00:00Hello everybody and welcome back to the Adam Cleary Football Channel. I'm not Adam Cleary,
00:05well done to the observant amongst you. I'm Archie Corbett, I'm filling in for him today but
00:10let's get straight into it because Arsenal overcame what is undoubtedly their biggest
00:14challenge of this barely three game old season in their win against Chelsea. And while their
00:20defensive performance was characteristically solid limiting JP Morgan and co to below 0.4 xG
00:27throughout the entire 90 minutes, it was actually their creative positional play and attacking freedom
00:32that won Arsenal this game. Which isn't something that we'd often say about a Mikel Arteta Arsenal
00:38team so let's have a look at how they did it. Right so as I alluded to this is Arsenal's
00:46biggest
00:46challenge of the season so far and I want to doff my imaginary cap to Xabi Alonso for getting this
00:52Chelsea team looking so organised in and out of possession. They're incredibly flexible when
00:58trying to build out, varying regularly between trying to unpick Arsenal's press with deep passes
01:03and combinations to just kind of lumping the thing to give Arsenal's backline something to think about.
01:09And it was the intent that Chelsea played with which had me, an Arsenal fan who was sat in the
01:14upper tier of the clock end, really quite worried during points of this game. Take this moment here
01:19where Arsenal's pretty attacking rotational play has left them in this spot and don't worry I will get
01:25to the attacking rotation play a little bit later on in this video. But some nice movement has got
01:29Odegaard and Lewis Skelly into this gap and it's a promising Arsenal attack. But Fafana jumps in and
01:34Chelsea win it back and at this point I wouldn't usually say that Arsenal are in heaps of trouble.
01:38Like if we do a quick count of what we can see here then the two centre-backs should be
01:42unoccupied at the
01:43back and Rice is also there to cover and with no Chelsea player staying high
01:47the quick counter really shouldn't be on. But without even looking, João Pedro instantly gets
01:52the ball and first time puts his laces through it into the one gap that Arsenal have left on that
01:58far side. Because as you may well have seen by now, Riccardo Calafiore basically wants to play
02:03anywhere that isn't left back and it actually creates a lot of chances for Arsenal on the ball.
02:08But we're actually yet to see teams actively try and exploit this positional freedom that he has
02:13until now which Chelsea do here. Because it drags Gabriel out to that left-hand side where he really
02:19doesn't want to be and then Neto is able to isolate him 1v1 and Chelsea are a post-swift from
02:25making this
02:262-1 going into half-time. And I know I mentioned at the start that Chelsea had just below 0
02:31.4 xG for
02:32the whole 90 minutes but I don't think the numbers really do it justice as to the chances that they
02:37were creating during this game. Because there was that Neto chance and then there was the sliding in at
02:41the back post from João Pedro which won't show up in any xG numbers. This actually very decent Morgan
02:46Rodgers chance that he should have done better with. This pile driver from Rhys James that had David
02:51Raya scrambling and then this Esteval chance towards the end of the game that David Raya brilliantly
02:56tips over. All of these plus the actual goal that they score. And Chelsea were knocking on the door
03:01throughout this game and I think they actually kind of had the Arsenal defence quite worried which is
03:06no easy feat. So yes caps doffed, respect paid, Chelsea did play very well in this game and they
03:12look much better under Xabi Alonso but Arsenal actually won this game so let's talk about them
03:17because it's the positional rotations and the attacking freedom like I said that actually won
03:23Arsenal this game. And honestly it left Chelsea all over the place defensively. Let's have a little
03:27look at the Havertz goal in the first half and it starts with Chelsea's back four all man for man
03:33on the
03:33edge of the box. Because just quickly Chelsea really want to try and be man to man when out of
03:38possession and it's actually what kind of led to their downfall in this game. So the ball's worked
03:43around to this near side and you can see immediately that both Havertz and Erdegaard drop away from the
03:49Chelsea centre-backs but both centre-backs actually react very differently to this. So Lacroix initially
03:55jumps onto Erdegaard before thinking better of it and just sort of marshals him from a distance but
