Arteta and Evra the Key Men as Arsenal Head to United

Manchester United host Arsenal on Sunday with one side sitting top of the Premier League table and the other underachieving at eight points off of the pace.

Much like a normal Manchester United v Arsenal game then, apart from the role reversal that sees Arsenal head to Old Trafford at their most confident in years.

A win for Arsenal would cement their lead at the top, and with it their status as genuine title contenders, whilst a win for United would give them much-needed confidence that they can fight for the title. Here we profile two key players that could decide Sunday’s game.

Manchester United Key Player: Patrice Evra

United captain Patrice Evra appeared to be heading for the exit door at Old Trafford over the summer, as the club carried out a much-publicised pursuit of Everton left-back Leighton Baines. However, David Moyes’s bid for Baines ultimately failed, and Evra has wasted no time in establishing himself as a key player under the new manager. Whilst his long-term future at the club still remains uncertain, he could be a key player for United in their match-up with the Gunners.

Despite the sparkling early-season form Wayne Rooney, Evra has created more chances than any other Manchester United player this season. This feat is made all the more impressive by the fact that Evra has managed to create his 16 chances from left back.

Many of these chances have been crosses. Against Sunderland two games ago Evra made 10 crosses from the left wing, three of which were key passes that led to scoring opportunities.

If United are to defeat Arsenal—one of the form sides in Europe—then wide areas could be an area in which they can hurt Arsene Wenger’s side. Arsenal's set up with a particularly narrow midfield, especially in the absence of wide trio Theo Walcott, Lukas Podolski and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and use their full-backs for width. The two side’s respective action areas maps from their last league fixtures are shown below, and show their different approaches.

Whilst Arsenal have the midfield riches to stroll through the middle of sides, and are currently lining up with Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla cutting in from the by-line, United attack from wide areas more. United notched 27.93 per cent of its touches against Fulham in wide areas in the opposition half, whereas Arsenal only recorded 16.58 percent of their touches against Liverpool in the same areas.

Potentially without the injured Michael Carrick this weekend, Moyes would be brave if he were to base his game plan around attacking through the middle of the pitch. He is more likely to target wide areas, which could make Evra one of the game’s key players. If Evra can get forward, along with whichever teammate is playing in front of him, then they may be able to isolate Bacary Sagna one-on-one. This would have the twofold effect of creating a goal scoring threat for United, and nullifying the width of Arsenal’s right hand side.

Evra is likely to find himself up against Arsenal’s record signing Mesut Ozil in one of the game’s key battles. Ozil has had a huge impact at the Emirates since his move from Real Madrid, and is one of Arsenal’s main attacking threats. However United fans will be glad to see Evra up against Ozil. An experienced campaigner, Evra has been in good form this season and has so far made 16 of his 20 attempted tackles.

Furthermore, if Evra can get forward then he may be able to reduce the attacking impact of Ozil by forcing him to defend more than he would like to.

Arsenal Key Player: Mikel Arteta

Arsenal’s key player is likely to be Mikel Arteta. Manchester United are without Michael Carrick, a man who seems to play as a one-man midfield at times, and the odds of them winning the midfield battle look to be slim. Last week against Liverpool Arteta completely bossed the midfield, and will fancy his chances of doing so again against United’s distinctly average central players.

The Liverpool victory saw Arteta make 99 passes from 105 attempts: an accuracy of 94 percent. This was the highest number of anyone on the pitch, and saw Arteta dictate the tempo from central areas. Shown on the pass map above, Arteta successfully shielded the back four with his tidy use of possession. He made 31 more passes than the highest Liverpool player; Steven Gerrard. By way of comparison, Nemanja Vidic made the most passes of any Manchester United player last week with a total of 51. Even scaling up Maroune Fellaini’s 38 passes in his second half appearance to 76 would leave the United midfield trailing in Arteta’s wake.

Such excellence on the ball is no fluke either. Since his return from injury in September, only team-mate Mathieu Flamini has a higher pass accuracy of players to have played more than three games in the period.

Arteta also plays a key defensive role in a midfield in which he is surrounded by an array of attacking talent. Many questioned how Arsenal would fare without Flamini, but Arteta has allayed fears of an open midfield with his positioning. Against Dortmund during the week Arteta shielded the defence with four interceptions, shown above, with three clearances. His quickness of thought allowed him to do this without the need to make a single tackle—this was probably a good thing seeing as he committed four fouls when he did attempt to tackle.

All graphics and statistics courtesy of Squawka.com.