Match date: 22 November 2014

The two sides come into the match struggling, both close to matching their worst starts in years, and find themselves in a congested fight for fourth place. Both have been hit by injuries, with both back lines easily described as makeshift when the starting line ups were announced.

Arsene Wenger continued with a 4-1-4-1 with Arteta, Ramsey, and Wilshere in the middle three, while Wenger was forced to start Nacho Monreal, a left back, at centre back with Laurent Koscielny out with an injury. Calum Chambers started on the right, while Kieran Gibbs played on the left.

Louis van Gaal opted to revert to a back three after using a back four in Manchester United’s recent matches. Van Gaal took a gamble in his selection, with Paddy McNair (19), Chris Smalling, and Tyler Blackett (20) as his three centre backs, with Valencia and Shaw as the wing backs. Perhaps the most notable absence is Daley Blind, injured on international duty, in front of the back four.

Arsenal’s First Half: Wilshere, Width

Arsenal were by the far the better side in the opening 45 minutes. They moved the ball well, maintained their width through Chambers and Gibbs, and created a host of chances that should have seen them with a healthy lead by halftime.

Wilshere, Welbeck, and Oxlade-Chamberlain all had good chances to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead, but De Gea bested all of their attempts. Of the three, Wilshere’s chance was by far the best, brought on by good pressing by Alexis Sanchez which forced De Gea into a poor clearance. Despite his miss, Wilshere was the brightest spot for Arsenal in the first half. His movement and dynamism consistently pushed Arsenal forward. He was able to find the space between the lines, which was notable in the absence of Daley Blind in Manchester United’s side. Without the Dutchman, van Gaal relied on Michael Carrick to play in that area of the pitch, with Fellaini usually higher up the pitch putting pressure on Ramsey or Arteta, which meant that Carrick was tasked with controlling Wilshere. The Manchester United man, however, is not necessarily a defensive midfielder, in terms of his tackling and marking ability, and it also lacking in mobility as he gets older. This made it much easier for Wilshere to receive the ball between the lines, turn into the space behind him, and run at the Manchester United back line.

The above screen capture is a perfect example of that space that Wilshere was able to create. In this instance, he was able to get between Fellaini and Blackett, who had got stuck up the field after the rest of the back line had dropped off, and dribble at the back line from the edge of the centre circle to the top of Manchester United’s penalty area. His finish, as it was in his 1v1 chance later, was poor, but the run encompassed the best parts of his performance.

With Manchester United playing three at the back, it meant that their wing backs were meant to provide width going forward and were able to play fifteen yards further up the pitch. Without Manchester United having full backs in that space, Arsenal looked to exploit the space to the sides of McNair and Blackett, in order to drag them out of position. Welbeck consistently drifted to the left, into the half space, in order to pull out McNair, while Oxlade-Chamberlain and Alexis Sanchez, both of whom had a good amount of freedom to roam, looked stretch both sides.

This did a few things for Arsenal. The first was that with a stretched back line, it opened up space for Arsenal’s midfield to exploit, especially the spaces between Smalling and the other two centre backs, which Wilshere did well, as mentioned above. More importantly, however, was that it allowed Arsenal to create 1v1s with McNair and Blackett, two inexperienced centre backs, while isolating Smalling against Welbeck, or whoever was in the central striker role during that phase of play. The 1v1s were the left Manchester United open and Welbeck was the closest to make the most of such a chance. He was in a 1v1 with McNair on the left and beat the young centre back, only for De Gea to make another good save.

Arsenal Chase the Game

It was telling of Wilshere’s first half performance that Manchester United’s goal came after Wilshere was forced off through injury. Regardless of the circumstances, Gibbs’ own goal forced Arsenal to push that bit more forward to get an equaliser and they had about 40 minutes to play patiently and wait for an opening, but instead, they looked rushed and play was forced every time they had good, sustained possession in the attacking third.

As the match went on, Arsenal’s attacks became less effective as they made it easier to Manchester United to defend by becoming narrower and narrower, which was the complete opposite of how Arsenal approached the first half. The plan in the first half seemed to be to exploit the wide areas, force Blackett and McNair out of the middle, and then work inward. Welbeck’s excellent chance, as well as Wilshere’s big chance, were the result of the ball being out wide and leading either to a direct shot, in Welbeck’s case, or the space opening up between the Manchester United centre backs, in Wilshere’s case. Below, you can see how narrow Arsenal were. GIbbs and Chambers, both of whom provided good width in the first half (especially Gibbs), are both well within the width of the penalty area.

Manchester United were allowed to have their three centre backs and wing backs within a 25 yard space across the penalty area with Gibbs, Chambers, Sanchez, and Oxlade-Chamberlain all within that same space. For an inexperienced back line, they were relatively untested, positionally speaking. Arsenal were unable to coax Manchester United out of their defensive shape, because they failed to stretch them by playing with any width. Below, notice how few passes from Arsenal are played outside the width of the penalty area as they pushed for their equaliser.

With their impatient play, Arsenal left themselves exposed to counter attacks, especially without a true defensive midfielder, which Rooney capitalised on to give Manchester United a 2-0 lead. It says a lot about the performance of both sides, however, that Rooney’s goal was Manchester United’s first shot on target. Di Maria, who had an anonymous performance, should have given his side a 3-0 lead, but missed his chance after another counter attack left Arsenal extremely exposed.

Conclusion

Manchester United did not play well and it’s hard to say they really deserved all three points, but the ruthlessness that made them so good under Ferguson, the ability to win when playing poorly, seemed to show through the performance.

Van Gaal admitted after the match that he took a big risk with his tactical and personnel selection. In the first half, had Arsenal been more clinical, van Gaal’s selections would have certainly been scrutinised, but gamble paid off.

Were Arsenal unlucky to lose? Perhaps. However, as they looked for an equaliser, they made it incredibly easy for Manchester United to defend, rarely testing a back line that consisted of a 19 and 20 year old. A positive was the return of Giroud, but it will now be interesting to see what becomes of Danny Welbeck. Wenger hinted at Welbeck having to play out wide, which he vocally criticised upon leaving Manchester United.