How can Arsenal stop Chelsea?
A tactical look in to how Arsenal can quell Chelsea's attacking threat.
Arsenal endured a horror start to their Premier League campaign, suffering a 2-0 away defeat to newly-promoted side Brentford who impressed on their return to the Premier League.
The Bees were confident and aggressive against the Gunners, tactically deployed to frustrate an Arsenal team who struggled to find space to create meaningful chances, and looked much less threatening without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette on the pitch.
Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory over a struggling Crystal Palace, despite missing key players such as N’Golo Kante and returning striker Romelu Lukaku.
The two London clubs face each other this weekend at The Emirates, and with Arsenal’s confidence low and injuries hampering their most threatening line-up, they will need to adjust tactically to trouble a dangerous Chelsea team.
Here is how Arsenal can stifle Chelsea’s attack, and effectively hit them on the counter.
Force Chelsea’s attack wide.
Despite splashing out on signing attacking talent such as Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner, Chelsea had difficulties finishing big chances last year.
Werner was mainly used as a center-forward by Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel, however he was inefficient in front of goal - scoring just 6 goals from an xG of 11.9 in the Premier League. Werner can comfortably operate as a left-sided attacker as he showed for previous club RB Leipzig, and with Romelu Lukaku’s arrival at the club, I expect to see Werner shifted out to the left hand side as a wide-attacker, or a second striker alongside Lukaku.
Lukaku is a brilliant player and shouldn’t take long to get up and running in the Premier League, however this will be his first time playing with these set of players in Tuchel’s specific system.
Last season at Inter Milan, Lukaku became a much more complete player.
The striker was at his best when he could find space on the ball, drive forward towards defenders and either use his pace and strength to take them on and shoot, or look to find his partner-in-crime Lautaro Martinez.
This was a much more fluid role than what he was familiar with at Manchester United, where he was typically used as a back-to-goal striker, often isolated from his midfield teammates.
Despite his size, Lukaku is not a hold-up, target-man striker, and is best utilized when he can face his defenders with the ball.
Arsenal must not allow Lukaku to drop in midfield and have time and space to turn and find his plethora of talented team mates or drive towards goal, stretching their center-backs in the process.
If centre-backs Ben White and Pablo Mari can hold up Lukaku and contain him enough to operate as a back-to-goal striker, this will greatly quell his impact on the game and force Chelsea to attack with width, which greatly diminishes their attacking threat.
By holding structure and dominating territory in midfield, Arsenal can stifle Chelsea’s attacking creativity by forcing them wide, and reducing them to crossing in to a central area that should be heavily occupied.
Chelsea have a lot of attacking quality in Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, however they lack a player with the creative flair and dribbling ability to draw defenders out of position.
Chelsea have the players capable to find a key pass in space, but not necessarily to create the space when required.
Counter attack with width
Tuchel is expected to position Jorginho and Kovacic in midfield, with Kante behind them ready to steal the ball back when required.
Chelsea are certainly expected to have the majority of possession in this fixture, as Arsenal are lacking a ball-retaining midfielder who is capable of controlling the tempo for their team.
For this reason, Arsenal’s main source of attacking threat is expected to be created from counter-attacking movements.
Chelsea will deploy a back three with two attacking wing-back’s to provide width and overlapping runs where required.
Chelsea’s center-backs, particularly Antonio Rudiger and Trevoh Chalobah, are inclined to step up in to midfield to help stretch their oppositions defensive cover (as we saw with Chalobah’s wonder-goal from distance against Palace).
With Chelsea holding the majority of the ball, opportunity for Arsenal to attack will arise on the counter-attack where Chelsea’s defense is out of position.
With Kante holding position in midfield and Andreas Christensen the least mobile of Chelsea’s center-back’s, the vacant space for Arsenal to counter will be behind Chelsea’s on-rushing fullbacks.
Attacking these flanks will force Christensen to leave his central position, and further stretching Chelsea’s defensive lines.
Kieran Tierney was by far Arsenal’s best player in their loss to Brentford, and typically is their best player in most games. Tierney provided 11 crosses (7 more than any other player) and 6 key passes against Brentford, only for his teammates to not be in a position to get on the end of the pass, or not taking their chances.
Tierney’s biggest strength is his ability to get forward and help his team attack, and he will be looking expose the attacking flank left vacant by Chelsea’s right wing-back.
With Nicolas Pepe, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe and Tierney likely to start, Arsenal certainly have the pace and creativity to expose Chelsea on the counter attack, whether they can be clinical in taking their chances is the key question.