Match date: 26 November 2014

Four months into the season and Dortmund find themselves in 17th place in the Bundesliga, although they are just nine points off a Champions League spot. Klopp has said, prior to this match, that the Champions League campaign has been a welcomed holiday from the domestic woes.

Arsenal, coming off a defeat by Manchester United, also find themselves struggling to find form and injuries have hindered both Arsenal and Dortmund this season.

Klopp, who almost exclusively used a 4-2-3-1 during his time at Dortmund, has experimented with a 4-4-2 with both Immobile and Aubameyang up top this season, while trying to fit Mkhitaryan, Kagawa, and the newly fit Gündoğan into a midfield four.

Wenger continued with a 4-1-4-1, with Arteta as the holding midfielder and Ramsey and Cazorla in front of them. Wenger made a surprised selection by starting Yaya Sanogo as the central striker.

Early Goal, Arsenal Control, Attack the Right

Arsenal scored very early on, just 83 seconds in, as Santi Cazorla reversed a ball into the path of Sanogo with the Frenchman finishing between the legs of Weidenfeller. It is hard to say whether or not Arsenal deserved it, but they certainly took advantage of their opening goal with a good performance for much of the first half.

There were a few reasons that allowed Arsenal to have a large amount of possession and control the match. Starting from the back is was the lackadaisical pressing from Immobile and Aubameyang on Mertesacker and Monreal. Not only did they let the centre backs have the ball, but their pressing showed no intention to cut off passing lanes to Arteta and neither forward dropped in to mark the Arsenal holding midfielder, which allowed him to get all the ball often in the first half.

Arteta’s freedom meant one of two things for Arsenal; he was either allowed to pick up the ball and pick out passes going forward or, more often, one of either Bender or Gündoğan would push forward, which allowed Cazorla and Oxlade-Chamberlain to find space and those two had exceptional games for the home side. Cazorla’s passing was expansive and controlled the attacking third for Arsenal, while Oxlade-Chamberlain had an excellent night with the ball at his feet, dribbling at the Dortmund back four.

The focus of Arsenal’s attacks were very much down the right side of the pitch, through Chambers, who played a very mature, tidy game, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Cazorla, who drifted from the middle to the right side to help create an overload. This was the result of a few different factors. The first being that, in an attempt to get more playmakers on the field, Klopp opted to play Mkhitaryan in an outside midfield position. During the times that he was on the left side of Dortmund’s midfield, Arsenal were able to attack down to the right because he struggled to do his defensive. Grosskreutz, the other outside midfielder, is much more defensive in nature, having played outside back for Dortmund over the years, thus he was able to limit the Gibbs’ ability going forward, although when the Englishman did get forward, he looked very good doing so. Along with this, Piszczek was able to limit Alexis Sanchez’s influence for much of the match and pushed him back with good runs forward throughout the match, one of which created Dortmund’s best chance in the first half through a very good cross along Arsenal’s six yard box.

Gündoğan

The German international has had a difficult time in the last few years due to injury, but remains an excellent player for Dortmund. In this match, he showed his best qualities. He was able to dictate play from deep, in what was essential a 4-4-2. This meant that he had to find space against a three man Arsenal midfield in order to get on the ball and move the ball for Dortmund, which he did well from a deep position and was the top passer of the ball in the game. However, his best quality was when he was able to find space and dribble at Arsenal. There were a number of times where he won the ball back for the German side, dispossessing the likes of Cazorla and Arteta further up the field or was able to pick up a second ball and then run at the back line of Arsenal and if left Monreal and Mertesacker unsure of what to do with both Immobile and Aubameyang making runs.

Dortmund’s Best Phases, Kagawa and Mkhitaryan

Late on in the first half, at around the 35th minute, Dortmund began to put together some good bits of play. They were able to get down the sides of Arsenal’s defense as Gibbs and Chambers pushed forward and, as mentioned before, Piszczek was able to push Sanchez back, which meant Dortmund attack down the right for much of the match, with Mkhitaryan drifting from the left to create an overload.

Their best phase of play, however, came in the second half as Arsenal dropped a bit better. A lot of this, as mentioned above, was because of Gündoğan, as he found space and had time on the ball to expand play for the German side. For all of his good play, however, Immobile and Aubameyang failed to ever get into the game and Klopp subbed them both out soon after Arsenal scored their second goal for Kagawa and Ramos. This prompted Dortmund to change from a 4-4-2ish shape to a 4-2-3-1, with Bender and Gündoğan behind Kagawa, who played in the hole. Kagawa’s introduction was a big lift for Dortmund and his good play in that space between the lines prompted Wenger to bring on Flamini for Arteta.

Regardless of Flamini’s presence, Dortmund became more effective in this area of the pitch and in a 4-2-3-1 because they were now able to flood Flamini in that zone. In their 4-4-2, Dortmund were relatively rigid as both Aubameyang and Immobile looked to play further forward rather than drop into that space to get on to the ball and if they did, their first option was usually to receive, pass back, and spin in behind. With Kagawa on the pitch, however, there was always an option and with Mkhitaryan’s desire to play in a central role, it meant that Flamini was usually in a 2v1 against Kagawa and the Armenian, as you can see in the above screen capture. Ramsey was often drawn out of the middle, as he was in the above, to either support in the wide areas or push to one of Bender or Gündoğan.

Arsenal Counter

In the second half, Arsenal switched to a 4-2-3-1, with Ramsey and Arteta playing alongside one another in deeper midfield roles, while Cazorla played as a number 10 behind Sanogo. They also allowed Dortmund to have more and more possession of the ball, so much so that by the end of the match, Dortmund had more possession than Arsenal. The Gunners sat in a mid block, allowed Subotic, Ginter, and Gündoğan to have the ball, and would press once the ball worked it’s way into the likes of Mkhitaryan, Grosskreutz, and the deeper of the two forwards. This left Dortmund noticeably frustrated. For all their possession, they found it hard to get by Arsenal’s two banks of four, which meant that Dortmund were more willing to push more players forward and leave bigger gaps. Below you can see an example of Arsenal’s defensive shape in the second half after scoring their second goal and with Flamini on for Arteta.

Arsenal were able to exploit these gaps and in particular, it was Cazorla who consistently found space between the lines. As Bender and Gündoğan would try to press Ramsey and Arteta, who were both in deeper roles now as mentioned above, it left a huge space for Cazorla to receive the ball in and this is exactly what happened prior to Arsenal’s second goal. Below is the moments before Sanchez’s goal and the space that Cazorla has due to Bender and Gündoğan’s pressing.

Obviously it was successful and Arsenal were able to control the game, not by having the ball as they usually would, but staying compact and organised. By having numbers behind the ball, they took away Dortmund’s best attribute in counter attacking, which is also, arguably, Arsenal’s biggest weakness.

Conclusion

Arsenal secured their qualification for the knockout stages as Dortmund’s poor domestic form carried over into the Champions League. Klopp made jokes following the match about how Arsenal fans would no longer want him as a the man to take over once Wenger leaves, but his management of the German side has been interesting this year. During their best years, Dortmund played with one striker in order to maintain a solid midfield and counter pressed team’s into submission. This year, Klopp has been trying to force too many players in to the same side and it has caused them to look fragile far too often, something that Arsenal fans are all too familiar with.

It will be interesting to see just how Dortmund continue to get on this season. They’ve been hit repeatedly by injuries and Klopp probably hasn’t had the chance to put out what he thinks is his best XI yet, but there is certainly more quality to Dortmund than they saw.