’s Centre backs, Round Two

I talked at length in my analysis of the last match about the Lewandowski and Giroud, and how Lewandowski got the better of the Arsenal centre backs and again, it proved to be a battle. In the last match, the Arsenal centre backs allowed Lewandowski an incredible amount of space to receive and turn with the ball no matter where he was; midfield or just out Arsenal’s penalty area neither Koscielny nor Mertesacker would get tight enough to the Polish international.

There were certainly still signs of the same in this match, but the Arsenal duo were much better at getting tight and either getting a foot in or making Lewandowski pass the ball back rather than turn. Compared to the last meeting, Lewandowski was also receiving the ball in less threatening positions, having to drift a bit more from the central area just outside the Arsenal penalty area to get on the ball. Below, on the right, are Lewandowski’s passes received from the match two weeks ago and on the left you can see the passes received from the more recent fixture.

Again, a lot of this is because Koscielny and Mertesacker were getting tighter to Lewandowski and forcing him to either drop deeper to look for the ball or look to the wide areas where Arsenal’s centre backs wouldn’t follow him. Below, in the first picture, you can see how both Koscielny and Mertesacker stand off Lewandowski in the match two weeks ago despite the striker receiving the ball just outside the Arsenal penalty area.

Here is a similar situation from last night’s match; Koscielny is right on top of Lewandowski and actually gets a enough of a touch on the ball so that Lewandowski doesn’t receive it.

While Koscielny got tight when Lewandowski was near to the Arsenal area, when the striker went deep to get the ball, he was still able to link up well with his teammates, receiving and then laying the ball off to one of either Reus, Mkhitaryan, or Blaszczykowski. A few good chances came out of this as well. In the picture below, you can see Mertesacker a few yards off of Lewandowski, who lays the ball off to Mkhitaryan, which in turn set up the chance for Blaszczykowski that Szczesny parried to the offside Reus.

Overall, however, the performance from the Arsenal centre backs was much better than the previous match, limiting Lewandowski to just one shot on target.

Dortmund’s Pressing, Arsenal’s Attack

The first half was almost the exact display that Klopp talked about in his pre-match press conference, talking about how Arsenal were a team that were patient in possession, a silent song, while his Dortmund side were more energetic and direct, which is just what the opening stages of the game gave us. Arsenal were patient, trying to play through Dortmund, but struggled to play much in the final third of the field and failing to take a shot, on or off target, throughout the first half as Dortmund pressed well and organized well when needed.

In the end, Arsenal just edged the possession of the match 50.8%, but as the second half came, Dortmund sat back a bit more and allowed Arsenal greater success in the attacking third of the field. Arsenal’s first shot on goal came in 62nd minute when Aaron Ramsey was in the right place to head in as Giroud headed a cross from Özil back across the six yard box. After the goal, however, Arsenal started to get more opportunities, with the next one again coming to Ramsey as he chested the ball down and almost beat Weidenfeller through his legs. Good chances also fell to Mertesacker, missing a diving header and then flicking over the bar.

As it happened the last time the sides met, Arsenal got their best chances when Özil found his way to the right side of Arsenal’s attack. Throughout the first half, as Arsenal struggled to really play into the final third, Özil was drifting and Arsenal were playing based on his position, but as he moved to the right in the second half, Arsenal’s attack shifted as much of their play went through the German on the right side of their attack.

Dortmund’s Attack

There were two key points to Dortmund’s attack, the first being how much space Mkhitaryan was awarded in between the lines and the second being, like in the match a fortnight ago, Grosskreutz’s overlapping runs on the right side of Dortmund’s attack, which were again, a bit disappointing.

Starting with Mkhitaryan, the Armenian came to Dortmund to replace Mario Götze and has done a decent job in doing so thus far. He was very dangerous at times as he was able to find space in front of the Arsenal centre backs, who were occupied by Lewandowski, and behind Mikel Arteta, who isn’t a man-marking type of defensive midfielder, but certainly is good at reading passes. Though he only created one chance, the Armenian showed good creativity and should have scored one himself when in space. Below, you can see Mkhitaryan on the ball with one Arsenal player putting pressure on him. The result of this was a chip into the Arsenal penalty area that found Nuri Sahin, albeit in an offside position.

The second key to Dortmund’s attack came down the right side of their attack with Blaszczykowski and Grosskreutz. During the first match, much of the play was decided by which team used their full backs to greater effect, with Dortmund winning out. However, much like in that game, Grosskreutz’s decision making and execution were lackluster given the amount of time and chances that he was given thanks to Santi Cazorla not tracking back effectively. Like in the match a fortnight ago, however, he did put in some decent crosses and Marco Reus should have scored from one, but tried to get too much of the ball and missed it completely.

Conclusion

A tight affair overall, neither side really pushed on too much in the first half, with Mkhitaryan missing a really good chance to put Dortmund ahead. The second half continued to be tight, but Dortmund were able to get on the ball more, but it was Arsenal that were able to score, with their first shot of the match.

After Arsenal went up 1-0, they looked a much better side as they created a few more good chances and kept Dortmund at bay with the German side trying to get back in the match by hitting almost every ball into the Arsenal penalty area hoping for a Lewandowski knock down.

With the result, Arsenal are top of Group F on 9 points, with Dortmund sitting in third with 4 points and playing a potentially deciding match against Napoli later this month. At this point in the competition, Dortmund have two losses which is as many as they had in the competition last year, including the final.