How Arteta’s positionless Arsenal made Champions League history in win over PSV | OneFootball

Arsenal became the first team in Champions League history to score 7+ goals away from home in a knockout stage match in their win over PSV at the Philips Stadion.

While Mikel Arteta’s side were brilliant on the night, Peter Bosz’s PSV side also played their part, still averaging 53% possession in the match, managing to create three big chances, taking 12 shots and generating 1.38 Expected Goals.

Meanwhile, with less possession, Arsenal generated a higher xG (1.97), and more big chances with six from their 15 shots taken. So what exactly gave Arsenal the upper hand in this one?

Arsenal’s average positions map can begin to tell part of the story. It highlights the interchangeability of the Gunners during build up, with Declan Rice the furthest forwards and the cluster on the right consisting of Martin Odegaard, Ethan Nwaneri and Jurrien Timber.

PSV insisted in pressing Arsenal in a man to man fashion. Whether this was due to Bosz wanting his side to assert their authority as the home side, or if he saw this as their chance to pounce early, it caused them far more problems than solutions.

Arsenal’s willingness to rotate fluidly with their counterparts made for a tough evening for PSV, as they were dragged all over the park, as Arteta’s side implemented a heavy usage of zone replacement.

The idea behind this is that you still aim to occupy all five lanes, but rather than each player being fixed to their zone, the players have freedom to move across zones, switching with other players and therefore creating the same shape with different patterns.

A brilliant example of this was the right-sided triangle of Odegaard, Nwaneri and Timber as referenced above, who rotated nicely in tandem to manipulate PSV’s press before penetrating through the middle.

As you can see from Odegaard’s his pass/movement map, the Norwegian would often drop into the first line of build up, occupying a temporary right centre-back role. This allowed for Nwaneri to drift inside from the right, taking up that right central midfield spot previously occupied by Odegaard, with Timber pushing forward into a wide right area, replacing Nwaneri’s RW position.

This is just one example of the zone replacement rotations used in the game by Arteta’s side, with Odegaard dragging his midfield marker into deeper areas, Timber pinning the PSV winger and Nwaneri dragging PSV’s left-back inside.

Odegaard was able to get into zones which optimised his creative output for the team, making runs from deeper areas to arrive close to the box for his two goals. He also played a lovely disguised pass for his assist to Riccardo Calafiori from the right half space and dictating proceedings from those temporary right centre-back positions, finishing the game with three chancs created and 86% pass completion.

Much like Odegaard who had a huge influence on the game, Declan Rice had a similar impact from the left central midfield position, showing that same fluidity to replace his team mates across zones and print his authority on the game.

While Rice was mainly situated in the left half space, his movements were persistent throughout the entire game, making runs in behind from this position, switching with Mikel Merino at times to become the temporary striker option and even holding width in certain patterns where Leandro Trossard drifted inside.

Whichever zone Rice had to occupy, he did it without fuss, providing the assist for Arsenal’s opening goal, where he made a run from the middle of the penalty box across the front post to receive the ball, before finding a yard to deliver a cross to the back post.

Rice completed 89% of his passes in the game. He created two chances — both of which were big chances — completed all three cross attempts and completed his only long ball attempt..

Having full-backs who can facilitate the movement of those ahead of them is extremely important when playing in this fashion, platforming the central midfielders and wingers in their optimal zones for effectiveness.

As Timber did with his movements for the likes of Odegaard and Nwaneri on the right side, Myles Lewis-Skelly was brilliant before he was taken off, as was Calafiori who took his place after 35 minutes.

Their ability to play in tight central zones, make overlapping and underlapping runs to create space for their counterpart and overall versatility allow Arsenal to use these zone replacement principles.

Calafiori’s touch map perfectly illustrates his versatility in his movement, occupying wide left positions, nominal left fullback positions, central midfield/left half space zones and even making runs into the box as the highest man, scoring Arsenal’s seventh.

With this fixture all but tied up now, Arsenal will be able to rest some of their first-team players next week at the Emirates, ensuring the squad is in peak condition for their clash against Chelsea just four days later.