The FA Cup final: Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea - a tactical analysis thread

The Approaches

•As expected, both Arteta & Lampard continued to use their 3-4-3 systems that had served them well in their semi-final ties vs Man City & Man Utd
- Arteta had only deviated from it on the final day vs Watford
- Lampard had now selected it for the last 3 games

1st half

•Chelsea dominated the early proceedings. Although on paper, it was a back 3 with wing-backs, they tended to build play in a back 4 with Alonso offering himself as a passing option to the CBs in deeper areas, whilst Reece James stayed very wide & high on the right

•This was illustrated in both wing-backs number of passes up until the first drinks break
- James with 3 - not involved in build-up
- Alonso with 11 - heavily involved in build-up

•Chelsea primarily opted for very short passing in their build-up (with only the odd long ball into Giroud), breaking through Arsenal press and progressing the play into the final third, either with Kovacic's ability to evade pressure in tight spaces

• Or using very quick short passes to eventually find Giroud dropping deep to link play or Pulisic/Mount in between the lines, to link Chelsea's deep build-up to the final third

•With Auba pushing on Azpi,AMN tracked James' advanced runs
•Chelsea capitalised on this with Lampard's positioning of Pulisic- on paper the American was on the right of a front 3,the reality was different- with AMN occupied,he drifted into central spaces behind Ceballos-Xhaka

• You can see this perfectly for the goal
- Pulisic drifts behind Ceballos & Xhaka again
- you can see Ceballos desperately trying to make up the ground, but it's too late & Pulisic runs at Arsenal's defence before laying it off to Mount and then scoring from inside the box

•And on other occasions he would actually double-up with Mount on the left side of the pitch, particularly when Chelsea opted for a longer build-up approach, which would facilitate close link-up play between the duo & Giroud

- This is a tactic we have seen from Lampard previously, for example in a 3-4-3 vs Spurs (A) in December, Willian & Mount caused significant problems for Aurier by doubling-up on his side https://twitter.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1209105105112457216?s=20

•Chelsea mid-press was also setting traps- Arsenal built from the back but then Chelsea pounced when the ball went into midfield- Mount & Pulisic's narrow positioning and Kovacic's superb engine allowed them to rob the ball off Arsenal several times in midfield & launch counters

- here Chelsea leave the passing lane to Pepe open - but before the ball even goes into him, Mount is already on the move to apply pressure. He then robs the ball and sets up a counter-attack

However, by the first drinks break, Arteta had obviously identified the patterns of:
1. James pushing high & wide during Chelsea's build-up
2. The pressing traps Chelsea were setting in midfield

As the game then completely changed

•Immediately Arsenal started targeting the right hand side of Chelsea's defence with long balls over the top - Auba & AMN both exploiting Azpilicueta's decline in pace & James' advanced positioning
•This also by-passed Chelsea's midfield pressing traps

•This approach was encapsulated by the incident that led to the penalty for Aubameyang - where instead of building up short, Tierney played an excellent long pass over the top of Azpilicueta to find Auba running in-behind.

Tierney to Auba is something we've highlighted in previous tactical analysis threads in both games vs Man City since lockdown and a connection Arsenal need to build on next season https://twitter.com/PremLeaguePanel/status/1284612596918890497?s=20

•Even Lacazette began to show some left-sided bias with his positioning, serving as an additional conduit to find Maitland-Niles & Aubameyang's runs in-behind

•You can see this approach with the majority of Arsenal's first half heat-map focused down their left side

•Suddenly Chelsea's players (including Kovacic-Jorginho) grouped around their right side to deal with Arsenal's attacks

This left a perfect vacuum of space for Pepe to come inside off the right if play could be switched, as you can see during the build-up to his disallowed goal

•Pepe's play added variation to Arsenal's attacks - a chemistry between him & Auba is definitely developing, even though they play on completely opposite sides of the pitch - Pepe constantly finds his out-to-in runs, as he also did for Auba's first goal in the semi-final vs City

Second half

•The long balls over the top towards Chelsea's right side, continued for Arsenal. Ceballos even playing a successful one as soon as 4 minutes after half-time

• It was surprising to not see Lampard modify Reece James' positioning - although Chelsea were now having to chase the game, James was picking up all kinds of unorthodox positions, even in central areas

•Pulisic injury posed another issue for Chelsea-whilst we liked his movement in central areas,he still had the speed to run behind Arsenal as seen after linking with Giroud during the actually injury incident & his goal
-surprising Lampard didn't sub on CHO to retain this threat

•With Pedro-Giroud-Mount,all of Chelsea's final third play was in front of Arsenal's defence. None showed Pulisic's ability to explode from central areas into running behind Arsenal's back three

And by the time the pacy threats of Tammy & CHO were brought on, Chelsea had 10 men

•Lampard also clearly irate at Chelsea “playing too many short passes” in the 2nd half likely because
a) it invited Arsenal to win the ball in dangerous zones
b) it doesn't maximise Giroud's strengths

% of passes that were long balls in the 2nd half
Chelsea - 13%
Arsenal - 21%

- This build-up was a prime example of the issue:

Phase 1 - Rudiger has the time to play an accurate long pass here thru Arsenal's press. Instead he retreats to

Phase 2 - Rudiger has time albeit from an inferior deeper positon than position 1 - instead he passes out to Alonso

Phase 3 - Rudiger receives ball again in similar position to position 2, instead of going long,he passes square to Christensen

Phase 4 - Arsenal have now been given the chance to pounce with a high press - Arteta has implemented this opportunistically when the opposition retreat

Phase 5 - Zouma finally goes long but under severe pressure from Auba. He hits an inaccurate long pass

All of this short build-up to eventually go long but from a much inferior positon to which Rudiger initially was in, during phase 1

• Even when Chelsea did occasionally go long, they didn't have the profile of forwards on the pitch to exploit it - a quicker forward than Mount such as CHO or Abraham, would have latched onto the aerial through ball from Jorginho here

•Again for the Aubameyang winner, we saw the perils of James' very advanced positioning.

- he is not even in shot when Pepe assists Aubameyang here. As a result, Zouma has both Lacazette & Aubameyang to mark and has no choice but to give Auba room to receive the ball

• Often where Pepe picks up the ball for the winner, wingers try to dribble & beat their man, but the connection between Pepe-Auba is now becoming well established & he immediately looks inside
- Pepe assisted 5 goals for Auba - most frequent Arsenal goal combination this season

•2nd half also a masterclass in defensive organisation that Arteta has drilled into Arsenal
-a phase on 93 mins surmised this perfectly
1.Auba tracks James all the way back
2.Bellerin tucks into defence to cover Alonso
3.Ceballos follows any Barkley movement in between the lines

Summary

•Pulisic clever movement finding central space key to Chelsea good start
•Arteta reacts well to exploit space behind Chelsea's right
•CHO/Tammy should have been used earlier to aid long build-up
•Pepe-Auba connection
•Arteta defensive organisation closed out game

Retweets of the original post in the thread much appreciated if you enjoyed reading it. And any feedback always welcome. Thanks