04:00Fafana gets dragged all the way out here with Havertz creating this massive gap between him
04:06and Lacroix. Remember this space that he creates because it might become quite important in a matter
04:11of seconds. So by this point Havertz comes so far out that he's actually in an offside position so
04:17Fafana half leaves him B but if we look at this delightful little reverse angle of it it's this tiny
04:23movement that Havertz makes that absolutely kills Fafana. Because you can see there's a moment here
04:28where Fafana literally has his back to him before turning around appealing for offside and losing
04:34Havertz all together essentially in one motion. Lacroix tries to cover a cross but because the gap
04:39Arsenal have created is so seismic he's not able to do so quickly enough Havertz gets his shot away
04:45and Martinez goes down on installments and that's Arsenal back on level terms. And again let's go back
04:51to the space that Havertz created initially versus voila the space that he actually ends up shooting from
04:57for the goal and you can see that this movement is very intentional and incredibly intelligent
05:02attacking play. And just a quick word on Havertz because for me at least this was actually one of
05:08the best performances I've seen him have in an Arsenal shirt maybe ever. He was involved in
05:13everything good that Arsenal did on the ball in this game whether it was running beyond to stretch
05:18for Chelsea back line, dropping in to provide link-up play, winning duels, drifting out to his right-hand
05:23side like I mentioned and creating space for his teammates, winning the ball back when pressing,
05:28he did it all. And physically in this game he was really impressive as well. He actually clocked
05:32the joint highest speed for any player in this match and he also won the most aerial duels so
05:38physically he was a really dominant threat up top for Arsenal. And honestly I think he's the perfect
05:44striker profile for this Arsenal team and it goes all the way back to those positional rotations that I
05:49keep banging on about but haven't actually addressed yet. So yeah let's actually address
05:54those. Because especially after that goal Havertz kept drifting out to this right-hand side creating
06:00that same space but which players filled it was a complete lottery. Because for the goal that we
06:06just saw beyond Havertz it was actually Luis Skellier that was at the back post occupying the third
06:11centre-back. Then let's take this moment here and that's a front line currently comprised of left-back
06:16Ricciardo Calafiore dropping just in behind right-back Ben White and right-winger Bakayo Saka
06:21who are occupying the centre-halves. Then at this point in the second half you've got centre-back
06:25Gabriel who's just joined the front line and no this isn't even after a set piece. This is a rotation
06:31in open play and Gabriel is just on the last line. And essentially these constant rotations that
06:36Arsenal had in the final third meant that Chelsea were always having to shift their man-for-man
06:41marking. And the winning goal is a beautifully neat summation of everything that I've just shown you
06:46so far in this video. So Arsenal win the ball back and Odegaard is immediately looking for the out
06:51ball and he finds it with Havertz who has once again dropped off from the centre-back into this
06:57pocket of space here. But as we've already seen so far when the centre-backs have no one to mark
07:02let's
07:02just put them in here. Say when Havertz does drop off they don't really know whether to go with him
07:07or just to leave him and mark nobody. This time it's Lacroix and he just lets Havertz drift into
07:13that space and for him to lay it off to Calafiore. And he gets the ball out wide to Solis
07:18and despite
07:19how well Christos Solis does here I don't want you to look at him. I want you to look at
07:23the runs that
07:24are happening off of him because that's where the magic really happens. Firstly let's look at the run
07:28that's carried on by Calafiore which just kind of epitomises this positional freedom that Arteta's
07:33giving his side. He just keeps going into this channel dragging Lacroix once again out of the
07:39danger area through his movement. And secondly let's look at the current man-for-man situation
07:44that Chelsea have got going on in the middle of the park. Rhys James hasn't tracked either runner
07:49which is bad. Romeo Lavi has been drawn towards Solis which is also bad and suddenly with no midfield
07:56presence at all Wesley Vafana is left 2v1 in what is undoubtedly the most dangerous part of the pitch.
