Despite taking the lead twice, Arsenal had to settle for a 2-2 draw with Liverpool. It's a result that sees them fail to make ground on Arne Slot's side, and gall further behind Manchester City. But with a makeshift XI, and injuries to Gabriel and Jurrien Timber, Adam Clery explains why this was almost another masterclass from Mikel Arteta, and a point that might prove invaluable later in the season.
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00:00Right, hello there everybody. Adam Cleary here from 4-4-2. Yesterday we saw Arsenal
00:092, Liverpool 2 and today we're going to try something a little bit different involving
00:15the number 2, which sounds wrong. Now I actually thought the Desmond was a good result for
00:20both teams for very, very different reasons and I spent all last night agonising over
00:25which way to approach this video and in the end, I couldn't.
00:28So what we're going to do is two videos, one that really focuses on Arsenal, how they
00:33got on top and how they let it slip but how that's actually not a terrible thing in context
00:37and another one on Liverpool, why they were dominated the first half and how they changed
00:42it and came back and got the draw. They'll both be sort of the same at the start but
00:46then they'll drill down really specifically into one team or the other. If you are neutral
00:50in this regard and you want to see both sides, then you've got two videos you can watch.
00:55This may be a complete disaster. I have honestly never tried it before. So, yes, that is why
01:01Arsenal 2, Liverpool 2 was a really good result for Arsenal.
01:09Right, okay, to start, some generalised comments on the pattern of play in this game. This
01:13bit, the next few minutes, this will be the same in both videos. Now despite the differences
01:17in the starting XI's, both in terms of personnel and formation, we've got Arsenal in like a
01:224-4-2 here because it kind of just felt more like that than a 4-3-3, which we'll get into
01:27in some detail. Both managers came with a very similar game plan. What you have here
01:31are two teams who are very good at pressing but also two teams who are very, very good
01:37at playing through a press. So the approach for both Arteta and Slot was to stop any sort
01:43of central progression. You don't want the other team to be able to play through the
01:47middle of you and you also don't want to give them chances to win it back in those
01:51same areas. But then by the same token, because you're both very good teams, you don't want
01:55to just sit back and sit in a low block for the whole game and try and hit the opposition
01:59on the counter. So you are neither pressing too high but nor are you dropping too deep
02:03and we kept getting both teams in this very compact shape in the middle of the pitch.
02:09And thus, from there, probably goes without saying, if you are trying to stop the opposition
02:13playing through the centre but you yourself do not want to get caught in the centre, you
02:18then must target the wide spaces. The very first real kick of the game, Liverpool get
02:23into their three-two build-up shape that we have seen time and time again this season
02:27but Arsenal are already locked onto them in the middle. They are not pressing the defenders
02:32or the goalkeeper too much, they don't want to over-commit, but they will not allow that
02:35ball to come into Gravenberch. They're sitting off the full-backs but they are prepared to
02:41jump onto them if the ball goes out there. So what do Liverpool do? They hit long and
02:45they hit into the channels. The hope is because Thomas Partey is not a conventional full-back
02:50and will want to meander into the middle, is to get Diaz into the little bit of space
02:55that might leave behind him. And you can see here it is, a little bit of space. And it's
02:59not the prettiest approach from Liverpool, especially when they've got players who can
03:02play far more shorter, intricate, more eye-catching stuff, but it is definitely worth trying and
03:07from here they get a free kick, a really dangerous one, right at the start of the game. And then,
03:12just mere minutes later, Arsenal have their first real spell of possession. They are setting
03:16up at the back and you can see, likewise, Liverpool want to make sure they outnumber
03:21them in the middle. You can count them for yourself here, they are blocking off the central
03:25progression. So Arsenal then do likewise. In this example, Martinelli has pinned Alexander-Arnold
03:30all the way back, he can't really push up, so that leaves Timber a bit of space to move
03:34into and that's where Raya lands the ball. And just to show you how much of a theme this
03:37was for both teams across the game, right, this might be a little bit messy, right, this
03:41is the passing map of David Raya in that match. Now he's a cheeky little chap, you
03:46know what he's like, he's got his little lefts and rights to his centre-backs to see if they
03:50can pull and prod and take Liverpool out of their shape, but by and large, he is not only
03:54going long, but he is going into the channels when he does it. Now you may well be looking
03:59at this going, there's an awful lot of reds in there, Adam, he was giving the ball away
04:02quite a lot, but I think this is genuinely quite a commendable pass map for a goalkeeper
04:06in a game such as this, because not only is there still a lot of accuracy, there's plenty
04:10green in amongst all of this for what is a very low percentage thing to do, but also
04:16look how far forward he comes to do it, like he is playing, he is trying to push them up
04:21the pitch, this isn't just a, oh give it to me and I'll pump it, he is, pump it, he is
04:25getting into decent positions and then trying to find a teammate. But then we look at the
04:29same pass map for Kelleher and you can see largely a similar pattern, a lot more red
04:33because he's not as good at kicking as David Raya is in my opinion, but you can see almost
04:38exclusively he is going out to the flanks and going long, and in fact, get them both
04:44up here, of these like what, 30 or 40, I can't actually see them right now, 30 or 40 kicks
04:50going into the channels, between the two of them there are what, three that go centrally
04:55and none of those work. But the thing is, this isn't really that surprising because
04:59in these big Premier League games now where you get two really big teams and one of them
05:04doesn't get a man sent off, they have become so tactical and so sort of like marginal.
