It's been a tough run of results for Arsenal of late. However, if the game at Stamford Bridge showed one thing - it's that there's light at the end of the tunnel with the return of Martin Odegaard...
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00:00Right, hello there everybody, we've just seen Arsenal vs Chelsea and I, like you, was incredibly
00:09excited about this game because these are two sides who are really good, one is having
00:14a wobble, one is very new to the concept of being good and you felt like the winner of
00:19that match was really going to go on and have an exciting season.
00:23And then of course, naturally, it was a draw.
00:27But not to worry because while football has always been a results business, analysis has
00:32mercifully never ever been.
00:34So while this was a stalemate, I still thought it was really interesting because it was the
00:38tale of two individuals who did something exceptional.
00:46Now speaking of something exceptional, and I may be overselling this ever so slightly,
00:50I have launched a substack, isn't that fun?
00:53We get like hundreds of messages and comments asking like, what is happening with this player?
00:58Why is my team so bad all of a sudden?
01:00And we can't do videos on all of them.
01:02So I have launched a substack, which I'm incredibly excited about.
01:07It's called 87 Minutes and you should go and check it out.
01:11Right then, to business.
01:12This was Arsenal vs Chelsea.
01:14These were the two XI's and Arsenal were finally, more or less, back in the 4-3-3.
01:19They haven't been able to play while Martyn Erdegaard has been injured.
01:22They've been in that sort of awkward 4-4-2 thing, which was fine and they were dominating
01:26games but they weren't really creating as freely as they were and Chelsea were just
01:30in that 4-2-3-1 that they love so much.
01:33Now the thing is, I could stand here and talk all day about 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1.
01:38Pretty much all the top teams now all like to defend in a really disciplined mid-block
01:444-4-2 and the problem with that is that they're really hard to break down.
01:50So, what we're seeing a lot in these top, top Premier League games now is two sides
01:54that are undoubtedly really good and full of loads of good players but are also very
01:59disciplined and both games get a bit… what's the word I want?
02:03Muddy.
02:04And what that tends to mean is that unless these games suddenly open up because of some
02:08goals or a red card or somebody just losing their mind, you tend to get nothing happening
02:14through the middle of the pitch because both teams are just too good at stopping that.
02:18Like this is Arsenal in their mid-block, this is Chelsea in their mid-block and not really
02:24at any point in the match did either side successfully carve the other one open.
02:29Now I might be about to labour this point far, far, far too much, right?
02:33But take a seat, get yourself a cup of tea.
02:35This is Caicedo's pass map for the 90 minutes and obviously he gets on the ball a lot, there's
02:40a lot going on but just squint, have a real hard look at this for any pass that goes forward
02:46directly through the middle of the pitch.
02:49Like he hits the channels well enough, there's loads of side to side but I'm looking here
02:53and there's maybe like one that's two or three yards, nothing with any incision.
02:58And then we look at Lavia who was in the middle with him and it's a similar sort of story,
03:02sideways is absolutely fine but nothing forward through the middle of the pitch.
03:06In fact there's virtually nothing forward at all.
03:08Then there's Cole Palmer who yes, he does drift left and right but he does play as the
03:12turn, he does get on the ball in the middle of the pitch and again nothing through Arsenal's
03:17mid-block.
03:18He has to go around, he has to go sideways, he has to go backwards.
03:20Alright so that's Chelsea but what about Arsenal?
03:23Well this is Declan Rice's pass map who barely passed the ball forwards at all in the entire
03:2890 minutes but when he did was floating out left, he could do nothing in the middle.
03:33Now Thomas Partey, he was a lot more proactive being the central one in Arsenal's midfield
03:38but you can see as well, there's just sort of like a brick wall here for him, nothing
03:42really forwards through the middle.
03:45And just to round off the whole thing, this is Martyn Erdegaard again, not one single
03:49pass through the middle of the pitch because you can't do that because both teams are doing
03:53a really good mid-block.
03:56May have gone overboard at that point but hopefully now you get it.
03:59But the thing is, this isn't even a criticism of these managers, this is not me calling
04:03either team boring and I'll show you why, right?
04:06Because these are the failed passes of all six of those players and do you know what
04:10the hell with it?
04:11Let's chuck both pairs of centre-backs in there as well.
04:14You can see that when they were trying to go vertical really quickly up and down the
04:19pitcher, look how straight all these lines are, they were losing the ball.
04:23So of course you're not going to do it.
04:25Like, that is kind of mad isn't it?
