Posted by Lamin Oo

Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal will visit Stamford Bridge this weekend for a potential thriller of a football game. With their captain Robin van Persie leading by example, they seem to have finally steadied their ship that was going through a deadly storm at the start of the season. The Gunners’ away form, though, is still shaky.

It may be van Persie who finishes the job but Arsenal’s attacking build up owes a lot to the silky distribution of their creative midfielders and the movement of their wide players. “It’s elementary, my dear Arsene,” would have been the response if Sherlock Holmes were to diagnose most of Arsenal’s defensive woes this season. And they defend set-pieces using zonal marking just like Chelsea do, which means they have been as bad at it as Chelsea have been too. Here’s my scout report.

Current Form...

If we look at Arsenal's recent results in all competition, they seem to have fully recovered from their ill start of the season: they have won 7 out of the last 8 games. They are doing well in the cup competitions and steadily climbing the league table. Their captain Robin van Persie is in irresistible form, scoring 7 of the 15 league goals Arsenal has scored this season. So, high-flying Arsenal, right? Well..., not quite.

This recent surge does not accurately show Arsenal's away form. In those last eight games in the Premier League, Champions League and Carling Cup, the Gunners have played only TWO away games -- one against Tottenham (2-1 loss for Arsenal) in the Premier League and another against Marseille (0-1 victory for Arsenal by a 90th minute goal by Ramsey).

The game at Stamford Bridge obviously is an away fixture for the Gunners and it might be wise to look at their away performances to judge how they will fair against Chelsea. In the league, Arsenal have played four away games, losing three and drawing one. The draw dates back to the opening game of the season against Newcastle United. In those four away league games, Arsenal's talisman Robin van Persie has scored ONE goal (a meaningless goal against Manchester United who won the game 8-2).

If you make a league table using only home results, Arsenal are fourth. If you make a league table using only away results, Arsenal are eighteenth -- aka relegation status. So, it is fair to say that Arsenal's current form -- which, for some strange reason, coincides neatly with that of van Persie -- is somewhat flattered by their home victories.

Last Time Out...

Against Stoke last weekend, Arsenal started with a 4-2-3-1 formation. Chamakh led the attack as the lone striker while van Persie was benched/rested. Gervinho and Walcott were on wing duties as Ramsey roamed in the pocket of space right behind the striker. Arteta was the deep-lying playmaker and Song was the shield in front of his back four. But, this, like most starting formations, was not set in stones.

Arteta and Ramsey constantly switched positions; one dropping back when the other moved forward. Gervinho played very central for a "left winger" and he shifted between the left and right flanks. Chamakh, who was supposed to be the lone striker, played with his back towards the goal and dropped very deep to connect with his midfielders.

If you look at the heat map above, you can see that all four attacking midfielders -- Arteta, Ramsey, Gervinho and Walcott -- are way higher up the pitch than Chamakh (black circle). The space opened up on the left (yellow rectangle) due to Gervinho's central movement was covered by left back Santos.

Chamakh did OK: he played his hold-the-ball-up game well and got his midfielders to advance. But he was poor at finishing. Arsenal scored when Ramsey's accurate chip met Gervinho's clever run (more on that in the next section) and conceded from a Stoke free kick. The game was even until van Persie came on for Chamakh. The Dutch striker played further forward than Chamakh and his clinical finishing won the game for the Emirates faithfuls. Barring injuries, van Persie will undoubtedly start against Chelsea come this Saturday.

Goal Threats...

When we think of Arsenal's goal threat at this moment, it is, understandably, hard to look beyond Robin van Persie. After all, he is the club's top goalscorer in all competition at 8 goals, which is four times the amount of goals scored by the players ranked second on that list. He has scored six out of the last nine league goals in Arsenal's name. He is clearly the player on form. However, there is more to Arsenal's goal threat than van Persie's current form. I want to focus on two things: (1) the passing and vision of their creative midfielders and (2) the speed and movements of their wide players (Gervinho in particular).

Arsenal scored the first goal against Stoke City by combining the accurate passing of Ramsey (yellow square) and the clever movement of Gervinho (red square). Ramsey finds time and space outside the Stoke's 18-yard box while the Stoke defense sits deep. Gervinho, the "left winger," finds himself in a center forward position unmarked. Ramsey chips the ball over the four Stoke defenders (almost reminiscent of Juan Mata's chip for Fernando Torres to score against Swansesa). Gervinho controls and scores. This was not the first time Arsenal pulled this move. There was an identical scenario involving Ramsey and Gervinho a few minutes before this goal.

This goal could have been prevented either by closing Ramsey down quickly or by closely tracking Gervinho's run. These two precautions are exactly what Chelsea will have to take against the Gunners at Stamford Bridge. Bold it. Underline it. Highlight it. Do whatever you want. Close down Ramsey. Be aware of Gervinho's movement.

What makes Arsenal's attack particularly threatening is that they have not one but two players who have the vision and ability to make accurate passes in behind the opposition's defense. This time, Arteta takes his turn. The Spaniard (yellow square) picks up the ball from Song and makes a beautiful long pass to (who else?) Gervinho (red square), now, on the right wing (almost reminiscent of this Mata pass to Cole against Everton). Again, note that Stoke's deep lying defense allowed Arteta time and space to make that pass.

