Arsenal vs. Leicester City: Substitutions Shape Epic Comeback Gunners Win

Arsenal re-energised their Premier League title hopes with a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Leicester City on Sunday afternoon. Danny Welbeck scored the winner in the 95th minute.

The Foxes had taken the lead in the first half via a Jamie Vardy penalty, but Theo Walcott’s cool second-half finish had levelled matters. Welbeck, making his first appearance of the season, was thrown into the fray late on and delivered in style.

Formations & XIs

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Arsenal lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right flank and Per Mertesacker restored to the defensive line.

Leicester City’s outlook and shape were very familiar too, lining up in a 4-4-1-1 with key players Jamie Vardy, Shinji Okazaki and N’Golo Kante all in position.

Preventing the Channel Ball

Arsenal accrued 71 per cent possession, per WhoScored.com, and over the course of the first 10 minutes, their dominance of the ball shaped the pattern of the play rather predictably. It left Leicester City right where they like to be: playing a reactive, counter-attacking game.

But crucially, the Gunners pressured the Foxes when out of possession, ensuring Leicester’s 29 per cent of the play couldn’t be used to create too many clear-cut chances.

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Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and the Ox engaged high up, ensuring the away side had little time to pick out raking long passes into the channel for Jamie Vardy to chase. On paper, Per Mertesacker was there for the taking, but in reality, Leicester were never able to release Vardy often enough to cause consistent trouble.

That, while hardly a major talking point given the chaotic nature of the game, is a major fillip for Arsene Wenger.

Arsenal’s Mode of Attack

Arsenal struggled a little to build through the middle early on because of the fact Okazaki paid close attention to Francis Coquelin deep in midfield, marking him and removing him as a passing option. The Frenchman is hardly a regista-esque presence, but taking away the deepest outlet can mess with a team’s dynamic no matter how well or poorly he passes.

The workaround was simple: focus on the flanks. The right flank quickly emerged as an area for Arsenal to find joy, with the Ox instantly getting the better of Christian Fuchs and finding space to utilise.

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The majority of the Gunners’ most dangerous moments came from the right flank, with the Ox hitting the byline, swinging in crosses and working the ball back across the field from a high starting point.

It was Bellerin’s cross from the right that created Arsenal’s first goal, not Ox’s, but the advantage had finally been sprung; Fuchs was caught too narrow in the build-up and was more than six yards away from his man when the ball was delivered.

Enforced Changes

Leicester took the lead before the break from the penalty spot, but it was the build-up that was most significant. The visitors escaped on the counter, and Kante fed Vardy, who managed to isolate Nacho Monreal, drawing the foul. If anything, it all but cemented the pattern of play for the rest of the game.

But then Arsenal were given a lifeline, with referee Martin Atkinson sending Leicester’s Danny Simpson off for two bookable offences early in the second half. It forced Claudio Ranieri into making changes, and those changes would prove costly.

Leicester’s approach of hitting Arsenal on the break remained, but a man light, they struggled to carry out the plan under immense pressure from the hosts. Ranieri didn’t help by withdrawing Riyad Mahrez—one of the best ball-carriers in the division. Granted, the Algerian is weaker defensively than Marc Albrighton, but the latter couldn’t drag the Foxes out from deep effectively enough.

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Demarai Gray was sent on to try and help, but his slight build worked against him here; consistently surrounded by two or three players when trying to dribble out from deep, he wasn’t strong enough to protect the ball. That left Kante trying it all on his own, which, of course, threatened to destabilise the shield in front of the defence.

You can see the logic Ranieri used. Gray, on for Okazaki, is faster and better at dribbling, but he was easily handled by the men Arsenal left at the back and failed to link the low block to Vardy’s runs.

Optional Changes

In stark contrast to Ranieri’s failures, Wenger’s substitutions were excellent. Taking Coquelin off for Walcott will have been seen by some as risky, but the moment Ranieri placed the carrying responsibility on Gray’s slight shoulders, the Foxes’ counter threat disappeared.

Olivier Giroud was steadily becoming more and more of an influence in the game as the second half wore on, winning knockdowns and playing good balls into the box. Wenger saw the need to give him a partner—someone to aim his knockdowns to—and Walcott was the right choice, as evidenced by the goal.

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Moving the Ox into central midfield in place of Coquelin worked too, as he and Aaron Ramsey produced a very mature, steady performance in which neither overcommitted or shirked responsibility. The Ox received help tracking Gray’s counter runs and has the athleticism to play the role.

And then, of course, there’s Welbeck. Thrown on with 10 minutes to play, he provided a third body in the box and scored the winner from a great Ozil free-kick. The man who gave away the set piece? Marcin Wasilewski, the defender Ranieri sent on to replace Mahrez after Simpson's red card.

Contrasting fortunes from substitutions indeed.

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