Arsenal 1-0 Man Utd: Tactical Analysis

Arsenal’s bad run against Manchester United finally ended, Aaron Ramsey getting the only goal with a cool finish.

Ramsey was playing in the place of injured captain Cesc Fabregas. Other than that, Arsene Wenger made no changes.

Sir Alex Ferguson started Nani in the place of Valencia with Anderson starting in the centre and Park on the left.

As expected, Arsenal dominated the possession for most of the match. But while United were expected to threaten on the counter, they looked blunt.

Aaron Ramsey

Arsenal’s midfield trio was slightly altered due to Ramsey. Fabregas usually plays ahead with Song and Wilshere deeper in a double pivot. Ramsey played deeper than Fabregas does and Wilshere was a little higher up than usual.

Alex Song, meanwhile, was in a clear holding role and picked up Rooney to great effect.

Arsenal were very tidy in possession thanks to Ramsey playing deep. He dropped deep to collect the ball and played passes to the flanks unlike Fabregas, who looks to play the killer pass.

This meant that Arsenal’s main danger came when the got the ball wide. The crossing was a little better than usual ,with Walcott sending a great cross in the first half.

Manchester United

United have been excellent on the counter in their recent visits to The Emirates. But United changed formation for this match, switching from a 4-5-1 to 4-4-1-1 with Rooney playing in the hole behind Hernandez.

Rooney was told to mark Song without the ball and hence was a lot deeper than expected.

The two banks of four also meant that the wide players were deeper than usual and found it more difficult to be involved in breaks. With Song doing a brilliant job in marking Rooney, United couldn’t use him to spray the balls out to the flanks.

In summary, two factors made United less of a threat: wide players sitting deep and Rooney not having enough time on the ball.

Substitutions and the goal

Sir Alex removed Anderson for Valencia with Park coming into the middle. Unused to that position, Park watched as Ramsey had space on the edge to box and scored with a cool finish.

United then brought on Berbatov and Owen for Hernandez and Carrick respectively. This meant that they finished with Rooney and Park in the middle and were prone to breaks through the centre.

However, Arsenal’s decision making on the breaks was erratic.

Conclusion

Arsenal were the better side keeping the ball well and defending resiliently when they had to. Kosicelny had a good game at the back, while Song was excellent. He stayed on Rooney well and contained United while the use of Ramsey gave more balance to the Arsenal midfield.

His tendency to hang back resulted in the goal with no one marking him.