Arsenal had to endure a nervy last 10 minutes against Tottenham, but three first-half goals ultimately won them a scrappy North London Derby. But while the numbers might point towards Spurs being a tad unlucky not to get something from the game, Adam Clery explains why Mikel Arteta deserved the slices of luck that fell the Gunners' way.
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00:00 Now Spurs fans, if you are watching, we will get to you in a little second, but this is
00:05 the Arsenal side as they lined up.
00:07 No real surprises here.
00:08 Tom Iassu at left back maybe, but other than that, as you'd expect.
00:12 But if you are to look at their average positions across the course of the game, which this
00:16 neatly shows us, you will see there is not a lot of width to them.
00:19 They're very narrow towards the inside of the pitch.
00:21 Now fair play, most Arsenal average position graphs do look like that because you tend
00:25 to have the full back sort of inverting into the middle and some of the wide players doing
00:29 this and that, but if you look at both Ben White and Tom Iassu's heat maps, they're not
00:34 really inverting.
00:35 They're not being pulled into an average central position because they're spending time in
00:39 the middle.
00:40 They're just very narrow.
00:41 But Kai Osaka is the widest, but still even he's closer to like the channel than he is
00:46 to the touchline.
00:47 Tross odds all the way over in the middle.
00:49 And this is Kai Havertz, who we'll talk about separately later.
00:53 But the point I'm trying to get at is what you are seeing here is not just a team that
00:56 are being compact because Arsenal are always compact.
00:59 They sit in this nice 4-4-2 when they're out of possession.
01:02 You can see examples of that all through the season, but it is a team being way more compact
01:07 than usual.
01:08 And all through the game, it was littered with examples of Arsenal in this sort of shape
01:12 here.
01:13 You can see they're really sort of narrow.
01:15 They're really deep.
01:16 They're leaving no space whatsoever through the center of the pitch, and they're quite
01:19 happy to allow Spurs to have it out wide.
01:22 Like if we just freeze it right here, look how many bodies Arsenal have in the box between
01:27 the ball and the goal.
01:28 Like this is the most attacking team in the league, like technically.
01:31 They've scored the most number of goals in the Premier League this season, and yet this
01:36 is sort of like the defensive shape and the defensive conviction of a team in the bottom
01:40 three.
01:41 Now, here's the thing, right?
01:43 If this was just going on for like small periods of the game, let's say Tottenham come out,
01:47 the traps fly in, so it's the opening 15 minutes or they're pushing really hard towards the
01:51 end of the second half, you'd just be like, well, it's nothing really interesting.
01:54 It's just circumstantial, isn't it?
01:56 Arsenal are up against it, Tottenham are on top.
01:58 They're trying to sort of stay all beefy and compact like a tin of Spam or something like
02:03 that.
02:04 But this was like the pattern of the entire game.
02:06 It was going on at nil-nil.
02:08 It was going on at three-nil.
02:10 It was going on at three-two.
02:12 This is how Arsenal specifically set up for this match.
02:16 And if you want to see just how effective it was, right, you have to look at the numbers
02:19 for this.
02:20 Like first off, this is James Madison's pass map.
02:22 James, like primary central creative threat, almost nothing is going through that central
02:28 block in the pitch.
02:29 He's constantly being forced to move the ball out wide.
02:32 And then, and this is where it gets bizarrely mathematically crazy, right?
02:36 Across this season, Tottenham have had an average number of crosses per game of 17.
02:42 Today against Arsenal, they put in 34 crosses.
02:45 That is exactly double the usual amount they do because again, they were being forced out
02:51 wide so often.
02:52 And what is even weirder than that is that across this season, Arsenal have had an average
02:57 of 13 defensive clearances per game.
03:00 But again, today, because they were forcing Tottenham out wide and that many crosses were
03:03 coming into the box, they did 26.
03:06 Again, exactly double.
03:09 Sorry, I don't know why I'm laughing.
03:11 This next pitch is quite a fun reveal, okay?
03:13 So why?
03:14 Why do you think Arsenal were so happy, so content to sit in their little block and let
03:19 Spurs have the ball out wide and lump all these crosses into the box, right?
03:23 What's that about?
03:24 What was the thinking there?
03:25 Well, and I'm already dreading how long this graph is going to take me to make.
