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Arsenal recorded a 14th FA Cup win yesterday evening, beating Chelsea 2-1 thanks to a brace from captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Following the game, Arteta stated that after Chelsea’s goal “we played probably the best 30 minutes since I arrived.” Chelsea made a blistering start to the game but after Kovacic’s yellow card on 12 minutes, Arsenal grew into the game and executed Arteta’s game plan perfectly for the rest of the half.

Arsenal’s plan early on was to draw Chelsea onto them, looking to exploit the space in behind. Maitland-Niles was instructed to push up the field on the left and hold the width, as reiterated several times by Arteta who would periodically shout “Ainsley, wide.” Lacazette was told to drop off and offer a central option to help link the play, whilst Aubameyang would make runs in behind, coming in from the left flank into a more central position. This helped Arsenal to exploit Chelsea’s right hand side with Reece James and César Azpilicueta.

Despite Chelsea’s fast start, Arsenal sought to find runners in behind from the off with Maitland-Niles finding space in the channel following Tierney’s long ball. From there Maitland-Niles was able to cross for Aubameyang who headed wide. This set the tone for much of Arsenal’s attacking play in the first half.

With Arsenal playing out the back, Chelsea looked to press high and force a mistake. However, with this, they pushed their defence up onto the halfway line in an attempt to make themselves more compact and harder to play through. In this instance, Arsenal looked to play out of the back with Pepe dropping deep to receive the ball. In the image below we can see that Chelsea have committed several players forward, including Rudiger.

As the play continues, Arsenal hold onto the ball well and look to build whilst Chelsea have numbers committed up field. Pepe gets on the ball and we can see that Chelsea are playing a very high line. Since Rudiger is still tracking back following the press, the Chelsea defence is no longer in shape, leaving a gap for Pepe to find Maitland-Niles in behind. This was a deliberate strategy from Chelsea as Lampard was shouting “half way” when the ball was deep in Arsenal’s half.

This theme continued with Arsenal drawing Chelsea on by playing it out the back, wearing Chelsea down before pushing up. The player who brought the ball up on the left side, whether it was Tierney or David Luiz, would constantly look for the ball in behind from deep as Chelsea began to drop off. As a result Chelsea weren’t set defensively and their high line left Aubameyang space to run in behind.

The long ball from deep eventually resulted in Arsenal’s first goal. Chelsea pressed high as Arsenal cycled the ball round to Tierney. The left back opened up his body and played a long ball over the top of the Chelsea defence to set Aubameyang away 1 on 1. Azpilicueta was scrambling to get back and brought Aubamyang down for the penalty before Aubameyang emphatically put the ball it the net to make it 1-1.

Just a minute before the goal we saw Arsenal build from the back and not play the long ball. Arsenal had possession along their back line, cycling the ball around looking to draw Chelsea in. Holding clipped a ball into the right channel for Lacazette, before working the ball to Ceballos on the other side of the pitch. Ceballos then fizzed a ball into the front line where Arsenal used quick one touch combination play and a dummy from Lacazette to give space for Pepe to run in and curl the ball into the top corner from the edge of the box. It was a superb 14 pass move, similar to the build-up for Aubameyang’s first goal in the semi-final. However, Maitland-Niles was just offside in the build up to Pepe’s shot. This build up showed the variation to Arsenal’s attacking play and a reason why Chelsea were so keep to press Arsenal high in order to prevent this kind of situation.

Arsenal continued the tactic of drawing Chelsea in and looking for the long ball as Chelsea struggled to cope with it for much of the first half. Here Holding recovered the ball on the half way line with Pulisic pressing from behind. The ball goes back to Emi Martinez and Arsenal cycle the ball at the back, working it to Tierney as Chelsea press. Tierney quickly looks for the ball over the top for Aubameyang who would have been in 1 on 1 had it been a slightly better ball.

As the half went on we began to see more of Arsenal’s work off the ball under Arteta. With the ball being cleared following the cross, Kovacic looked to drive Chelsea forward but Bellerín and Ceballos were quickly on hand to slow him down and force him to turn.

He does well to find Pulisic but Arsenal have slowed the attack down enough to get men behind the ball. Giroud is the only player ahead of Pulsiic and he’s surrounded by 5 Arsenal players making it a lot easier for Arsenal to defend and the attack eventually fizzled out.

Once Chelsea realised Arsenal were looking to get Aubameyang in behind constantly, they dropped off, Arsenal then pushed up the pitch, suffocating Chelsea’s players as they looked to get on the ball centrally, forcing turnovers and disrupting their momentum. Again Arsenal are quick to get men around the ball in central areas, forcing Chelsea into mistakes. With Arsenal’s defence dropping off well when needed, Chelsea weren’t able to have success going long in the same way Arsenal did.

With Chelsea dealing with the balls in behind better, Arsenal switched their focus to the other side of the pitch. As we saw for Aubameyang’s opener against Manchester City, Bellerín and Pepe linked up down the right before Pepe looked to cross the ball towards the back post. Arsenal worked this situation a few times, leading to dangerous situations and corners, showing variety to their attacks.

Despite controversial refereeing throughout the game against both sides, Arsenal were the better team and Arteta’s tactics worked brilliantly. It’s easy to see why he felt that 30 minute spell at the end of the first half was the best since he arrived as manager as his team executed his game plan and style both on and off the ball. Inviting the press and looking for the long ball to Aubameyang caused Chelsea massive issues and eventually led to Arsenal’s first goal. Whilst Arsenal also mixed it up by attacking centrally when the space was there as well as looking to Pepe’s crosses to the back post from the right side. Arsenal’s pressing and intensity to stop Chelsea counter attacks and suffocate their central players helped to stifle them for extended periods and limited the number of chances they could create. It was a truly excellent half an hour in a massive game for Arsenal, sealing them their 14th FA Cup, European football next season and Mikel Arteta’s first trophy for the club as manager.

(Images: BT Sport)

Adam Perry - 02/08/2020