04:27The light blue ones are Chelsea, the dark blue ones are Arsenal so obviously they're
04:30going opposite ways, like there aren't any lines that look even remotely like that in
04:35the successful passes ones we just looked at.
04:38It failed any time they tried it.
04:40So then obviously when both teams are set up to stop that and are really good at stopping
04:45that, it makes for, what's the nicest way to put this?
04:49A tough watch.
04:50And this is why I said at the very start that this became the story of two players who did
04:55something exceptional in this fairly unspectacular sort of setup for a game and the first was
05:01Pedro Neto who I thought was the best player on the pitch.
05:04I'm not going to focus on him too much, his goal was absolutely amazing, he swapped sides,
05:08he made a run, Arsenal were very disorganised and allowed him to get in there but he still
05:13had to capitalise on it but before that he was pressing on to Erdogan to force him backwards
05:18to stop him playing through the middle of the pitch, he was dropping back onto Saka
05:21which made Mark Kukerea look like he had a brilliant afternoon, which in fairness he
05:26did and every time he got on the ball he was giving Ben White actual night terrors.
05:31So that was a brilliant individual performance.
05:34But while Pedro Neto was the best player on the pitch, in my opinion that is not the same
05:40as being the most important and the most important player on the pitch, in my opinion, was the
05:45returning Martin Erdogan.
05:48His contributions as we have already seen were few but they were the most significant.
05:53You see what sets the great managers apart from just the good managers is the ability
05:57to look at a game that's obviously going to be this even and then make small adjustments
06:02that increase your ability to do things while not leaving yourself vulnerable.
06:06And aha, Arsenal fans, surprise, I'm actually talking about Enzo Mareschi here because I
06:10thought the way he set Chelsea up in the midfield in particular was very clever.
06:15He inverted, well not really inverted, just swapped them over, Cole Palmer onto the left,
06:20obviously started at the 10 and then drifted out because naturally there's going to be
06:23more space behind Erdogan, who might not even be fully fit, than there is behind Rice.
06:28They then had Malagusto invert, you see I can use the word correctly, all the way from
06:32right back into this sort of like quasi-other number 10 position.
06:36This is his heat map, he was very aggressive at doing that, and then when you combine that
06:39with Caicedo and Lavia, they were outnumbering Arsenal in the middle and making it much harder
06:45for Erdogan to join in and lead the press.
06:47Now Cole Palmer this season has come in for a bit of criticism for being amazing in certain
06:52games against supposedly lesser teams, and then turning up with these big fixtures and
06:56nobody being able to see him, but in the opening exchanges of this match, he looked really good.
07:02In fact I showed you his pass map before, this is all of his contributions in sort of
07:06like the first 10 or 15 minutes, he was finding that space behind Erdogan really well, he
07:11was stopping out wide and then coming infield, he was getting on the ball in all the kind
07:16of areas Cole Palmer wants to get on the ball, and he was helping, as you can see here, to
07:20create some dangerous situations.
07:22This is why Arsenal miss Erdogan so much, not just for his creative ability in and around
07:28the box, not just for what he does on the ball, but the way he leads and he adapts things
07:33on the pitch in coordination with his manager.
07:36And after those first 15 minutes, Erdogan and Arsenal addressed the Palmer situation.
07:41All of a sudden Arsenal slightly rebalanced their midfield, Declan Rice took a bit more
07:45responsibility for pushing up and joining in the press, and Erdogan instead didn't go
07:49and sit on Palmer, but constantly made sure he was in the direct passing lane between
07:55whoever had the ball, be it the midfielder or one of the defenders, and Palmer.
07:59But you can see it here, he's not going to press the ball, but neither is he actually
08:03marking him.
08:04He's making sure that he's taking him out the game without necessarily taking him out
08:08of the game.
08:09And this is actually mad, right?
08:11After Arsenal make that change from that point and a half onwards, this is Cole Palmer's
08:16entire contribution to the remainder of that half.
08:20He gets two touches of the ball, and they're both backwards.
08:23And this is one of them right here, oh look, who is that up his arse?
08:27It is Martin Oerdegaard.
08:29Arsenal fixed this on the fly and got a lot better control of the game.
08:32The thing is, right, that was pretty much the sum total of Oerdegaard's contributions
08:38to this game, right up until the point the first goal went in.
08:43He was quiet.
08:44And then we overlay his heat map here.
08:46If you're an Arsenal fan, you'll see this as just so, so promising, because he's finally
08:49getting back into that right-hand half space where he causes so much damage to opposition
08:55teams.
