Match date: 11 March 2014

Arsenal come into the match with a two away-goal disadvantage and in need of a performance much like the one they had at Bayern Munich in last season’s Champions League.

Wenger opted for a 4-2-3-1 with several changes from the first leg of the tie. Mikel Arteta came into the side and played with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla through the middle with Podolski, another change, on the left and Özil on the right, where he’s arguably been the most effective for Arsenal this year, perhaps best illustrated in his second half performance against Dortmund earlier this year in the group stages. Giroud came in for Sanogo, Fabianski came in for the suspended Szczesny, and Vermaelen replaced Gibbs, with both the English full back and Monreal injured.

Guardiola set his side out in a 4-2-3-1 as well with Thiago and Schweinsteiger in the holding midfield roles. Ribery was back in the side as well, with Martinez moving to centre back in place of Boateng.

Midfield Battle

Despite both sides lining up in a 4-2-3-1, both were fluid with the midfield triangles, shifting from two holding players to two advanced players. In theory, both had a more disciplined, holding player that could control the side’s tempo, Arteta for Arsenal and Schweinsteiger for Bayern, both had a more dynamic player next to them, Arsenal had Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago for Bayern and both had a creative player in the hole, Cazorla for Arsenal, Götze for Bayern. However, the movement of Thiago and Oxlade-Chamberlain shifted the formations from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3 with their dribbling and movement off the ball.

There were two standouts in Thiago and Oxlade-Chamberlain, who made their respective sides fluid. One of the problems with such movement in a side against another top side is that is will inevidently leave holes as players rotate, which was the case for Bayern’s goal on the night. Both Oxlade-Chamberlain and Cazorla were further up the field as Bayern were attacking and so instead of one of them being deep and being able to see midfield runners coming into the box, Schweinsteiger was able to easily drift by them, with Cazorla allowing Schweinsteiger to run right in front of him, and into the Arsenal penalty area to score from Ribery’s pass.

Oxlade-Chamberlain

Oxlade-Chamberlain was the brightest part of Arsenal’s game and the most threatening for Bayern Munich. He started the match alongside Arteta, as mentioned above, but his movement made Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1 look more like a 4-3-3 at times. His ability on the ball and to dribble at the Bayern Munich defense was the only thing that really had Bayern look uncomfortable for large parts of the match. At times he drew three or four Bayern players towards him, usually resulting in a free kick rather than a created chance to an open teammate, of which Oxlade-Chamberlain created 0. His dribbling and pace were certainly impressive though.

Just as important for Arsenal was when Oxlade-Chamberlain got higher up the pitch when Arsenal were defending in a low block, which they did for extended periods of the match. Giroud was almost always up top, but failed to give Arsenal a proper out ball, especially as he was up against both Martinez and Dante and was used as an aerial target by his Arsenal teammates rather than an option on the ground. With Oxlade-Chamberlain up high, he would usually drift into the wide areas, which would spread Dante and Martinez from Giroud, allowing the Frenchman to have a 1v1 if the ball came his way, but also allowing Chamberlain a good amount of space to receive and run with pace at a lone Bayern Munich defender. Below you can see Oxlade-Chamberlain offering Arsenal their vertical outlet, in a wide area, in a 1v1 against Dante, who fouled the Arsenal man and earned a yellow card just eight minutes into the match.

Bayern’s Pressing

From the first minute of play, Bayern’s pressing was intense and effective. It was reminiscent of Bayern’s performance earlier in the Champions League against Manchester City, which at the time was arguably their best performance of the season up until that point. Bayern’s pressing in this match was infrequent because of the amount of the ball that they were able to keep, but when Arsenal did have the ball, and tried to work it out of the back, especially in the first half, Bayern’s pressing was effective and efficient.

After the initial intense pressing in the opening ten minutes whenever Arsenal had the ball, Bayern began to drop off a bit and rather than full press, waited for the ball to be worked into the full backs to trigger their pressing.

Wide Areas

As stated earlier, the only area of the pitch that Arsenal were able to find so relative freedom was in the wide areas, when Oxlade-Chamberlain would stay high up the pitch trying to anticipate counter attacking opportunities. For all of Arsenal’s good play in the wide areas, however, Bayern Munich were able to better it and rightfully should as Robben and Ribery are two of the best wingers in the world, backed by two of the best full backs in the world in Lahm and Alaba.

The middle of the pitch saw at least six players in at times, with both sides playing with three central midfielders, which made it congested and harder to work the ball through. Bayern Munich struggled to get the ball between the lines of the Arsenal defense and midfield with Arteta doing a good job of screening the back four and making it difficult for Mario Götze to get on the ball. As Bayern progressed into the final third, the space between Arsenal’s back four and Arsenal’s midfield trio of Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Cazorla became more compact and forced Bayern to look to the wide areas for space. Throughout the match, Ribery and Robben stood on their respective touchline, with Alaba and Lahm making underlapping runs and playing in more central roles. This allowed the two wingers to have more 1v1 opportunities with their full backs in Vermaelen and Sagna.

In the opening half, with Özil on the right side of Arsenal’s attack it allowed Alaba a huge amount of space to work in as the German international struggled in his defensive duties, especially when Bayern quickly switched the ball through the middle or on a long diagonal to Alaba. While Alaba wasn’t at his best with his crossing, he supported Ribery well and, when he worked on the inside channel, he made it more difficult for the Arsenal midfielders and centre backs to cope with the numbers, as did Lahm.

Changes

Wenger had to make a change at half time, brining Rosicky on for an injured Özil. Rosicky’s introduction gave Arsenal more work rate in the middle of the field while also freeing up Cazorla to support Giroud a bit more and for Oxlade-Chamberlain to play on the right and use the width that he could find on Arsenal counter attacks.

Almost immediately after Arsenal scored their goal, as dubious as the no-call on Podolski’s push on Lahm was, Guardiola made the decision to replace Götze with Toni Kroos. In the minutes after the Arsenal goal and a few minutes following Kroos’ introduction, Arsenal started to keep the ball much better and were able to apply some pressure on Bayern in the attacking third. However, Kroos soon got into the flow of the match, becoming more positional disciplined, and Bayern’s 4-2-3-1 began to return to a more solid shape with Kroos and Schweinsteiger as the two holding players behind Thiago. Below you can see UEFA’s positional charting for Bayern Munich in minutes 75 to 90, notice Kroos and Schweinsteiger laterally connected.

Conclusion

Bayern Munich were certainly not at their best in terms of penetrative play and movement in the final third of the field, but they played fairly well when Arsenal looked to counter.

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Arsenal’s performance is that they made Bayern worked hard and struggle to reach the heights of their usual standard of play. They defended well in a low block and forced Bayern to recycle the ball often. Oxlade-Chamberlain was bright, but his despite his good performance, the rest of the Arsenal team looked less hungry and void of the confidence that they had earlier in the season. At this point, the FA Cup is their most likely piece of silverware at the end of the season.

Bayern progress, having won at the Emirates 2-0, as they hope to defend last year’s win. Of course it is impossible to know, but had Guardiola not brought Kroos on for Götze, to give his side a bit more work rate in the centre of the pitch, Arsenal could have continued to grow into the match.