Spurs Should Have Won The NLD


Spurs Should Have Won The NLD

Spurs-should-have-won-the-NLD
Spurs should have won the North London Derby

It was an entertaining game that should send Spurs fans into the international break a lot happier than they were last week when some foolish fans were even calling for Mauricio Pochettino to go. Utterly incredible considering we have only just reached a Champions League final for the first time.

The North London derby was the big game of the weekend in the Premier League with Spurs travelling the short distance to the Emirates.

The match finished 2-2 thanks to goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang for Arsenal and Christian Eriksen and a Harry Kane penalty for Spurs.

Unai Emery lined Arsenal up in a 4-3-3 formation while Mauricio Pochettino lined Tottenham Hotspur up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Arsenal had the majority of possession with 56%.

When building up from deep they attacked the left-wing area when Davinson Sanchez was playing in a totally unaccustomed position at right-back, not something anyone had predicted prior to the team announcements.

When attacking they kept switching between a 2-4-1-3 and a 2-5-3 while Spurs countered with
4-2-3-1 but mainly a 4-4-2 with Son and Kane up top.

We didn't use the high-press but generally used a mid-block (all players in the middle third of the field) instead. We saw this last week where we defend in a 4-4-2 but don't necessarily press the ball.

Arsenal-vs-Spurs-analysis
Arsenal vs Spurs analysis Fig1
In Fig1 above, the ball carrier is out of the picture but you can see the Spurs formation with the defending line, the midfield four in line and the pair in attack.

Emery looked to use left-back Sead Kolašinac as an attacking outlet and when he attacked Mattéo Guendouzi dropped into his role.

Pochettino kept full-backs Sanchez and Rose deep because of the threat of Aubameyang on Arsenal's left flank and Nicolas Pépé on the right.

On our right, Erik Lamela had to decide whether to press an advancing Guendouzi cutting into midfield from left-back or not. If he did that freed up an easy ball out wide to Kolašinac and giving Arsenal a 2v1 on Sanchez, forcing Moussa Sissoko to come across.

Alternatively, he didn't press put covered Kolašinac in which case Guendouzi could pick a pass and he was playing some searching balls through our midfield.

If Aubameyang drifted infoield then Sanchez would follow him, leading the commentator's to remark that Sanchez was moving more centrally because he was a centre-back and not used to the right-back role. 

That wasn't strictly true though as had Sanchez stayed wide Arsenal would have an extra striker for the central players to deal with. We don't want teams to be able to come through our centre so Sanchez dropping more central at times was tactical.

That, of course, left room wide for Kolašinac and Guendouzi to exploit. 

Arsenal-vs-Spurs-Analysis
Arsenal vs Spurs analysis Fig 2

In Fig 2 above, you see the situation for Arsenal's first goal. Arsenal have an overload of players in the box. Jan Vertonghen has two he has to keep an eye on with.

Kolašinac circled and arrowed is making a run which means Sanchez can't close down Pépé with the ball. Sissoko is out of play behind the ball.

Arsenal wanted to play between the defensive and midfield line and achieved this thanks to Pépé and Aubameyang pushing on to the shoulders of the defenders. Their pace meant the defence couldn't psh out and this freed Lacazette to drop and collect the ball in space.

On the right, Pépé would drift inside and draw Rose with him allowing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to overlap from right-back. Rose would then have to rush out to cover him freeing up Pépé in a similar position to Kevin de Bruyne for Manchester \City when he crossed to the back post for Raheem Sterling to score against us.

Pépé, with 8, had the most number of crosses in the game for Arsenal.

With Lucas Torreira pushing up to try and make use of the space between the lines too, Granit Xhaka was often left as the sole defensive midfielder and Spurs exploited this with quick counter-attacks.

Kane and Son would be joined by Eriksen and Lamela giving Spurs the numerical advantage with Arsenal's full-backs up high. It as a bit of a risk and reward policy that worked very well in the first half and led to Spurs first goal.

If you place a player under pressure he has a decision to make and the hope is he makes the wrong one if he is an opposition player. Centre-back Socrates Papastathopoulos certainly did make the wrong decision is going to challenge for an aerial ball he was never going to win and that a teammate was already going to challenge for.

Arsenal-vs-Spurs-analysis
Arsenal vs Spurs analysis Fig 3

The two players circled and in red beams are Torreira and Guendouzi, both caught upfield. Kane is about to leap centrally with Xhaka and you can see Sokratis running in behind to also challenge. Son picks up the ball beyond them, Luis steps out and Son goes past him to take him out the game also.

Arsenal-vs-Spurs-analysis
Arsenal vs Spurs analysis Fig 4

Eriksen and Lamela charge forward and Spurs have a numbers overload that results in Eriksen tapped in after Son plays Lamela in who shoots early.

Ceballos came on for Torriera in the second half to give Arsenal more control of the ball and enable them to build from the back better as the Spaniard is better on the ball than Torreira, both building from the back or higher up the field.

They looked to crush number centrally drawing in the full-backs to allow their own full-backs to overlap down each side and get in crosses.

When Tottenham had the ball Rose and Sanchez pushed wide but didn't venture too far upfield with the pace threat from the Arsenal front players. The Arsenal front three pressed, while Guendouzi and Torreira pressed the fullbacks. 

Eriksen and Lamela drifted centrally allowing Spurs to play the long ball to Kane and with greater numbers centrally win the knockdown and build from there.

With Son and Lamela drifting inside we often had the numerical advantage centrally and were able to run directly at the Arsenal backline and should have made more of our chances. The final ball often lacked the composure.

While we got a couple of goals in the first half we squandered chances to put the game to bed.

In that first-half we had 49% of the ball, yet in the second half with Arsenal having more control with Ceballos on, we only had 41% of the ball and yet we had 18 dangerous attacks in the second period as opposed to 11 in the first.

Arsenal had 3 shots on goal in the first-half and 5 on goal in the second, a total of 8. Spurs had 7 shots on goals in the first period and 2 in the second period, a total of 9.

Quite frankly, without two errors at the end of the half Spurs should have won the game. Rose tried a silly nutmeg when he simply should have cleared the ball and Sanchez hack out of defence went straight to an Arsenal man when with a touch more composure it should have been cleared out of play and allowed the side to regroup.

To my mind, those two errors cost Spurs all three points.