08:56It's what they've really missed over those fixtures where they've had disappointing results,
08:59where, you know, they've had good territory, they've had good possession, they've been
09:02in good positions, but haven't been able to do anything with it because they're missing
09:05a player of his quality.
09:07He's there, he's back, hooray!
09:09But then we overlay his pass map, and similar to pretty much everybody else in this pitch,
09:14nothing is really being created here.
09:16This is right up until the goal, by the way, so that's not on here.
09:19He's not getting anything into the box, he's not getting anybody in behind.
09:22There's no sort of cutting edge to it.
09:24Until the goal.
09:26And that is why he was the most important player on the pitch.
09:29Forget about the cross for now, forget about the goalkeeping, we will talk about that.
09:32Just wind that situation back.
09:35And who is it deciding on field to push Arsenal further up the pitch to get something?
09:40It's Martin Oerdegaard.
09:42He forces that entire team to step up into Chelsea, then he personally goes and wins
09:48that ball back and drives them up the field.
09:51They don't know what to do with it, so they give it to him, under pressure, where a lesser
09:55player would probably lose that ball.
09:57But he retains it, and he gives it to somebody else, who also doesn't know what to do with
10:01it, so gives it back to him, under pressure, where most players probably lose that ball.
10:05But he doesn't.
10:07He winds up in this position, on the edge of the box, with scant few good options.
10:12And I'll say that 99% of players, probably, would be immediately thinking, can I lay this
10:19off here?
10:20Can I roll this player in, and maybe they'll put a cross in, and maybe we'll get something
10:25out of that.
10:26But this is what sets Oerdegaard apart, right?
10:28You, me, absolutely anybody else on this pitch not called Cole Palmer, would just want rid
10:33of that as quickly as possible.
10:35But Oerdegaard has that second.
10:37He can take a breath, he knows he's okay on it, he can look up and see what's actually
10:44around him.
10:45And when he does that, what does he see?
10:46He sees Saka and Martinelli at the far post, in a way better position than simply rolling
10:51this ball through.
10:52And that, in a nutshell, is what Arsenal have been missing.
10:54They've been good in these games, where they haven't got the results.
10:57But when you're good, and you come up against teams who are up for it, who've got really
11:01well-defined styles of play, like Bournemouth, like Newcastle, like Inter, good isn't good
11:06enough.
11:07And make absolutely no mistake about it, right, Arsenal were getting gnawed off Chelsea up
11:11until this point.
11:12Like, they pretty much identified all the best ways to shut them down.
11:15Cucaracha was having the single best one-on-one game against Bakayo Saka that I have seen
11:22since Lewis Hall eight days ago.
11:25And it meant that this game, which yes, admittedly did end in a draw, was going absolutely nowhere.
11:31Like, don't ask me why I check these stats, right?
11:34But at about 30, 35 minutes, it was 50-50 in terms of possession.
11:39Both teams had had five shots on goal.
11:41Both teams had had one shot on target.
11:43I'm trying to remember this.
11:44Both teams had seven touches in the opposition box, and both teams had made 119 successful
11:51passes.
11:52Doesn't get more even than that.
11:54And in such a game, the only thing that's ever going to divide two teams like this is
11:57either A, a moment of total madness defensively from one side, or B, a moment of brilliance
12:04from an attacker, Martyn Erdegaard, from the other.
12:06Now, regulars to this channel will know that I myself am a goalkeeper and I do goalkeeping
12:11on occasion.
12:12So I'm going to have to talk about Robert Sanchez here.
12:15Now, first off, the narrative that goalkeepers should never get beaten at the near post is
12:19complete and utter bollocks.
12:22It's a complete misnomer.
12:23It's just something people who don't understand goalkeeping say you can very easily get beat
12:27at your near post if the shot's good enough.
12:30However, that's not what happens here.
12:33Robert Sanchez does not know where he's standing.
12:37The wider angle is the best one for this, right?
12:38Because the position Martinelli is in, Robert Sanchez could very easily completely block
12:44off the near post if he was stood in the right position.
12:47And then from there, Martinelli's either got to put it through his legs somehow or get
12:51some almighty curl around him into the far side.
12:55Robert Sanchez does not stand where he's supposed to.
12:59Like, from where Martinelli is standing, Sanchez is probably the exact same width as the goal,
13:05so he doesn't need to be giving himself room left or right.
13:09Like, this position here, it's almost as if he's trying to stop him putting it out for
13:13a goal kick as well, like he's got that entire touchline sort of blocked off.
13:18But you don't need to do that.
13:20Just the far post.
