Match date: 4 November 2015

In the last match day, Arsenal won 2-0, scoring the decisive goal on a set piece through Olivier Giroud. Bayern Munich controlled the ball in that game, but lacked the cutting edge, while Arsenal’s defense, while effective in the end, certainly had weaknesses.

Guardiola made two changes in his 4-2-3-1 from that last match against Arsenal with Javi Martinez coming in to partner Boateng at centre back. Alaba, who started at centre back in the last Champions League match, started at left back. Further forward, Kingsley Coman was given the start with Vidal dropping to the bench.

Wenger was forced to make a number of changes with Gabriel and Debuchy coming in at centre back and right back, respectively. Ramsey was replaced by Joel Campbell on the right side on the midfield and Giroud started up top with Walcott out in Arsenal’s 4-2-3-1.

Thiago

‘Thiago or no one’ was what Guardiola said in regards to the transfers he was seeking when he first came to Bayern Munich. The former Barcelona midfielder had shown signs of being an excellent talent in his appearances at the Catalan club, but he has turn into a world class footballer under Guardiola (when healthy). This match showed not only this world class quality that Thiago has, but just how important he was to Bayern Munich. The Spaniard created chances, did excellent defensively, and, most importantly, dictated the tempo of the game for Bayern Munich.

Playing in a 4-2-3-1, a slightly different shape compared to the 4-1-4-1 that Bayern Munich played the last time against Arsenal, Thiago played on the left side on the two holding midfielders alongside Xabi Alonso. This became extremely important to allowing Thiago to get on the ball as much as he did. The Spaniard was allowed to dictate the game and create chances, such as the ball that Lewandowski headed past Cech for the opener, because of what Kingsley Coman and David Alaba did around him. Coman had a good match; he took on Debuchy a few times and put some good balls across the box, but the most important part of his performance was that he was always willing to stretch the pitch on the left side of Bayern Munich’s attack. This, of course, stretched Arsenal’s back four and because of his willingness to take on Debuchy and his pace, it pushed Arsenal back on that side. This gave Thiago more space and he would drift into a wide left position at times, but mostly only in the middle third. As Bayern Munich moved into the final third, the movement of Alaba and Coman allowed Thiago relative freedom in the central areas as the two former players would drag Debuchy, Cazorla, and Mertesacker out of position.

More important to Thiago’s play than Coman, however, was the positions taken up by Alaba throughout the match. Despite playing at left back on the official line up sheet, Alaba’s position was much more advanced and central. There were some phases of Bayern Munich’s build up play when the Austrian would position himself at left back and defensively he would certainly come back to a left back role, but much of the time, when Bayern Munich had the ball, Alaba would get very high and central beyond Thiago. Alaba would occupy the likes of Cazorla which meant that Thiago now the freedom to his left because Coman stretched the play for him laterally and had space vertically with Alaba pushing Cazorla back. Alaba’s movement would happen almost right away when Bayern Munich won the ball and, at times, Thiago would drop to the left of Javi Martinez into the space where a traditional left back would position himself during the build up phase of a team like Bayern Munich. Below you can see him in a more central role during Bayern’s build up play, but notice Coman stretching the field wide and Alaba making his central, forward run.

Differences From Arsenal’s 2-0 Win

Bayern Munich’s movement of the ball was much quicker in this match compared to the last match day, however, a lot of this had to do with Arsenal’s defensive work. As noted in the analysis of that last match, Santi Cazorla is not in the Arsenal side because of his defensive abilities, but rather to dictate Arsenal’s play. Yes, he can win tackles and make interceptions, but when Arsenal defend deep, he loses players or, in this case, does not maintain enough pressure on the ball. This was a big difference for Arsenal compared to their win; they defended in a low block as they did in the other match, but there was significantly less pressure on the ball when Bayern moved the ball just around the edge of the penalty area. The perfect example is the first goal a Thiago cross to Lewandowski at the back post.

