Arsenal Outplayed by Manchester United: A Tactical Analysis

In the most highly anticipated and hotly disputed sporting event so far this decade, Arsenal were undone 3-1 at the Emirates by a scintillating Manchester United side, who just about edged their opponents in every department.

Nani was undoubtedly sensational throughout the encounter, producing skills, tricks, crosses, passes, and forward runs that would make the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi proud.

Aston Villa's Ashley Young destroyed Arsenal left back Gael Clichy in the match at Villa Park on Wednesday, and on Sunday it was Nani's turn to do the same, completely dominating Clichy in a near-perfect performance to deservedly win the man of the match award.

Wayne Rooney was again in great form, troubling the Arsenal defence and notching his 100th Premier League goal; such form will come in handy for Fabio Capello and England at the World Cup this summer.

And for the home side, Andrei Arshavin was by far the Gunners' standout player, creating numerous goalscoring opportunities and torturing the hapless Manchester United centre back Wes Brown.

Although tactically, there was only one team really in the game at the Emirates in North London, and it wasn't the home side.

Formation

For the majority of the match, both sides lined up with a 4-3-3 formation.

Arshavin was the frontman for Arsenal, supported on the wings by Tomas Rosicky and Samir Nasri, with Alex Song playing the holding role in a midfield that contained the attacking captain Cesc Fabregas and the very central Denilson.

Rooney played the Arshavin role for Manchester United, supported on the flanks by the impressive Nani and Korean star Ji-Sung Park, with Michael Carrick as the defensive player in midfield. Darren Fletcher played the attacking role and Paul Scholes balanced between defence and attack.

As both teams lined up with the same style, it was all about who could utilise the formation best. This was where Arsenal went wrong.

Too many times in attack, Arshavin would run out wide to receive the ball, and this would effectively rule out Rosicky as an attacking player. The Czech star didn't overlap and run into the box to provide the easy option, meaning Arshavin at times had to go alone against a packed defence.

In midfield for the Gunners, Fabregas ran forward too often and Song did not move forward enough, creating a gaping hole in the centre of the park for the likes of Carrick and Scholes to exploit for Manchester United.

As for United, they seemed to get the formation right, especially in attack with Rooney staying central and waiting for the ball to be played in from the likes of Nani and Park.

Midfield proved a problem to begin with however, as Fletcher would get too far forward without tracking back, and Scholes played too defensively with Carrick in a similar position.

Although, the problem was resolved after 30 minutes, and the switch to play Scholes in a more central attacking role within the midfield paid dividends, as Nani opened the scoring for United in just the 33rd minute.

Counter-attack

Arsenal and Manchester United both implemented the counter-attack, with the latter being notorious for destroying opposition defences on the break.

A notable example being this tie at the Emirates last season in the UEFA Champions League semifinal, where a certain Cristiano Ronaldo stole the show.

This time around, Nani and Ji-Sung Park used the counter-attack to perfection. The former used a brilliant first touch and fantastic sprinting ability to bomb forward and set up a goal for the determined Wayne Rooney.

The latter used the counter-attack for his own personal gain, dribbling right up the field before deciding to go for glory alone. It's something that really annoys a manager, but when the player in question actually pulls it off and scores, then it suddenly becomes OK!

Arsenal, however, had limited success on the attack because United had sufficient players defending, and dissecting their opponent's defence was difficult for the home side due to the sheer number of opposition players back in the box.

This was also a reason why United didn't create as many chances as they could've—so many players back defending, which meant some of their counter-attacks went to waste.

The Red Devils were so successful in their counter-attacks due to the opposite reason—the Gunners didn't have enough players back defending, meaning it was quite often only one centre back (usually Thomas Vermaelen) and one full back (usually Gael Clichy) against three Manchester United attackers.

Focus of Play

Arsenal lost out in this department (and ultimately the game) due to their weak link, i.e. Gael Clichy, who was (as you know) completely outranked by Portuguese winger Nani.

Manchester United focused the majority of their play on exploiting this weakness, and it culminated in the scoring of two goals thanks to Nani (the own goal on 33 minutes from Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, and the Rooney finish in the 37th minute following that superb counter-attack).

The weak link in the United team was the aforementioned dominance from Russia's finest, Andrei Arshavin, over England's no-hoper, Wes Brown.

However, Arsenal simply couldn't exploit this weakness, playing the ball out wide too much trying to get the wingers beating full backs Rafael da Silva and Patrice Evra.

Unlike Clichy, these two had the pace and, more importantly, the defensive ability to deal with the wingers, Tomas Rosicky and Samir Nasri.

Instead, the Gunners should've focused their play more centrally, allowing the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Denilson to feed through the defence-splitting passes they're capable of to Arshavin and Nicklas Bendtner (who featured as a substitute later on in the match).

They didn't, and so the weakness was not exploited as fully as it should have been, meaning Wes Brown's defensive lapses were spared being highlighted, and Arsenal were left empty-handed from the match.

Reaction

Speaking to Sky Sports, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson echoed the sentiments of this article: "Counter-attack has always been part of our game, especially away from home. We capitalised on a lot of those opportunities today.

"Arsenal play a lot of good football up to the edge of the box, so if you can win the ball there and counter quickly from there you will have chances against them."

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger also agreed with this article, saying: "We were poor defensively and offensively and when that happens you cannot win a big game.

"We never looked like we had cohesion in the team and at the end of the day we were punished."