Arsenal are back on the road again today to face Atalanta at the Gewiss stadium in Ciserano Italy tonight, with hopes of starting our UCL campaign off to a good start in this new league format. Even more so considering that a lot of the heavy hitters have already got off to a winning start already. Given how it’s a league phase, now we wouldn’t want to fall too far behind because we’ll risk missing out on the knockout stages. The win against spurs was a really sweet one, however we cannot sit and admire our work. With the trip to Atalanta representing another difficult fixture that we’ll have to play in the span of just seven days!
This will be a very different game to the one against Spurs given we’ll most likely dominate the ball throughout the game, even with this though we should be weary of their aggressive man to man press, as seen in their recent game against Real Madrid in the super cup. They showed no respect to the level of opposition in how they pressed and hassled the Madrid backline This intense pressing style enables them to create chances from high turnovers which is taken advantage of by their direct wingers, just look at Ademola Lookman’s hattrick v Leverkusen in the Europa league final last season along with many other instances in the Serie A.
This aggressive pressing style has it’s own drawbacks as well which I think we should exploit to absolutely tear them up tonight. Implementing this style means they’re going to commit a lot of bodies forward when we are in the possession of the ball in our own half, therefore opening spaces between their midfield and defence, or in behind their defence all together (if they are brave enough to go with a high line). We should deliberately hold unto the ball in our own half Brighton-esquely allowing them to commit a lot of bodies forward before playing our way out to exploit those spaces.
Furthermore they are not a great team when defending set pieces and given our strength in this department, it could be night-night in Bergamo.
All things said however we shouldn’t be too cocky especially in possession given their aforementioned pressing style, and also because of the fact that they have players who can hurt you on the break. In addition it’ll also be a European game away from home under the lights, our opponents will be pumped to put in a display in front of their home fans therefore we should be well prepared for this game.
What are your predicted score for the game today gooners?!
KENNETH BENJAMIN.
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the way they played ‘POOL and Madrid tells how dangerous this Atalanta side are
An Arsenal win of 2- 0 would just make my evening and lull me to a good night’s sleep
a win to arsenal 1-0 making consideration of man city game
They’re clearly a threat although we shouldn’t forget that they finished fourth in Serie A last season (a huge 25 points behind Inter, who played well against City yesterday)