Arsenal beat Chelsea in a five goal thriller, taking command of their Carabao Cup semi-final with a 3-2 victory.
Mikel Arteta’s side took the lead in the first half through a set-piece, before adding a second just four minutes into the second half through Viktor Gyokeres.
Liam Rosenior’s side looked to fight back, with substitute Alejandro Garnacho making it 2-1 in the 57th minutes, but a third for Arsenal in the 71st minute restored their two goal lead.
Garnacho added one more before the break, his second of the game and making it 3-2, giving Chelsea a lifeline heading to the Emirates next month.
In this article, we’ll cover
Arsenal manipulate Chelsea’s press
Rosenior’s men came into this game with an emphasis on pressing man for man, which saw Arsenal look to exploit this with rotations.
Marc Guiu and Joao Pedro were attaching to the two Arsenal centre-backs, with the two wingers following their respective full-back, while Andrey Santos tracked Declan Rice and Enzo Fernandez watched Martin Zubimendi.
However, this left Martin Odegaard as the “free” man, which Chelsea were looking to cover by jumping one of their central defenders out of the backline.
However, the fluidity of Arsenal’s midfield three and full-backs allowed them to manipulate Chelsea’s pressing distances, often leaving Wesley Fofana with a large distance to cover in order to press Odegaard.
Fofana found himself in half and half positions at times, occupying space inside Arsenal’s half, but not going all the way with Odegaard as he was mindful of the space behind him.
Chelsea build up issues
To compound their press looking disjointed, which is to be expected after just one week at the club for Rosenior, his build up patterns also had it’s issues.
Chelsea were looking to build out from the back, utilising Robert Sanchez to form a back four on the ball, pushing Josh Acheampong higher on the right and allowing Estevao to drift inside and create a tension on Rice’s side.
However, Fofana who is naturally right footed and more of a ball carrier, was playing at left centre-back, which acted as a pressing trigger for Arsenal in the first half.
Sanchez passing to Fofana saw Odegaard jump to apply pressure on Fofana, forcing play down the left which Chelsea struggled to play through due to the angle bias of the Frenchman.
The inability to connect those short passes to shift from the left back towards the right, allowed Arsenal to protect their hybrid player in the press (Rice) and force Chelsea down their weaker side.
Enzo Maresca had to adjust his build up tactics due to the lack of on-ball quality in the defensive line without Levi Colwill, and we will likely see these issues crop up again with the same set of available defenders.
Viktor Gyokeres importance
One man it was a good night for, was Gyokeres, who scored the second goal to give Arsenal a two goal lead, before setting up Zubimendi to restore Arsenal’s two goal lead.
The Sweden international had just 17 touches, but was constantly making runs in behind to provide a long ball option over Chelsea’s attempted man for man press, allowing Arsenal to gain territory higher up.
For his goal, Gyokeres actually wants the ball played earlier, gesticulating after Bukayo Saka decided against putting an early ball into the box.
However, it’s this movement that gives Gyokeres seperation behind Fofana, now on the blind side of the defender, allowing him to attack the six yard box and pounce on Sanchez’s error.
The 27-year-old also made a nice run into the box, making it stick and providing a flick into Zubimendi’s path, who took his goal nicely.
The good and bad of Fernandez
There were plenty of questions on where Fernandez was going to play under Rosenior, especially after coming from the bench against Charlton to play further forward as a number 10.
However, with Moises Caicedo and Reece James unavailable, Fernandez started in a deeper role alongside Santos, which came with both positives and negatives.
On a more positive note, Chelsea fans have wanted to see more of this type of Fernandez over the last few years, getting 100+ touches in a game and dictating from deep on the ball, much like his River Plate and Benfica days.
The Argentine did make two key passes, had some nice combination moments to help progress play and find the likes of Estevao and Joao Pedro in advanced areas, but his defensive work is a weakness in this deeper role.
On a number of occasions, Zubimendi managed to run off the back of Fernandez, getting between the lines and breaking the Chelsea press.
And the third Arsenal goal saw Zubimendi arrive off the back of Fernandez again, who wasn’t switched on when defending his own box.