Arsenal's Tactical Revolution Continued at Old Trafford vs. Manchester United
When the final whistle sounded at Old Trafford and Arsenal had beaten Manchester United to advance in the FA Cup, it was easy to believe your eyes had just deceived you.
The double-take wasn't just prompted by the bizarre medley of blues topped with lime green numbers that the Gunners wore (just when you thought it couldn't look worse).
But the 2-1 win was so untypically Arsenal. At least, it wasn't typical of the Gunners at the home of the Red Devils.
In fact, if you turned the clock back four of five years and flipped the venue, you might have thought the scoreboard was wrong. Arsenal beat today's United the way the Old Trafford club has so often bested them in the past.
Specifically, they ceded possession, soaked up pressure and chose their moments to strike on the break. It's a formula that may not be typical of the Gunners against United, but it's becoming status quo this season.
This status quo is part of a subtle yet necessary tactical revolution manager Arsene Wenger has implemented this campaign. The quarter-final victory over a previously perennial tormentor was merely another signpost in this revolutionary process.
To many fans, this revolution was not only necessary but long overdue. Wenger's harshest critics will patronisingly suggest the Frenchman has seen the light after only recently (and presumably by accident) stumbling onto the supposed "right way."
But the truth is the light bulb hasn't suddenly sparked for the club's greatest manager. Arsenal are able to play a different way, particularly away from home, for two key reasons.
The first is their greater balance in midfield. The second is an increase in options in the squad.
As for the first, this is where it's acceptable to label Wenger the recipient of good fortune. Injuries meant he was forced into recalling Francis Coquelin from loan.
Since returning from Charlton, the 23-year-old has given this particular squad what it really needed: a natural holding player to shield the defence.
Wenger recently admitted his surprise at Coquelin's consistently excellent form and emphasised why he's become so important, per Arsenal.com's Rob Kelly: “I think he analysed well what he is good at, defending in midfield. He was in between the playmaking position and being a box-to-box player, but he is not that - he's a sitting player who can win the ball."
Having Coquelin at the base of midfield not only provides the back four with an extra layer of security but also gives advanced playmakers and full-backs license to roam.
Those things are vital in the expansive philosophy Wenger preaches, but they've often been an Achilles heel on Arsenal's travels.
Yet that's no longer the case with a player like Coquelin able and, just as important, willing to do the dirty work in defensive areas. He certainly did his fair share of that at Old Trafford, helping to shackle United's towering auxiliary forward Marouane Fellaini, per Opta editor David Wall:
Arsenal haven't played this way in previous seasons simply because they haven't had a tough-tackling ball-winner anchoring the space between defence and midfield. The series of candidates who tried to make that key role their own were either better going forward, or tactically undisciplined (yes, Alex Song, I'm talking to you).
But Coquelin's growing influence hasn't been the only catalyst for greater balance. Santi Cazorla's sacrificial selflessness has been just as important.
The only way a central partnership of Cazorla and Mesut Ozil was ever going to work was if one of those natural No. 10s restricted his inclination to go forward. Cazorla has done that superbly.
At Old Trafford, he was the halfway-line metronome, the hub who recycled possession and kept Arsenal ticking over while also offering help to Coquelin.
It was how Jack Wilshere should always play but seldom does. If Wilshere, who's recently emerged as a target for Manchester City, per the Daily Star's Paul Hetherington, is going to make it with the Gunners, he should take a cue from how Cazorla has made himself the foil for others.
That's how it's supposed to work.
Cazorla's less-than-spectacular but unerringly efficient distribution has been perfect for a counter-attacking approach. With minimum fuss, Cazorla has taken possession when Coquelin's won it and quickly shunted the ball to those up front who can make a difference.
Speaking of the players who call the forward line home, it's difficult to remember a time when Wenger had so many options; so many in fact, that he was able to leave Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott on the bench at Old Trafford. Instead, Wenger picked a trio that seemed underwhelming.
I told anyone who'd listen (there weren't many) that picking Danny Welbeck and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was a mistake Wenger would regret. Unsurprisingly, Wenger proved this misguided writer wrong.
While Welbeck's connection to United gave him motivation to make the most of a rare start through the middle, the team selection had a more obvious motivation: Welbeck, Chamberlain and Alexis Sanchez formed a pacy and fluid forward line.
All three also produced a high press to put United under pressure and prevent them building attacks from the back. It was this same high press that contributed to Antonio Valencia's decisive gaffe, the errant back-pass Welbeck eventually slotted home to settle the match.
None of it would have been possible in previous seasons, not when work-shy forwards such as Lukas Podolski and Gervinho were in the starting XI.
In Welbeck and Sanchez, Wenger signed two worker bees this summer. Their graft and Chamberlain's direct power were the keys to another significant victory away from home this season.
The same trio inspired Arsenal to a 2-1 away win over West Ham United in the Premier League back in December. That was a pure counter-attacking triumph.
So was the club's first win at Old Trafford since September 2006. There, in a nutshell, is the revolution of Arsenal's tactics.
Once the ball hogs of the Premier League, content to reel off possession percentages in the 60-75 range but not always win, the Gunners are now more economical.
Wenger's men had just 42 percent of the ball on the Old Trafford pitch and won, per BBC Sport's Phil McNulty. Had it not been for two superb saves by phenomenal goalkeeper David de Gea denying Cazorla and Sanchez, Arsenal would've won more comfortably.
If you've lost count of the amount of times this has happened this season, you're probably not alone. Arsenal's miserly approach to the ball on cup duty wasn't an isolated example, nor was it in east London at the end of 2014.
Thankfully, Opta Joe has detailed how often the Gunners have ceded possession and still won this season:
That's what's possible with a team geared to play on the break. One with pace and a naturally roving creator in Ozil. One with without overt physicality in midfield but plenty of industry and tenacity to drop back and close off space.
The win at Old Trafford proves that the rearguard trap and strike that beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in January wasn't a fluke. It proves that Wenger deserves credit for fine-tuning his team's approach.
The London Evening Standard's Patrick Barclay aptly expressed the latter sentiment:
"They have, moreover, looked — both against City in the Premier League and United in the FA Cup — the exact opposite of the tactical ninnies most recently exposed by Monaco in the Champions League.
For most of last night, Wenger’s men gave Louis Van Gaal’s lot nowhere to run. If it had been Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, we’d have called it a masterclass. They were even wearing blue.
"
The only umbrage with Barclay's remarks concerns his assessment of the soul-sapping defeat to Monaco. That wasn't a tactical failure. Instead, it was a deeply rooted problem of temperament and psyche.
It came from the players' unwillingness to accept a goalless draw, or even a 1-0 win, as satisfactory, in front of an edgy home crowd that says it wants more tactical discipline but still expects breathtaking pyrotechnics from Wenger's maestros.
It's often "damned if you do, damned if you don't" for Wenger in front of the Emirates faithful.
But Barclay's right to argue that if Arsenal produced more often what they did at Old Trafford, they'd be stronger contenders in both the Premier League and Europe's marquee club competition.
But that's the thing about revolutions: They don't always happen overnight. In fact, they hardly ever do.
If it ends up taking Arsenal a whole season to become a cagier, shrewder beast, it will be time well spent in the long run.
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