13:21I think, honestly, Robert Sanchez thinks he's stood with his right foot more or less on
13:26the touchline.
13:27And the thing that tells me that is, right, when it goes past that foot, he goes to grab
13:32it as if he's expecting it to have gone into the side netting.
13:36But then he sort of sees that it's in the net and looks confused.
13:39So yes, just to recap, no such thing as shouldn't get beaten at your near post, but also he
13:47shouldn't get beaten at his near post.
13:50In that example.
13:51But then, of course, yes, Chelsea do go and equalise.
13:53I appreciate I may be making this video sound like it finished 1-0.
13:57It didn't.
13:58It was a draw.
13:59Probably a deserved result.
14:00A similar bit of brilliance, Neto then floats into the space that Arsenal have left because
14:05they're really disorganised from the second phase of the corner.
14:08Enzo's obviously a better on-the-ball presence than they were getting with an inverted full
14:13back in that area, and they take advantage of that.
14:16Well done, Pedro Neto.
14:18Probably man of the match.
14:19But Erdogan is the video because I'm a nerd.
14:23Now, I would bet if you are an Arsenal fan, you probably find that a little bit disappointing
14:28because you sort of wrestled control of the game and you got on top and then you got your
14:31goal, but you couldn't see it out.
14:34But hear me out.
14:36If I was an Arsenal fan and I'm not, by the way, I see people trying to guess in the comments
14:40all the time, which is very amusing to me.
14:42But if I was an Arsenal fan, I would be very quietly, very okay with that result.
14:49Yes, nine points off the top of the table is bad.
14:52But in their first 11 games, they have now played last season's entire top 10, six of
15:00which were away from home, three games they've had a mad red card, and they've also had loads
15:06of just small, niggling, annoying, disrupting injuries.
15:10But now you're getting all your big players back.
15:13You've got two weeks to rest up and get everybody 100% and the fixtures between now and the
15:18end of the year look very, very, very favourable.
15:24But yes, obviously Liverpool are off and running and they look absolutely amazing, but they're
15:27very new.
15:28This is slot's first season that could potentially be built on a little bit of sand and they
15:33get figured out or one injury disrupts the whole thing.
15:36So I wouldn't be massively concerned that it's them that are nine points ahead when
15:40every other team is exactly where Arsenal are.
15:44I'll put it, I'll put it this way, right?
15:46I think the run and the look and the injuries and the officiating that Arsenal have had
15:51at the start of the season would have been enough to just completely kill most other
15:55teams title hopes.
15:57But they're still, for me, right in the mix with all of this after all that and things
16:03can surely, surely only improve from here.
16:06So yeah, I thought Chelsea were really, really good in this game and they're definitely going
16:09to be in the title picture in my opinion.
16:10But there was enough here for Arsenal with the Urdu guards somehow doing all those minutes
16:15and all that running after like two months out to think you write them off at your peril,
16:22my friend.
16:23Well, not peril because nothing bad's going to happen.
16:25You'll just look a little bit silly, but nonetheless, anyway, that is it for this video.
16:29If you're a Chelsea fan, sorry, I really did focus on Arsenal on that.
16:33You'll get your flowers.
16:34You'll get your love at some point.
16:35You'll get your love at some point.
16:36You'll get your love at some point.
16:37You'll get your love at some point.
16:38You'll get your love at some point.
16:39You'll get your love at some point.
16:40You'll get your love at some point.
16:41You'll get your love at some point.
16:42You'll get your love at some point.
16:43You'll get your love at some point.
16:44You'll get your love at some point.
16:45You'll get your love at some point.
16:46You'll get your love at some point.
16:47You'll get your love at some point.
16:48You'll get your love at some point.
16:49You'll get your love at some point.
16:50You'll get your love at some point.
16:51You'll get your love at some point.
16:52You'll get your love at some point.
16:53You'll get your love at some point.
16:54You'll get your love at some point.
16:55The 442 socials are in the corner of the video and we simply adore new subscribers on this
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17:00If you haven't done so already, click the nice little button.
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17:05And as previously mentioned, I have launched a fun little sub stack.
17:09It's called 87 Minutes.
17:10You can go and look for it and I'm going to be doing loads and loads and loads of fun
17:14stuff on that too.
17:15Until next time though, I have been Adam Cleary.
17:17This has been 442.
17:19This was Chelsea.
17:20This was Arsenal.
17:21This was Martin Oedegaard.
17:22Eh?
17:23What about him?
17:24And I'll see you soon.
17:27That was kind of an ending, wasn't it?
17:29Bye.