05:12And that's because teams like Arsenal and Liverpool have such meticulous, well prepared
05:16intelligent managers now that they put so much work into negating the opposition's threat,
05:22fairly confident that even if that happens to them, they've got really good quality players
05:27that will find solutions on the pitch. And it was kind of a mad game because it felt
05:31very sort of like high energy and it went both ways, but if you look at like the XG,
05:35the whole game, I know some people don't care about XG, just go with me on this, it was
05:39like 0.8 and 0.9, like in a game with four goals that felt like it had quite a lot of
05:44chances, that's like very little. And that is, like as mad as it might sound, exactly
05:50how both of these managers will have wanted this game to go. You could see from both the
05:54set pieces, they were well worked on it, obviously practiced that in training, but the other
05:59two goals, individual moments of brilliance. Like Arteta will not have sat Saka down at
06:03the start of the week and said, oh, if you get down the channel, make sure you nutmeg
06:07Andy Robertson and blast it in the near post. But he will have trusted him that should such
06:11a situation develop, he'd have the quality to do something. So despite the fact they
06:16led twice and let those leads slip and it can feel demoralising, why is this actually
06:22a really good draw for Arsenal? Now, Liverpool, as they had done against Chelsea, you knew
06:26the centre of the pitch was going to be a bit of a battlefield, very physical, very
06:29compact. Both teams were going to have to compete in there. So they set up in a way
06:33that they thought was going to allow them to do that. But Arsenal had two very clever
06:37ideas for how to win that battle. And they both sort of come from turning this like 4-4-2
06:42into like a weird diamond, like Thomas Partey, he would sort of invert into this area and
06:46Kai Havertz, he would sort of drop into it. So all of a sudden, from a situation where
06:50Liverpool would have felt quite confident having Gravenberg, McAllister and Jones in
06:54the same area as these two central players, they now find themselves outnumbered 4v3.
07:00And as well as just giving them a man advantage in that area, which is obviously incredibly
07:04handy, it then forced Darwin Nunes, Liverpool's central striker and only out ball to basically
07:09drop in and help. But even with him doing that, if I'm Michael Arteta, I look at those
07:14four Liverpool players and I think Rice, Mourinho, Partey and Havertz will still physically dominate
07:20that area of the pitch. And they did. But the really, really clever thing Arteta did
07:24with all this was in the use of Havertz because the temptation would surely have been to put
07:28him up front and have Trossard in this area, but he swapped them over. You can see if we
07:33show you his heat map, he spent most of his evening over on this right hand side, practically
07:38on top of Bakayo Saka. When he wasn't easing here, he wasn't pushing forward, he was pushing
07:43right. And this meant that not only did Arsenal double up on Andy Robertson, they roasted
07:48him. They flambéed, I think is the word, him. They put him on a skewer and they roasted
07:53him slowly in his own juices. And this is all going to start to sound a little bit Tony
07:58Pulis, but I would actually take that as a compliment rather than a criticism. If you
08:02are going to be having your goalkeeper kick long into the channels, you might as well
08:06have someone in the channels who is aerially very good. Like Arsenal were in effect sticking
08:11it in the mixer. It's just that they had moved the mixer. And by doing that, you're likely
08:16to get one of two things happening. Like either Kai Havertz will outjump Andy Robertson, can
08:19get a flick and put Bakayo Saka in. Brilliant. We absolutely love that. Or if Saka drops
08:25short to receive the ball because they're trying to play it from the back and draws
08:29Robertson with him, you've got a player already there, ready to spin into the space. But of
08:33course, Liverpool aren't daft. They can't just let Kai Havertz go out there on his own,
08:36especially if Andy Robertson is going to get dragged forward. And that kept pulling McAllister
08:40all the way over to sort of sit on him. And what does that then give Arsenal? Another
08:45man advantage in the centre. That's exactly where the first goal comes from. Like Liverpool
08:49are in their 4-2-4 shape. You can see what we talked about at the start. They do not
08:53want to be pressing too aggressively, but they also don't want to be sitting too deep.