03:28 These are both the starting 11s of Arsenal versus Tottenham, right?
03:33 And now let's rank them in order of height.
03:38 Tottenham are not a small side by any stretch of the imagination.
03:41 They've got loads of players over six foot, but in pretty much every single individual
03:45 one-on-one matchup, and I'll try and draw some lines on here, whether that's like defending
03:49 set pieces or just as it would be in open play, Arsenal had like height or sometimes
03:55 even just mass on the player.
03:58 Like this side of size doesn't really get talked about, but take Bentoncur for example.
04:01 He's one of Spurs biggest players, but he's only 159 pounds according to his little profile
04:07 on the website, right?
04:08 And by comparison, Havard and Tomiasi, who you probably don't think of as like really
04:12 big lads, are like 180, 190.
04:16 So while the height is kind of similar, you've got loads of like bulk on him.
04:20 I think about it at set pieces as well, like van der Ven is Spurs biggest player, but he's
04:24 179.
04:25 So you probably stick him on Saliba, who's also six foot, but he's over 200 pounds.
04:31 So challenging for that same ball, you've got 30 pounds of bulk and mass on your marker.
04:37 That makes you favourite.
04:38 And I mean, it sounds like incredibly straightforward, but Arsenal were basically just like, well,
04:42 okay, we'll sit in deep and deny them space through the middle because when they go out
04:47 wide, we back ourselves to win that cross every single time.
04:51 Lo and behold, two of Arsenal's goals come directly from set pieces.
04:56 Like they load the box with all of these players.
04:58 And even though Spurs have some height as well, they're losing every single individual
05:02 battle and Arsenal get two goals from that.
05:06 Like the setup for this one is just fantastic.
05:08 Like Arsenal absolutely overloading the back post here.
05:12 So Spurs will have a partially zonal system.
05:15 They're going to have to leave players or try and reorganise on the fly.
05:18 Then everybody shoots into a line.
05:20 So wherever the ball drops, somebody's probably going to get near it.
05:22 And because they're confident they'll win every battle individually.
05:26 Well, they do.
05:28 And they score.
05:29 Like even the first goal, Heuberg's not a small guy, but Tomi Asu is also like six two
05:34 and fairly bulky.
05:35 So you've kind of got to scramble and just sort of panic and hope to get anything on
05:39 it and because you're not dominating that aerial battle because you're not necessarily
05:43 winning it, even if you are getting to the ball, just flies into his own goal.
05:47 Now, obviously, it goes without saying as well, it's sitting this deep and compact against
05:50 Tottenham has pretty much been Spurs like Achilles heel this season.
05:54 You saw Newcastle do them four nill at St James' Park with only 27% of the ball because
05:59 they were very easily able to quickly get up the pitch to quick players like Bakayo
06:04 Saka, for example, and then you can get through that way.
06:07 And on that very specific note, I do just want to touch on Spurs system very briefly
06:11 here because I do think the surprise inclusion of Heuberg was a step from Postacoglou designed
06:17 to sort of, I guess, recognize that flaw in his system to sort of stop teams breaking
06:22 on them quite as often as they do.
06:24 Like he was sat here at the base of the midfield alongside Benton Cairn.
06:27 If we overlay his heat map as well, you'll just see sort of player really looking to
06:31 collect the ball off the back four and progress it up the pitch or join in with the attack
06:35 or anything like that.
06:36 That's somebody covering a lot of ground, presumably plugging holes.
06:40 If I show you as well, all his defensive contributions, like these are interceptions, recoveries, blocks,
06:46 things like that.
06:47 You can see it's kind of nicely spread around.
06:49 And actually, we go back to that second Spurs goal, you can kind of see exactly what his
06:53 job was because when the ball is turned over and everybody starts trying to reset, Heuberg
06:58 is the one that tries to close down Saka and stop that out ball, basically stop the counter
07:03 attack at source.
07:04 But he doesn't do it.
07:06 And then if you think he's this close to Saka at the start of the move, and by the time
07:10 the pass comes in, he's this close.
07:13 I think it was the right idea to bring him in and use him like that.
07:15 But I don't think it was that successful.
07:17 What was successful though, and Arsenal fans will not be getting tired of hearing this
07:21 over the last couple of weeks, was positional gymnast and Shakira fan, Kai Havert.