Once he gets the ball under control, Gervinho dribbles the ball down the right and lays it off to van Persie (light blue square) who has made a smart run towards the near post and scores from a tight angle. Different goal, same story: clever pass from midfield combines with Gervinho's movement. Note to Chelsea: Close down Arteta. Be aware of Gervinho's movement.

Now that we have seen what this "left winger" has done right down the middle and on the right, let's he how he does in the flank where he's supposed to be.


This was an Arsenal counter attack. Arshavin (yellow square) brings the ball out on the left. Gervinho (red square) makes a run in between the two Stoke defender. The Russian midfielder taps the ball into the space in behind the Stoke defense for Gervinho to exploit. The goalscorer van Persie (light blue sqaure), meanwhile, has been watched by a Stoke defender.

The Ivorian winger dribbles down the left before cutting back for his captain to finish off Stock. Now that you've read it up to this point, you probably aren't surprised that all three of Gervinho's assist in the league so far are put into the opposition's net by Robin van Persie?

Now, this is Arsenal's attack against a defensive Stoke City. Chelsea will be more proactive against the Gunners and the effective pressing by the Blues will most likely eliminate the Arsenal's threat in the first two scenarios (aka the pass over the defense). But, since Chelsea plays a high defensive line to complement the pressing game, the speed and the movement of Arsenal's wide men (as in the third scenario) will most likely be the biggest threat from Chelsea's perspective.

How They Concede...

Usually in this section, I pick out a few examples of the way the scouted team usually concedes goals. Of course, it can never cover all the goals a team conceded but I try to highlight a few of the team's defensive weakness. This week though, I will have to abandon that method. This is for one reason: they conceded so many goals by failing to carry out basic defensive measures -- tracking, tackling, blocking, pressing and so on.

In his tactical review of Manchester United vs Arsenal game, Michael Cox of Zonal Marking points out how disorganized Arsenal defense allowed United to score as many goals as they did. The pressing in the midfield was poor. And their high defensive line failed to move as a unit. In the end, Arsenal dug their own graves on many of the goals United scored. Cox writes,

"[United] didn’t even have to play particularly well. They passed the ball much better in the 3-0 win over Tottenham and in the 3-2 win over Manchester City. Some of the goals – the Park Ji-Sung shot, the Welbeck header – simply came as they had too much time and space on the ball."

These same criticisms have also been put forward by Arsenal bloggers. Arseblogger makes the case here and here. Disorganized -- and, at times, clueless -- is the best way to describe the Arsenal defense.

So, there is little surprise that Arsenal has conceded a lot of goals -- 18 league goals to be exact -- this season (although 8 of them came in just one game). There are only two teams in the Premier League which have conceded more goals than the Gunners -- Blackburn (20) and Bolton (24). But to be fair to Arsenal, the defensive pairing of Mertesacker and Koscielny has been working much better in recent games.

And here's for those of you who likes to pay attention to trends. Eleven out of these eighteen goals were conceded in the second half. And NINE, exactly half of all the goals conceded, were scored in the last 30 minutes of the game. Perhaps, an indication of a "switching-off" in the later stages of the game.

The interesting thing is that Arsenal and Chelsea have very similar defensive tactics: both play a high defensive line; both depend on pressing when losing possession; and both use zonal marking to defend set-pieces. But Chelsea, perhaps because of better defensive organization, have been able to use pressing and the high defensive line more effectively than Arsenal have. Both, though, have been equally vulnerable from set-pieces.

Arsenal’s weakness in defending set-pieces is highlighted in the way they conceded the Stoke goal. Instead of the usual cross into the danger area, Stoke lobbed a well-drilled free kick towards the right of the penalty area from where Ryan Shawcross nodded the ball across the 6-yard box. Chaos ensued and Peter Crouch scored. Like Chelsea, Arsenal has adopted a zonal marking system when defending set-pieces and it is clear that they are having trouble with the system just like Chelsea. Poor set-piece defending also played a major role in their self-destruction against Blackburn. 

So, the duty for Chelsea attack on Saturday is to maintain possession, keep probing the fragile Arsenal defense, force them into making basic errors and take full advantage when they do. And secondly, it wouldn’t hurt to do some extra attacking set-piece drills in training.

The Task at Hand…

Defensively Chelsea needs to be mindful of the quality Arsenal have in the midfield, especially Ramsey and Arteta. Give them time and space and they will punish you with their defense-splitting passes. It will be the job of the Chelsea midfielders – Mikel, Ramires, Lampard and Meireles – to constantly occupy Arsenal’s creative midfielders. Additionally, pace and movement of their wide men, especially Gervinho, will cause trouble to Chelsea’s high defensive line. Ivanovic and Cole will have to be extra sharp for the day. In attack, Chelsea will be fine doing what they have been doing in recent games – keeping possession, finding a killer pass and finishing the job. If that Plan A doesn’t work out, well-orchestrated set-pieces should be Chelsea’s Plan B.

Carefree, wherever you may be...

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