08:03And if you're Chelsea that simply can't happen. It's a combination of poor tracking back
08:08and schoolboy ball watching which allow that pass inside, a really really clever dummy from Havertz
08:14and a completely free Martin Odegaard who keeps his cool and Arsenal win this game.
08:19And if you're sat there thinking hang on I think I've seen this film before isn't this the exact same
08:23goal that Martin Odegaard scored in the charity community English Super Cup League final just three
08:30weeks ago against Manchester City you'd be right. In fact if we just play them side by side quickly
08:35you've got Solis cutting in and playing a ball across, you've got Calafiore with the direct run
08:40into the exact same channel, Havertz drifting just in front to occupy defender and Odegaard with a
08:46completely free run on goal. And that's kind of the game there. Chelsea have things they clearly need
08:51to work on out of possession including but not limited to having a functional midfield that can
08:56actually cover large spaces. Caicedo's return should certainly soften that blow a little bit
09:01but regardless it is definitely a concern. But on the ball there were identifiable patterns of play,
09:06there was purposeful moves in attack which is something that we've not really seen from Chelsea
09:11until Xabi Alonso's come in kind of in quite a while which is new and good. So there were really
09:18positive signs not to go with Jason Cundey on you for Chelsea. But yeah like I said at the top
09:23of the
09:23video I think this was a really unconventional Arsenal win of sorts. They were definitely
09:28defensively solid. We've seen that in many an Arsenal win over the last few years but what I
09:32was so impressed by was that positional freedom that their attacking players had and I think that's
09:37really aided by having a combination of Saka, Odegaard, Havertz and even Ben White on this right
09:42hand side to get those little wide triangles going. To let Ben White come on the outside. He's really good
09:48at that. He really likes doing that. And then you've got someone in Christos Solis on the far side who
09:52just
09:52loves to hold the width. He's got very little interest in drifting too far inside and that
09:56allows Ricardo Calafiore to just go wherever the hell he wants. I mean look this is his heat map
10:02right. I wasn't going to show this but this is his heat map from Arsenal's left back. Look at all
10:07this.
10:08That's a left back. It's not a left back is it? But that's what he did in this game. Right
10:13that's
10:13enough yapping from me. That's how Arsenal were able to overcome their biggest challenge of the season
10:18so far but we're three games in. Lots of other games, lots of other challenges that I'm sure we'll
10:22all cover. You can subscribe to the Adam Cleary football channel. He will be back imminently with
10:27lots of lovely videos. I'm off on holiday for a week so I'm very much looking forward to that.
10:31You can get me across all the socials where I may or may not be posting about said holiday
10:35if you're particularly asked. That'll appear here at Arch Corbett and please do donate to Adam. He is
10:42doing an incredible job raising money for charity. He's really close to hitting his goal and he's running
10:46like an absolute madman so please do donate. It's going towards a great cause mind. He's spoken
10:51about it loads in videos already so I won't go over that but they do an amazing job of mental
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10:56support here in the UK so please if you've got any spare change lying around the link will be in
11:01the bio and it'll be the pinned comment of this video. I'm gonna go so thank you very much for
11:05watching. Like I say Adam will be back. Also if you know if you noticed I've got like a little
11:10scratch
11:10down the side of my face. I've got it playing Sunday League football. I'm not going to be like
11:14the worst James Bond villain of all time and I got it yesterday and it's really annoying because
11:19I was doing a video today so I said to the bloke we did it. I'm doing a video tomorrow.
11:23Do you mind
11:24not scratching me? And he did. Anyway I'm gonna go. Isn't that the side of this side? I can never
11:28really tell. I think it's this one. You might not be able to see it. If you can see it
11:31don't be
11:32worried. It's fine. I'm gonna go. No one's worried are they? Goodbye.
