{"id":164,"date":"2013-12-13T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/2013\/12\/13\/match-analysis-napoli-v-arsenal-2-0\/"},"modified":"2017-12-09T05:07:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T05:07:31","slug":"match-analysis-napoli-v-arsenal-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/2013\/12\/13\/match-analysis-napoli-v-arsenal-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Napoli v Arsenal (2-0)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Match date: 11 December 2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite already being on 12 points entering the final match of the group stage, Arsenal still had a chance of getting ousted from the Champions League, while Napoli, tied on 9 points with Dortmund, had a few scenarios that would see them through to the knockout stages at either the expensive of Arsenal or Dortmund.<\/p>\n

Both Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger set up their sides in a 4-2-3-1, and both had fairly fluid attacking quartets, for at least the opening half of the match.<\/p>\n

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Napoli\u2019s Pressing<\/strong><\/p>\n

Throughout the match, Napoli pressed Arsenal very well as they desperately looked to get at least 1-0 win over Arsenal regardless of the scenarios dependent on the Marseille v Dortmund match. Overall, Napoli\u2019s pressing was very effective and they gained some scoring opportunities from it, one being Higuain pressed Szczesny only for the Polish goalkeeper to try to deftly chip the ball to an Arsenal teammate and rather have Higuain head it into the side netting.<\/p>\n

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Above, you can see just how many times they regained the ball in Arsenal\u2019s half, winning six of their eight attempted tackles, and the numbers that Napoli were able to get around the ball frustrated Arsenal, as they had an increasingly hard time playing around the Napoli\u2019s high press. What was also evident in the match, and the picture above shows a fairly good representation of it, is that Napoli\u2019s pressing was relatively together. Albiol and Fernandez played a high line and helped eliminate the space in midfield for Arsenal to play in.<\/p>\n

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In the screen capture above, you can see the amount of pressure that Napoli were putting on Arsenal. Both Pandev and Callejon are pressuring Mertesacker, with Higuain close to Koscielny and in midfield, Dzemaili is right next to Arteta and Mertens is closing to Flamini. This was not unique to this moment; Napoli were consistently applying high pressure and made it difficult for Arsenal to play out of the back and instead, they chose to try to get the ball to Giroud as much as possible. As the deepest pressure relief, it was mostly Szczesny\u2019s task to play over the press.<\/p>\n

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Higuain\u2019s goal came about because of pressure he put on Mertesacker, causing the centre back to clear the ball all the way to Fernandez. Napoli then worked the ball up to Higuain, who turned well and scored. Napoli\u2019s second goal was the result of Behrami putting good pressure on Ramsey in Napoli\u2019s half, winning the ball back, and then countering well.<\/p>\n

Tom\u00e1\u0161 Rosick\u00fd<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Czech international has now been at Arsenal for six years and, while he\u2019s had his fair share of inconsistency, he has done well for the Gunners and showed his abilities against Napoli. His passing was good throughout, his tackling was decent, but what aided Arsenal\u2019s cause the most on the day was\u00a0Rosick\u00fd\u2019s work rate. Playing with\u00a0\u00d6zil and Cazorla in the side meant that Arsenal\u2019s midfield was going to be very narrow and Napoli\u2019s full backs, Maggio in particular, enjoy getting forward, which theoretically is problematic for Arsenal\u2019s lack of width, especially when Napoli played long diagonals to the full backs. However,\u00a0Rosick\u00fd was quick to cover both\u00a0\u00d6zil and Cazorla throughout. As he was when Flamini made several runs forward into the Napoli penalty area.<\/p>\n

Benitez\u2019s Change<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What won the game for Napoli was Benitez\u2019s substitution. While Pandev had a decent match in support of Higuain, he looked fatigued from the high press that he was instructed to play and looked void of ideas when he got on the ball. At around the hour mark (Benitez\u2019s favourite time to make a substitution), he took off Pandev and introduced Lorenzo Insigne. It was a significant change as Insigne is pacy and tricky, but could also aid in continuing to press Arsenal when they had possession.<\/p>\n

Bringing on Insigne meant that Callej\u00f3n\u00a0moved inside in support of Higuain with Mertens and Insigne on the right and left, respectively. Callej\u00f3n\u2019s influence on the match increased greatly once given a freer role behind Higuain. Of the two chances that\u00a0Callej\u00f3n created in the match, one being is assist to Higuain, both came after he was moved inside. His pressing in that area of the pitch and his ability to link Napoli\u2019s midfield with Mertens, Insigne, and Higuain was vital in the continuing the pressure that Napoli were putting on Arsenal in the last half hour of the match.<\/p>\n

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Insigne provided Napoli with a good attacking option on the left as Napoli seemed to focus their attacks down the left through him and Armero. Insigne was certainly the main outlet, however, especially after Wenger replaced Rosick\u00fd\u00a0with Ramsey, meaning that Arsenal\u2019s midfield was still narrow, but lacked the work rate of Rosick\u00fd, relying instead on Flamini to help Jenkinson with both Insigne and Armero, which in turn allowed\u00a0Callej\u00f3n more space to break into in the middle of the field, especially with the absence of Arteta after receiving his second yellow card.<\/p>\n

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Wenger\u2019s Faults in Loss<\/strong><\/p>\n

Had this been a match that Arsenal absolutely had to win rather than not lose, Wenger certainly would have brought on Theo Walcott. With Napoli\u2019s pressing, there was an incredible amount of space for Arsenal to play diagonal balls into. The screen capture below is a good representation of Napoli\u2019s pressing and the space it opened up.<\/p>\n

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Despite this being on the right side of the pitch, imagine this scenario with Walcott on the opposite side. With six Napoli players in this area of the pitch, the pace of Walcott could have easily created chances for Arsenal. Following the introduction of Insigne for Napoli, Arsenal created just one scoring chance.<\/p>\n

When all was said and done, with Dortmund scoring a second goal against Marseille and Napoli only scoring two goals, Wenger\u2019s substitutions worked well enough. Bringing on Monreal added cover on the left side of Arsenal\u2019s defense, making Insigne a more predictable option for Napoli\u2019s attacks and while Insigne had his say on the match, Arsenal were able to contain Napoli just enough to qualify.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Had this been a league match, Wenger\u2019s substitutions would have certainly been different. With Napoli\u2019s pressing, it was an opportune time to bring on someone with Walcott\u2019s pace, but knowing that if Arsenal didn\u2019t concede too many, that\u2019d be through, Wenger opted for defensive substitutions.<\/p>\n

Overall, it was certainly a nervy 20 minutes for Arsenal after Napoli scored their first goal and Napoli certainly could have gone for another goal much quicker than they did, but waited only until the news about Dortmund\u2019s second goal reached them to push on for another, which left them with little time to score two more goals.<\/p>\n

Benitez and Napoli will certainly feel hard done by finishing third in their group despite winning 12 points. They are in fact the first side to not progress in the Champions League despite amassing that number of points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Match date: 11 December 2013 Despite already being on 12 points entering the final match of the group stage, Arsenal still had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[805],"tags":[18,20,28,645,644,65,643,45,642,646,27],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","tag-arsenal","tag-arsene-wenger","tag-champions-league","tag-gonzalo-higuain","tag-jose-callejon","tag-long-reads","tag-lorenzo-insigne","tag-napoli","tag-rafa-benitez","tag-tomas-rosicky","tag-uefa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1-4.png?fit=500%2C362&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/motz.football\/analysis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}