Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid 1-0 at the Emirates on Tuesday night to secure their spot in the Champions League final.
The Gunners won the tie 2-1 on aggregate and are set to place in the competition’s showpiece for just the second time in their history.
Mikel Arteta lived every second with his players, frantically barking orders from the touchline. He even picked up a yellow card for stopping Atletico players from retrieving the ball.
While the tie was only decided by one goal, Arsenal controlled proceedings and never really felt under too much threat across the 180 minutes — aside from the second half of the first leg.
In this article, we’ll cover
Atletico’s press
Atletico Madrid were fairly passive in the first half at the Emirates. They often dropped into a 5-4-2 defensive block, with Antoine Griezmann drifting to the left to form a line of four behind Julian Alvarez.
They set up similarly in the first leg. Diego Simeone had his full-backs follow their wide counterparts, with Atletico Madrid being pinned into a back five. Giuliano Simeone followed Riccardo Calafiori and Ademola Lookman was dragged wide by Benjamin White.
Declan Rice dropped between the Arsenal’s centre-backs to extend the distance of Koke’s reference if they wanted to jump. Eberechi Eze also dropped slightly lower to create a tension for Koke, often giving Arsenal the +1 in the buildup to take control of the game.
While Atletico were looking to sit in a more zonal passive 5-4-1 shape, each player still had their man-to-man references. This was manipulatabel, especially from restarts, which Arsenal tried to use to their advantage.
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Arsenal’s build route and rotations
As mentioned, Arteta had Rice dropping between the centre-backs to collect the ball. Arsenal were looking to bait Atletico to latch oneo their man-to-man references across the pitch.
The few times they did manage to provoke this, White was able to drag Lookman out wide. Bukayo Saka then made a movement inside to bring Matteo Ruggeri with him and clear the channel.
This allowed Viktor Gyokeres to make the counter movement into the vacated channel. Arsenal could then aim passes for the Sweden international to battle with David Hancko in wide areas. This dragged him away from the middle and made it uncomfortable for the Atletico centre-back.
It was a repeatable pattern, and one Arsenal also used on the opposite flank. Leandro Trossard forayed inside to clear the left channel for Gyokeres, which worked a few times in the second half.
But the right-hand side wasn’t only being used to clear space for Gyokeres to take. It was also creating some key combination play, with certain rotations between the four players towards that side.
One of Rice or White would take up the right centre-back position on the ball — unless Rice was in the middle of the three and then William Saliba would be in the right centre-back role. The other three (either White/Rice, Eze and Saka) created a wide triangle just in front.
The synergy on this side particularly between White and Saka was strong, also linking with Eze inside and Rice if he stepped beyond to pin the opposition back line after rotating positions with White.
Gyokeres’ excellent night
Gyokeres was vital for Arsenal, despite picking up a lot of heat this season. Arteta gave the striker brilliant conditions to battle and drag his side up the pitch, vacating the channels and looking to play passes that bounced into the channel.
This allowed Gyokeres to arrive and get himself between the ball and opposition body with momentum as the ball was bouncing uncontrolled. This gave him control of the duel and allowed him to either drag Arsenal forward, or win fouls to gain territory.
When Arsenal did drop off to protect their lead in the second half, Gyokeres was crucial acting as an outlet for the Gunners. He was constantly willing to run the channel, engage in duels and win fouls to offer respite.
While many neutrals will see the missed chance to make it 2-0 and blast his performance, the Sweden international deserves a lot of praise, constantly meeting the Atletico Madrid defenders in battle and causing them problems.
Whether Arsenal face Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich in the final, Gyokeres will likely be key again in that fixture, acting as an outlet with the opposition likely to hold large portions of the ball.