07:26 We go back to Arsenal's lineup here and again, their average positions like Kai Havert is
07:30 the center forward, but he's not here and virtually never is their most advanced player
07:36 like both Oerdegaard and Saka had more influence on the game further up the field than he did.
07:42 And if we look at his heat map as well, right, honestly, I could do like an hour long video
07:46 alone just looking at this graph for you because this is not the heat map.
07:52 It is not the impact on a game of football of a center forward who is currently genuinely
07:58 responsible for getting his team this close to potentially winning the title.
08:03 This should be problematic.
08:05 Like this was the whole problem people had with Gavi Jesus as well.
08:08 Like he's getting on the ball sort of in the build up here.
08:10 You can tell, but he's obviously not troubling the center backs.
08:12 He's not getting in the box and you'll occasionally drop out into one of the eight positions and
08:16 get involved here.
08:17 But how is that really impacting things in the final third?
08:20 Like Arsenal already had this problem before they signed Kai Havert and yet now it's working.
08:26 And that's because like not to **** on the guy, but Gavi Jesus couldn't drop into this
08:31 position here and end up playing a pass like this for the Kai or Saka to get in on goal.
08:37 And likewise, Gavi Jesus could not drift in at the near post and out jump all these great
08:42 big Tottenham players to nod home from a corner.
08:46 Like genuinely, if there is a word for this role that Kai Havert plays, I honestly, truly
08:50 don't know.
08:51 I think we might need to make one up because he's Arsenal central focal point when he needs
08:55 to be.
08:56 So he's not really a false nine.
08:58 And even when he does drop, it's not just to create space for the players.
09:01 It's to genuinely start playmaking and creating chances.
09:05 Is that a word?
09:06 That's my question.
09:07 If it is, put it in the comments.
09:08 And if it's not a word, make a word up for it and put that in the comments as well.
09:13 And I'll pick one and that will just be the word.
09:16 So yeah, like overall, I know I've not really spoken about Spurs much here, but I thought
09:20 they dominated that game in terms of having the ball and having possession.
09:23 But they were only really doing what Arsenal were allowing them to do.
09:28 Like Arsenal came here, paid Tottenham a lot of respect, in my opinion.
09:32 Didn't think they could just play through them or tear them apart.
09:35 They sat back.
09:36 They tried to exploit their inherent weaknesses whilst also trying to guard against what it
09:40 is they're actually good at.
09:41 And as a result, that's a massive win.
09:45 Will it be sufficient to potentially get them a Premier League trophy?
09:49 Well we wait.
09:50 Man City's banana skin with bated breath.
09:53 And when that does happen, you can guarantee we're going to talk about it here on 442.
09:56 So please do subscribe to us on this channel.
09:59 It feels like it's all Arsenal at the minute, but it's not.
10:02 I swear we're going to do loads of cool stuff this week.
10:04 Arnie Slott, Alexander Isak, Adam's going to tell you why Burnley are going to stay
10:07 up.
10:08 I'm Adam, but also another Adam.
10:11 The Arsenal Invincibles issue with the magazine.
10:12 If you prefer to read things, that's available now from all good retailers and the crap ones
10:16 as well.
10:17 You can get me on Twitter @AdamCleary.
10:18 I'm getting really close to like 30,000 followers on Twitter.
10:22 And I've never had that and I'd really like it.
10:24 So if you want to give me a sympathy follow, that's cool.
10:28 And also, right, if you've made it this far in the video, I'm not going to bang on about
10:32 this all summer, I promise.
10:34 But I am running the Great North Run back in Newcastle in September.
10:39 And that's funny because A, my kneecaps are both misaligned.
10:43 I have an actual heart condition and also childhood asthma that I've just been ignoring
10:47 for the better part of 30 years.
10:48 So that's going to be a laugh, but I am doing it to raise money for mental health charity
10:52 Mind here in the UK.
10:54 I will not always, but occasionally drop the description in the comments as well.
10:59 So if that's a cause you think is worthwhile or you just think it's funny that I'm potentially
11:03 going to collapse on a half marathon, then chuck me a fiver or a million quid, whatever
11:09 you've got.
11:10 Until next time, though, and I come up with like some kind of suitably catchphrase-y sign
11:14 off, which I still don't have after a year of doing this.
11:16 I'll see you soon.
11:17 Except, no it's not gonna work.