Arsenal vs. Manchester City: 5 Strategic Mistakes Led to City's Lone Goal

Arsene Wenger called it "naive" afterwards; the goal Arsenal conceded in the 83rd minute of their Carling Cup semifinal against Manchester City. It was a sucker punch which resulted from an advantageous position turned awry, more so because, for most of the match, Arsenal were noticeably the better side in their duel against City's expensively assembled team.

Although fielding a lineup that was considerably younger and relatively inexperienced, Arsenal produced a controlled performance, playing a surprising 4-4-2 formation, a departure from their more familiar 4-2-1-3. Whatever the tactical reason for this change of formation, it worked. Arsenal stifled City who, until their goal in the dying minutes, did not have a shot on target.

But then City's experience and quality came through for them.

Edin Dzeko latched on to a loose ball from an Arsenal corner, outran the Arsenal midfield before feeding a well-driven pass to the diagonally running Adam Johnson, who swiveled superbly to feed Sergio Agüero, whose reverse run to Johnson's put him in a great position to both receive the ball and to score the goal.

And score he did.

It was, however, a goal that Arsenal could have prevented. The following analyzes the play-by-play action that led to the goal. Five tactical mistakes become apparent from the analysis.

Error 1: A Carelessly Taken Corner

The positioning of the two teams and the position of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's delivery from the corner shows immediately where the advantage was. The tip of the straight red arrow from the top right of the picture indicates where the ball was delivered. The little slanting arrow on the right follows Sébastien Squillaci's movement towards the near post in an attempt to meet the ball.

Notice, though, how fortified that near side is—besides the man following Squillaci's run, City have three players strategically guarding the space at near post, revealing how unlikely this particular delivery, at this point, is to be successful.  Not only is Squillaci outnumbered, his probable connection with the low-driven ball is unlikely to cause any harm.

The red half-circle and the dashed blue one highlight poor and strong positioning respectively. The manner in which the spaces at City''s goal are marshaled pari passu the way Arsenal players station themselves make it highly unlikely that the corner would be effective.

The short arching white line demonstrates how Arsenal could have turned the situation to their advantage.  Squillaci's run looks to put him in a similar position to the one from which Thomas Vermaelen flicked a header to Robin Van Persie in the UEFA Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund at the Emirates a week before.

In this scenario, Squillaci's weak positioning is in essence a camouflage for his intention, which is really to run and meet an aerially lofted ball at the point where the white arching arrow begins, nullifying in the process City's near post line, and then flicking the ball over the same line and the second, towards back post, where an Arsenal player should be positioned—like Van Persie was—to meet it and hopefully score.

No Arsenal player takes that position however. So even if Chamberlain had floated the ball and Squillaci had flicked it, it would have been wasted. As it happened, the corner was low-driven, rendering it useless insofar as Arsenal were concerned—Squillaci was beaten to the ball.

The yellow arching line, leading from Chamberlain at the top of the picture, suggests another alternative to the actual delivery. At the arrow's tip is where Squillaci or another player should be. Notice that City players do not have the back post covered.

A looped ball over their two defensive lines would take it to the back, where Squillaci could either head home or head back in the direction of the straight yellow arrow towards Marouane Chamakh, who could have attempted a goal.

These tactical suggestions, far from being mere conjectures, are useful as simulations of well-rehearsed situations for set pieces such as this, which a team inevitably wins. Arsenal have scored from such situations in recent times, the manner of which suggests prior rehearsal.

The white arrow here may then suggest that the scenario it creates may have actually been Squillaci's intention, so that the low-driven delivery is a misunderstanding of intention on the part of Chamberlain, the lack of an Arsenal player at back post the result of the same.

Notice how Gervinho's position at lower right of the picture is useless in the situation. This, in fact, becomes more apparent in the next slide.

For now, let us conclude that the first strategic error Arsenal made from their position of strength was a carelessly taken corner kick. 

Error 2: Improper Reaction to a Dangerous Situation

Let's begin with Gervinho. In the previous slide I said his positioning for the corner contributed nothing to the situation. That in itself would have meant little had the ball either gone into touch or Arsenal had scored.

Notice here how he stands rooted to the spot. See also how he's not even looking in the direction of present action! Bamboozled is the word that comes to mind, both as a description of my own reaction to whatever Gervinho is doing (or not doing) and of what appears to be the player's situation.

Suffice to say that Gervinho at once fails to read the danger at hand and properly react to it. The correct reaction would have been to follow the direction of the straight yellow arrow that leads from him. Other yellow arrows suggest what the proper reaction of other players should have been.

