Match date: 7 February 2015

The North London derby has perhaps more significance this year than it has in the past as Arsenal and Tottenham are both outside of the top four at the current moment with Manchester United at 43 points, Southampton level on points with Arsenal at 42, Tottenham at 40, and Liverpool just behind them at 38. It’s certainly a race between the five clubs for the two Champions League spots behind Chelsea and Manchester City (assuming those two don’t collapse).

Pochettino made just two changes to the starting XI that beat West Bromwich in their last outing, bringing Eric Dier in for Fazio, presumably for his pace, and Bentaleb for Paulinho, with the former returning from his time with Algeria at the African Cup of Nations. Pochettino continued with a 4-2-3-1.

Arsene Wenger made just one change to his side with Danny Welbeck coming in for Theo Walcott, perhaps trusting that Welbeck would be better suited to tracking the forward runs of Danny Rose. As he has for much of the season, Wenger continued with a 4-1-4-1, but looked a bit more like a 4-3-3 with Özil and Welbeck staying a bit higher than others have.

Arsenal Remain Compact

As has become the case over the course of this season, when Arsenal face one of the Premier League’s bigger sides, they no longer offer an open, attacking game, but rather sit back, with everyone behind the ball, and look to counter when possible. It hasn’t led to particularly entertaining matches, compared to the high scorelines that seem to follow Arsenal in big matches, but it has been relatively effective. Less than a month ago, they beat Manchester City 2-0 at the Etihad by by defending in this deep, compact shape. Prior to that, they drew Liverpool 2-2 at Anfield, again defending deep and absorbing the home side’s pressure.

Against Tottenham, they continued this approach with Francis Coquelin filling the space between the lines with Ramsey and Cazorla shuttling between helping Coquelin and putting some pressure on Mason and Bentaleb. As a result, with Cazorla not as quick to press to Mason, he saw a lot of the ball in the opening stages. Arsenal were comfortable with Tottenham having the ball at the halfway line and at that point, Giroud barely put pressure on the ball carrier either, instead, he dropped behind the ball and helped fill the passing lanes to Eriksen, Dembele, Lamela, and Kane. Notice the difference between where Arsenal made their tackles against Tottenham in this match (on the right), with their deep, compact shape, compared to where they made tackles against Tottenham in the reverse fixture earlier this season.

It was effective for Arsenal as well. They managed to limit the influence of Dembele, who played as the number 10 in the 4-2-3-1, and Eriksen, who is arguably Tottenham’s best playmaker and in excellent form. Neither could find space between the lines of Arsenal’s back four and midfield and if they did find space, Mason and Bentaleb struggled to get the ball to them because Arsenal were able to close the passing lanes quickly. Notice where both Eriksen and Dembele received the ball; rarely in dangerous positions, although the same could be said about where Bentaleb received the ball when he put it into the box for Kane’s winning header.

Tottenham’s Narrowness and Quick Switches

Continuing from the above section, Arsenal’s task of defending deep and compact was made easier by Tottenham’s narrow play. Eriksen was deployed on the left, but found himself inside more often than not and the same could be said about Lamela on the right. At times, both players would stay wide, particularly when Tottenham had the ball inside their own half and were working it up the field, but once Tottenham worked the ball into Arsenal’s half, the pair would come inside, allowing Arsenal’s back four and midfield to defend tighter in their lines and vertically. This of course made it harder for Mason, Bentaleb, Dier, and Vertonghen to get the ball into feet as it was so crowded. Essentially, Eriksen and Lamela took away Dembele’s space, so much so that he began to move away from the central zone and in the half spaces and at times a bit wider.

Where Tottenham did succeed though was in their quick switches. With Eriksen and Lamela inside, it did three things for Tottenham; 1) it allowed them to quickly overload one side of the pitch 2) it allowed Rose and Walker a huge amount of space to run into in 1v1 situations with Welbeck and Özil, respectively 3) it meant that quick switches to the weak side were hugely effective. At times Kane would make runs into the wide left area, but it was Rose, in particular, who enjoyed the amount of space that he was given through Eriksen’s narrow play and quick switches out to Rose opened up Arsenal’s defence on a few occasions before and soon after Özil’s opener. Below, you can see a good example of this, just two minutes after Arsenal went 1-0 up. Tottenham overload one side of the pitch and then Dembele plays a quick pass out to Rose, who is well within the width of the Arsenal penalty area, but is all alone.

At the end of this move, Rose’s shot is parried away by Ospina and Monreal cleared the ball for a corner, but it was a sign of the relative success that Tottenham found down the left side of their attack. Rose had another shooting opportunity a bit later, which went just wide of the goal, but again, it showed vulnerability in Arsenal’s defence.

Arsenal Counter, Welbeck & Giroud Provide Outlets

Arsenal’s best chances came through counter attacks, primarily on the right side of their attack through Welbeck. He was their outlet for quick counters as his pace allowed him to get into the space behind Tottenham’s high line and exploit the space left by Rose’s runs forward. He also had the beating of Rose a few times, as seen in Arsenal’s goal. He picked up the ball at the halfway line and easily beat Rose with his pace before playing the ball to Giroud who fluffed his shot into Özil’s path with the German volleying into the net. The latter parts of the move were fortunate, but, overall, Welbeck’s pace provided an outlet for Arsenal when they struggled to get out of their low block.

Giroud too offered an option, but it was entirely different than Welbeck’s counter attacking option. Instead, Arsenal looked to play the ball to Giroud’s head, chest, feet, etc., rather than into space as they would for Welbeck. Giroud was meant to hold the ball up and bring others into play. He did well enough, but Arsenal never really threatened Tottenham with any patient build up play that would see Giroud hold the ball up as Arsenal failed to really get numbers forward quickly enough to offer the Frenchman support.

Conclusion

Arsenal seemed to continue dropping off as the game ticked towards the end of the 90 minutes, whether instructed by Wenger or not, it again allowed Tottenham to control the match. Look at the space that Bentaleb has to deliver the ball into Kane for the winner. There is no pressure on the ball, meaning the Algerian has plenty of time to pick out Kane, who was up against Koscielny.

The result sees Tottenham move above Arsenal in the table. Arsenal’s approach worked relatively well from open play, aside from the goals, one from a set piece and the cross above, Tottenham only managed one other shot on goal from inside the penalty area, which means that Arsenal’s low block forced Tottenham to take shots from outside the area rather look to work the ball into the box.

Tottenham take on Liverpool in their next match in another battle for a Champions League spot, while Arsenal take on Leicester.