This lack of pressure on the ball not only allowed passes like this, but allowed Bayern Munich to play quick combinations around the box and open Arsenal up. It is one thing not to concede space, as Arsenal tried to do by defending deep, but to do so effectively, there must be pressure on the ball.

Another big difference from the first match was that Lewandowski was no longer as isolated. At the beginning of the match, Douglas Costa was playing centrally just behind Lewandowski, while Thomas Müller was playing on the right, stretching the width of the pitch as he did in the first match. However, from about 10 minutes in, Costa switched out to the right and Müller came inside and played just off of Lewandowski. This was a big difference from the first match as Müller enjoys playing in the penalty area and was able to create space for Lewandowski and the midfield runners that wanted to get onto the second balls from crosses. Müller’s lack of presence in the central areas during the first match was very noticeable and it made a huge impact for Bayern when he played centrally.

For Arsenal, there were a few significant differences from their home win. The first was the personnel. Rather than Walcott up top, Olivier Giroud started which meant that Arsenal lacked a threat in behind the Bayern Munich back line that they had in the first match. Sanchez was in the side on the left and his pace and directness was influential at times, but he was also pegged back because of Lahm’s advanced positioning. Giroud was an isolated figure when Arsenal were defending deep, but he remained an outlet for Arsenal to play long to, but rather than having the pace of Walcott to create chances, Giroud had to hold the ball up and wait for Arsenal players to support him and they struggled at times to get out of their defensive shape.

In the opening stages, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil looked good going forward for Arsenal. As mentioned, Sanchez was direct with his dribbling, while Özil overloaded the left side of the pitch, which made sense both in that he could support Sanchez and his movement was not as easily tracked by Alonso as it would have been by Thiago. Aside from a few glimpses and Özil’s disallowed goal, the duo had little impact on the match.

Pressing

A big part of the match was the pressing of each side. Arsenal, at times, tried to press Bayern Munich, although it is hard to say if this was really in the initial plans of Arsene Wenger or a reaction to going 1-0 down very early on in the match. Either way, Arsenal’s pressing was not very useful, but instead left the English side a bit open at the back and Bayern Munich used these opportunities to play quick, direct passes through the middle of the pitch, but they also looked to play big diagonal balls to Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman in the wide areas where they were isolated in 1v1s against their respective full backs. Below is an example of this; Thiago gets on the ball and plays wide to Costa on the far side. In this instance, Alexis Sanchez recovers quickly enough and Monreal forces Costa back toward the halfway line, but this allowed Bayern to get the ball forward quickly and behind Arsenal’s midfield for a brief period of transition.

Another good example was just prior to Bayern Munich’s second goal. Arsenal had five players around the ball, but there was a disconnect not only between the lines, with the back four too deep compared to the holding midfielders, but a disconnect between the five players around the ball. Below you can see Giroud and Campbell moving away from the ball while Sanchez is pressing. This phase of play led to an Alonso pass to an isolated Lahm at the halfway line with the five Arsenal players below working back to recover. Lahm played the ball to Costa, who engaged Monreal and played back to Lahm, who then crossed into the box and Müller was able to get on the end of it and score.

Bayern’s pressing allowed them to keep control of the ball and snuff out Arsenal’s counter attacks on a number of occasions. The pressing from Bayern Munich in the last match was good, but there was notably more intensity about it in this match. Bayern would swarm the ball quickly and rather than win the ball and try to keep it, they would instead look to play into the spaces that the Arsenal ball carrier would have been in defensively. It is easy to point out that Alaba’s goal came from good pressing as he won it back and beat Cech from distance (it is also worth noting his central position in this instance).

Conclusion

An excellent performance by Bayern Munich and Thiago, in particular. The German side’s ball movement was much improved compared to two weeks ago and they were able to translate their possession into goals. Thiago’s influence on the game, being the one to dictate the tempo of Bayern rather than Alonso, was a huge reason for Bayern’s more effective possession. The Spaniard was quick and decisive with his passing and looked to break the lines.

Arsenal find themselves in a difficult position in the Champions League now. They must win both of their remaining matches and hope that Olympiakos do not win a match.