I was so relieved regarding the tactics I saw at St James’ Park. I needed to see if Mikel Arteta had spent the summer self-reflecting and had the ability to recognise his flaws and adapt what was not working. In his success in making us one of the best defensive teams in the world we had regressed offensively. There was a failure to translate possession into chances. Too many games we were walking away from having not worked the opposition keeper enough.
Yet in management of any industry it is not easy to identify your flaws, it takes skill to do so. At Anfield it appeared nothing had changed and that remained the case against Man City. Yet at half-time against Man City our manager made a double substitution, rare for him. So heading into last weekend the question was whether it would be more of the same on Tyneside or whether the Man City game was a turning point for the Spaniard.
For so long Arsenal have been predictable to play against with many players accused of being micro-managed. Yet recently there have been notable changes.
Ødegaard drops deeper
Too many games in 2025 the Gunners would pass the ball sideways, unable to unlock a defence, so the ball would end up with our captain who would try an audacious chipped pass over a wall. Once upon a time our opponents parked the bus because we forced them to. Now it is because managers tactically believe we will not have the ability to break them down.
Realising he was our sole creative outlet it felt like our captain was overthinking his final ball in the final third. What was noticeable against Olympiacos was how much deeper the Norwegian was dropping to demand possession, not just travelling with the ball but going direct with a range of passing.
It appeared as if the 26-year-old had the creative licence to move around more instead of being in the same position all the time. Whether that was a tactical choice or the skipper stepping out of his comfort zone because he now has competition is unclear.
Alternating wings and tactical tweaks
It was apparent that when Saka came off the bench on Wednesday night he mostly stayed on the left side. We know the 24-year-old can play there as he originally broke through into our first team as a left full-back and England played him there as recently as the last Euros.
The benefit of not being on the right means he would not have to keep cutting back inside. Instead of changing anyone’s position it is more likely that Saka, Martinelli, Trossard and Madueke will be given licence to swap roles throughout the 90 minutes. That would be a change of approach by Mikel Arteta who in the past has appeared to micro-manage talent, especially Martinelli.
Freedom to roam around the pitch makes it harder for defenders to man-mark. One of our most successful periods was based around Henry, Pires and Ljungberg never staying in their starting positions.
Now that he has been able to stay fit, Calafiori is having a proper run in the team as our left-back. That means Lewis Skelly is yet to start in the League this season. Both play the role differently.
Lewis Skelly plays the inverted role, planning when to step into midfield. When going forward, Calafiori stays more outside where he has more space depending on who is in front of him. If, for example, Eze is cutting inside that gives plenty of space to those behind him.
The irony is Skelly is only doing what his manager asked him. Having played in midfield in our academy Skelly was convinced this could be his route to the first team. That was when Man City were making the inverted full-back fashionable.
Having mastered the art of corners, our set-piece coach has clearly been targeting the long throw. That is not exclusive to Arsenal. There has been an increase in the long throw, almost double the amount compared to the majority of Premier League seasons.
There is obviously an emphasis on getting the ball forward quicker and causing chaos. The Gunners have to worry less than others about losing possession in these situations due to having some of the best defenders in one-on-one situations.
Are these tactics here to stay? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Dan Smith
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Not a bad article, although I would point out that Odegaard was playing deeper when he came on as a sub at Newcastle, and Saka only played LB due to the injuries to Kolasinac and Tierney. Before he was playing on the LW.
Nice to see Odegaard finding pockets of space and looking dangerous whenever he was on the ball. Marked difference from when he plays mostly on the right with Saka and Timber/White.
Dropping deeper and playing more centrally adds some unpredictability to our play. Personally I would like to see Eze added and playing like a 10 and Rice as the DM, and Zubimendi coming on later as part of a double pivot with Rice to put the game to bed.
Odegaard was simply below the standards last season, it had nothing to do with tactics in my opinion. He was misplacing passes and losing possession often.
Now the difference this season is that the technical team had already identified that some teams played low block and it was difficult for Arsenal to create a lot of scoring chances. I believe that’s why Madueke who’s more direct and Eze has the ability to unlock were brought in. Now this season the difference is rather the quality more than a change in tactics, with Saka fit, Odegaard and Martineli now firing, a proper no.9 available and a deep squad with different options Noni+Eze Arsenal can unlock any defense.
I think Arteta accidentally noticed this during the match against Newcastle. If Ødegaard starts from the beginning, he usually occupies the right pocket so he can stay close to Saka. But when playing against Newcastle, he was given a free role to replace Zubimendi — and that’s when the movement and ball passing became beautiful. That’s why after the match against Olympiacos, Arteta kept talking about giving Ødegaard a free role.
Arsenal LW still remains puzzle to be solved by Arteta. Matinelli drifts a lot centrally now instead of been productive on the LW, Trossard isn’t efficient enough and EZE is best as a NO8. Our RW is perfect with Saka and Madueke.
Arteta still needs to make a major transfer next summer to solve the problem on the LW of attack.
Playing EZE and Odegard double NO8 for 90 minutes would be too risky for tactical balance because there will be only one DM. It can only be applied 15-20 minutes in second half.
Imo, Arteta has done well tactically he is quite an intelligent coach.
My betting is that, the writer doesn’t have the ability to recognise his own flaws.
Our scoring failure last season. I can’t remember and don’t have time to check but wasn’t Arsenal first or second highest goal scorers. And Arteta couldn’t see his flaws.
What a failed manage he is!