Arsenal 6-0 Sevilla : Analysis and Report
The New look Arsenal
Arsenal emphatically dispatched Sevilla in their final pre season game before the season begins. Gabriel Jesus netted a hat-rick on his Emirates debut, with Bukayo Saka getting a brace and Eddie Nketiah scoring late on. The gunners have continued their fantastic form in pre season making it 6 wins from 6. Mikel Arteta’s side have impressed massively during this pre-season and have embedded two fantastic signings in to the team of Zinchenko and Jesus.
The Press
Arsenal continued their trend of starting games extremely quick by pressing really high up the pitch. Arteta has evolved the press to be more aggressive by pushing the full backs up to join the press. Arteta has set Arsenal up to press in a 4-4-1-1 pressing shape. The furthest forward player will press the opposition CB and the second forward player pressing the 6 of the opposition. The 2 front players rotate the press and then this allows players like Saka to press the opposition full backs. Ben white ( playing as the inverted RB in this game ) then follows Saka and pushes up to press. William Saliba also joined the press if the ball bypassed the early press. This new high pressing style of Arsenal has resulted in many turnovers, creating more goalscoring chances. This was evident on the 4th goal that Arsenal scored.
The Shape
Arsenal set up with an in possession shape of 2-3-5 in attack. Saliba and Gabriel stayed in the defence to be sweepers for any counters. The full backs were inverted and played alongside Partey in the heart of midfield, with Zinchenko covering the left and White on the right. Arsenal then played a 5 in attack when in possession. Martinelli and Saka stayed wide and high on their wings, with Odegaard and Xhaka playing as two advanced 8’s in the pockets with Gabriel Jesus up top. Arsenal rotated positions really well in this game especially the front three. Zinchenko would sometimes drop into the 6 role of Partey and Jesus would drop deep and cover on the wings. The 2-3-5 shape is shown below:
In defence Arsenal pushed back into a mid block of 4-4-2. Odegaard and Jesus stayed up, with Saka, Martinelli, Partey and Xhaka making a midfield bank of 4. The 4 at the back were Saliba, Gabriel, White and Zinchenko. This mid block was extremely successful at not allowing Sevilla to play through the line and break Arsenal down.
A fantastic performance from Arsenal in the end, making us fans extremely excited for the new season ahead. Players to watch out for in this Arsenal team this season is Jesus, Zinchenko and Martinelli. Ramsdale has also gained his confidence back and is pinging accurate passes to Martinelli on the break. Mikel Arteta has got Arsenal on the right track and the Project will explode soon.