Let's now read Chamberlain's reaction. Having delivered the corner and seen the outcome, he reacts properly at first—the red arrow from top left of picture pointing to him represents his immediate movement. When Squillaci (out of the picture here) is tackled, Chamberlain reacts by sprinting from the corner to the position he occupies in the picture.

But he is then distracted by the attempted tackle on Dzeko by both Laurent Koscielny and
Yossi Benayoun, who sprints from lower right of the picture to make the same tackle that Koscielny attempts to make on Dzeko.

The situation would have been better served had Benayoun followed the path of the yellow arrow that leads away from his original position at bottom right of the picture, like the City player does, whose movement originates from the same position as Benayoun's original, but is altered according to the player's reading of the situation.

Benayoun fails to see, first, that Koscielny runs to make the same tackle and second, the possibility that Koscielny's tackle could fail and that it might be better to stick with his marker and attempt a different tackle further upfield. His error is that of judgment not of intention.

Going back to Chamberlain, barring the said distraction above, he would be approximately at the position where the tip of the yellow arrow that leads away from him is, and therefore better positioned to intervene in the developing situation.

The red arrow from top left corner of the picture points to where Squillaci still languishes after being tackled, effectively out of the picture both figuratively and literally.

The diagonal blue arrow follows the path of both Dzeko and the ball from the corner kick.

Error 3: Upfield Players Fail to Anticipate the Danger

At the lower right corner of the picture are both Francis Coquelin and Adam Johnson.

Replays of the developing situation show clearly that Coquelin had sufficient time to read the situation and make appropriate maneuvers to intercept it. However, he dallies on the halfway line and watches as though concluding that someone else would get in a tackle before the action reaches his position. He seems to fail to see that outfield players are effectively nullified.

In contrast, Adam Johnson reads and anticipates the situation properly. He begins his diagonal run towards the space where the blue arrow points, which is where Dzeko aims to play the ball. 

The red circle highlights the critical runs of both Agüero and Johan Djourou. Djourou is beginning to get his run wrong. Notice that Agüero runs inward into the space where the ball is shortly to be played. Djourou fails to anticipate Agüero's intention and so does not keep up with him, but continues to run instead towards the Arsenal goal.

Coquelin should meanwhile be at the tip of the yellow arrow that leads from him. He doesn't, however, read the situation properly, and so he is played out of position by Dzeko's eventual well-struck pass into the space where he should be. 

Error 4: Arsenal Defenders Misjudge City's Intention

Here the class and experience of both Agüero and Johnson show. It's what makes the difference between them and their rivals—Djourou and Emmanuel Frimpong, the rightmost Arsenal player in the picture. 

Agüero and Johnson both make reverse but mirrored diagonal runs, creating pivoting scissors in the process. The ball forms the pivot, passed through a swiveling movement by Johnson. It is a brilliant maneuver.

Both Djourou and Frimpong fail to anticipate this and are outfoxed.  The slanted yellow arrow shows the reverse motion of the ball when Johnson makes the pass to Agüero. Johnson takes out Frimpong with what turns out to be a decoy movement on the ball! Djourou, meanwhile, tries to mark the wrong person!

Error 5: Last Line of Defense Put Its Eggs in One Basket

The so-called scissor movement from the previous slide can be seen more clearly in this picture as is Johnson's brilliant pass.

Both he and Agüero complete their coup de grâce by tricking Djourou and Frimpong with their precise movement. Johnson is, in fact, the one who takes them both out. They had focused solely on him, seeing that he had ball but failed to account for Agüero, who receives the killer pass from Johnson and completes the execution.

Conclusion

After playing impressively for almost 90 minutes, a moment's lapse undid Arsenal's young team. There were four places though where game-saving tackles could have been made to avert Manchester City's goal—Koscielny's and Benayoun's missed tackle is the first one.

The second place is shortly beyond that, still in Manchester City's half, either by Chamberlain or Benayoun, had they both anticipated the situation properly and made appropriate runs.

The third could have happened just inside Arsenal's half where Coquelin—had he reacted quickly enough to the situation—might have cutoff Agüero's movement or intercepted Dzeko's pass.

In fact, as the lower yellow arrow of the fourth slide indicates, he could have headed off Johnson and prevented him from receiving Dzeko's pass. Moreover, if Gervinho had contributed to the situation, he could have cut off either Dzeko or Johnson.

The fourth could have happened just beyond Arsenal's penalty area where the quartet of Johnson, Frimpong, Agüero and Djourou converged. Had Frimpong anticipated Johnson's intention, he could have checked his run and intercepted that final, killer pass.

My intention here has been purely analytical. This is not meant as judgment or blame. Arsenal did well against City, beyond even what I had imagined would happen.

I'd love to hear your opinion of the match and of the goal.