08:56So they're very, very compact in this area of the pitch. It's all fine margins and great
09:02timing and execution, but they are clearly targeting that space in behind Andy Robertson.
09:06Ben White gets on the ball, gets his head up, sees Saka is making the run and finds
09:10him with that pass. And you can even sort of see it in the second goal as well. Like
09:14this is the foul that it comes from and the game's all over here at this point. If you
09:17rewind a couple of seconds, Arsenal only have the ball in that area because Havertz
09:22has drifted out. And oh, would you look at that? They've overloaded Andy Robertson. In
09:27Liverpool's, and I said frenzy, they're not frenzy to get back, but certainly the disorder
09:31that created, they end up giving the foul away and Arsenal score a goal. So what happened
09:36then? They were playing so well. They were on top. They had the lead. How did it all
09:40slip away? Well, really interesting discussion on the Sky panel. They basically suggested
09:44that it was a moral failing on Arsenal's part, that in their hearts, they were all secretly
09:49cowards and a two on up. They said we did not have it in them to go and get that third
09:53goal. And they sat off like a bunch of tiny little babies waiting to get picked up by
09:57their mothers. But I have another theory. We'll all just be normal for a minute, but
10:04the last like 20 minutes of this game, this was Arsenal's back four. A team that is fundamentally
10:13built on being the best defensive side, the best out of possession team in the Premier
10:18League cannot function as normal or with as much ambition or as much just get up and go-ness.
10:24That's a term with these four players at its base. Nothing in the entire rest of this team
10:30can be expected to function the way it normally does when you do not have one single player
10:37in the correct position in your preferred back four. Gabrielle going off injured is
10:42in my opinion, a bigger loss to this fixture than Saliba missing the whole 90. Now it's
10:47not me saying he's a better defender. You can have whichever opinion you want on that
10:50if indeed you want to have one at all. But what he does in regards to that system is
10:56more important. Like I'll just really quickly show you their comparative defensive numbers
11:00this season in the Premier League, right? You can see here two very, very different
11:05defenders. Gabrielle on the left does not really do any defending per se. He manages
11:11the rest of the defence. He decides when they sit, when they push forward, when they intervene,
11:16when they make a tackle, when they're compact. He basically leads the whole thing from the
11:19back. And Saliba, physically excellent and strong as he is, then is the one that gets
11:24around making tackles, winning the headers and winning the ball. Now you can bring Ben
11:29White in and have him do a really solid Saliba impression for the better part of 90 minutes,
11:33but you cannot bring Kyrie off the bench and tell him to cosplay as Gabrielle for even a second.
11:41That is precisely, precisely where the equalising goal comes from. Like when the ball is hit
11:46into the channel in behind, you can see it's not terrible this shape. It's not what you
11:51would want. You'd like them to all be in a line and slightly better coverage, but it's
11:54not, it's not awful. You can see the small space they're trying to target, but they're
11:58pretty okay. But the difference between Kyrie and Gabrielle is that he reads that pass wrong.
