Mikel Arteta has taken Arsenal by the scruff of the neck and thrust his team up the table with a combination of strict principles, smart recruitment and top-level coaching. The win over Manchester United highlighted all of these traits with some being predicted as many as three years ago.
Regarding recruitment, one of the most transformative figures in the Arsenal team has been Oleksandr Zinchenko. The Ukrainian has taken the left-inverted full-back role to the next level and enabled Arteta’s side to be far more controlled with their build-up and swift in their turnovers.
However, his partner, Gabriel Magalhaes was signed by Arsenal nearly three years ago as one of the Spaniard’s first summer purchases of 2020. The Brazilian has adapted to playing alongside Zinchenko and the pair have been coached to stifle attackers.
READ MORE: Leandro Trossard ‘deserves’ Arsenal transfer but Mikel Arteta warned of possible Brighton repeat
Antony suffered greatly against Arsenal whereas Bukayo Saka thrived. The England international has risen rapidly under Arteta and benefitted from the Spaniard's simple yet effective techniques that the likes of Antony failed to replicate last Sunday.
A video circulating on social media featuring footage from Arsenal's Amazon or All Nothing series shows Mikel Arteta taking a session on how wingers need to receive the ball and how defenders can look to restrict the movement of forwards. Analysing footage, the video cuts away to the game against United where what the Arsenal manager is delivering is brought to life.
He is filmed saying: "Because I don’t like creating lines between the wide players. Why? Because the full-back passes to the wide player – like this – back to goal, he can’t progress the play, there’s someone at his bum, he cannot play forward.”
As Arteta speaks the video cuts to Aaron Wan-Bissaka who passes to Antony. Zinchenko immediately closes the Brazilian and the winger is forced to pass back because he can’t progress – highlighting precisely what Arteta said would happen.
He continues: "When you do it like this (point toward the pass played to the winger already moving inside and therefore perpendicular to the goal rather than with the player’s back to goal) the angles you create are always receiving the ball like this."
The video then shows three different examples of Saka receiving passes from the right-sided defender - whether it be Ben White or another Arsenal player - and moving inside and it shows how easily the play can be progressed which you can watch here. The words of Arteta were shown three years ago, but his techniques are being implemented in the here and now and helped the Gunners overcome United and could even push toward the title.
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