12:04He thinks it's for Salah and thus he must then go over because Salah is ahead of the
12:09fullback. But of course it's not for Salah, is it? And he's just taking himself out of
12:13the game. And thus, by the time they get into the box, Arsenal, who should have a nice set
12:19back four, are now in this shape. Now it's not necessarily me digging Kyrie out and saying
12:24he's rubbish or anything like that. He's a very, very solid, competent player, but against
12:27a team like Liverpool, they probably couldn't do that to a Gabrielle. They can't do that
12:33to him. But the real killer thing about all of this is when the pass is played, this is
12:37where he is in relation to Salah. Like if it was a straight race to the position Salah's
12:41going to score from, he's much closer to the goal. He's got a massive head start, even
12:45though they're on the same line. You know how angles work, obviously. He should be absolutely
12:49fine to sort of read that well and cut it out. But again, by the time the pass comes
12:53in, that's been completely flipped on its head because he's run out into the fullback
12:58area thinking he needs to be there before trying to come back, which is, of course,
13:02very disappointing if you are an Arsenal fan. But I said at the start, I think this
13:07result is a really good one for them. And it's not necessarily because of this result.
13:12It's because of how this season is going. If we look at all of Arsenal's results this
13:15season, they have gone away to Aston Villa. They've played Brighton with 10 men. They've
13:20gone away to Tottenham. They've gone away to City with 10 men. They've had routine home
13:24wins where you would expect them to have them. They played with 10 men against Bournemouth.
13:28And now they've played Liverpool, arguably the form team in the Premier League this season.
13:33And they've done all of that largely without Martyn Urdergaard, with players coming in
13:37and out with injury all the time and finishing these matches with back four as messy as that.
13:44And despite all of that, despite the adversity and the shooting themselves in the foot and
13:48all just the refereeing stuff, which I'm not going to get into into this video, they are
13:52five points off the top of the Premier League, which is obviously not ideal and a lot. But
13:57by the same token, it's not very much at all. Like, make absolutely zero mistake. Liverpool
14:02will have turned up to this game and seen no Saliba, no Urdergaard, no guarantees over
14:07the fitness of Pakaio Saka, little bits of improvisation and destabilisation everywhere,
14:12and known that were they to win, they would have gone seven points clear of Arsenal in the table.
14:17And even then, as the game wears on, they start to get on top. They become the dominant side.
14:21Timber is forced off with an injury. Gabrielle is forced off with an injury. And yet,
14:25Arsenal, in spite of all of that, did not lose this game. And that could be, honestly,
14:32massive. So yes, bottom line, disappointing to lead a game twice and then still not win it.
14:38But given what they're having to deal with right now, to again, be in one of these situations,
14:43defending really deep and defending really well against a team who are really capable of hurting
14:47you and not losing. And to that, you must simply look Michael Arteta right into his like glassy,
14:54scary shark eyes and say, juego limpio. So yes, that is why Arsenal 2 Liverpool 2 is in fact,
15:01a really, really good result for Arsenal. If you'd like to know why it was a good result
15:04for Liverpool as well, as I mentioned at the start, we will also do that video.
15:08It'll either be in the description and the comments now, or I just won't have finished
15:13it yet and it'll be along in a couple of hours. What an exciting twist for you. Now,
15:18if you have been sat there through this whole video looking at this football shirt thinking,
15:21oh wow, oh my God, Adam, I sure would love to own something as stylish and as collectible,
15:28and it's just generally comfortable as that football shirt you're wearing. You can.
15:32This is the incredibly limited edition 442 30th anniversary shirt produced in partnership between
15:37us, Legends and Admiral, also Legends and is available from Admiral right now for,
15:43I have forgotten, I think it's a number loosely related to 442, might be £42. We are making
15:48precious, precious, precious, precious few of them. And every time I'm in the office,
15:52I steal another one. So if you'd like one and you are size small to, I think, extra,
15:56extra large, you can have it. The link for that will be downstairs. This is kind of what it is,
16:01I guess, as well. Treat yourself. If you didn't absolutely hate all of this, you can get me
16:05across all the socials at Adam Cleary C L E R Y. And I would implore you, nay beg to subscribe
16:10to us here on 442. The more subscribers we get, the more cool stuff we can do. And hopefully
16:15you've been watching the channel for a while. You will agree. We do cool stuff. The 442 socials
16:19are in the corner of the video. I actually remember to bring the special 30th anniversary
16:23edition of the magazine, which is still in stores. Now you can pick that up. It comes in this
16:26cool little wrapper, which I'm not going to open because it will destroy the resale value for when
16:33I retire. Until next time, though, thank you very much for watching. I have been Adam Cleary. This
16:37has been 442. He's what? They've sacked him. Oh my God. Oh, I'm never going home.
16:50Really? Oh, right. Bye. 10 hogs gone. Bye.