Arteta Found The Flaw In Alonso's System

Arteta's Arsenal outsmarted Alonso's Chelsea with tactical overloads and transitions, exploiting wide and central weaknesses.

Key Takeaways

Arteta’s tactical flexibility and use of overloads outmaneuvered Alonso’s defensive structure.
Wide overloads, especially on Arsenal’s right, were crucial in breaking down Chelsea’s compact defense.
Chelsea’s personnel and hybrid system created vulnerabilities in wide defensive coverage.
Fluid positional play in possession did not fully compensate for defensive gaps.
Arsenal’s controlled aggression and transition play were decisive in securing victory.

What the video covers

Arteta's game plan combined ruthless transitional attacks with controlled buildup to pull Chelsea apart.
Arsenal used a back three in buildup with Rice dropping deep to create penetrating passes.
Chelsea initially defended with a mid to low block, protecting the center with a compact back five.
Arsenal exploited wide overloads, especially down the right flank, involving Hverz in unusual wide positions.
Switching to a back two in buildup increased Arsenal’s offensive numbers and created more overloads.
Chelsea adapted by shifting to a 5-4-1 defensive shape but struggled due to personnel limitations.
Chelsea’s hybrid 3-4-2-1 in possession involved fluid positioning, creating a midfield three to counter Arsenal’s double pivot.
Chelsea’s narrow wingers and inverted fullbacks aimed to control space but left gaps in half-spaces exploited by Arsenal.
Calhifury’s inverting movement created isolation for Chelsea’s wide defenders, opening spaces for Arsenal attacks.
Despite Arsenal’s offensive pressure, their advanced buildup left them vulnerable to quick transitions.

Chapters

How did Arteta’s Arsenal exploit Chelsea’s defensive setup?

Arteta’s Arsenal used wide overloads, particularly on the right flank, and combined them with central overloads to pull Chelsea’s compact defense apart. They also switched between back three and back two in buildup to increase offensive numbers and create space.

What was unique about Hverz’s positioning in Arsenal’s attack?

Unlike a typical false nine who drops deep centrally, Hverz frequently joined Arsenal’s right-sided overloads, helping to create numerical superiority and exploit space down that flank.

Why was Chelsea’s 5-4-1 defensive shape not fully effective?

Chelsea’s 5-4-1 shape was limited by personnel, especially with players like Palmer and Rogers who struggled to defend wide areas naturally, leading to vulnerabilities that Arsenal exploited with crosses and wide attacks.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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Take a look at this. Do you see it? It was moments like this that led to Arteta's Arsenal edging out Alonso's hybrid tactical approach because Arteta's game plan did two things at the same time. It attacked Chelsea ruthlessly in transition, but also

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looked to pull them apart even when they were in settled attack. So, let's take a look at Arteta and Alonso's tactics.

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From goal kicks, Arsenal were happy to go more direct towards Hverz when Chelsea were looking to press high up the pitch. But taking the lead so early may have led Chelsea to setting off in more of a mid to low block. Arsenal

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behind early played with controlled aggression, and deep in their own third, it was often a back three in the buildup with Rice most commonly dropping in to give them that penetrating passer in the first line.

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And that three was particularly useful on occasions where Palmer or Rogers pushed up alongside Jao Pedro, which would have been a two versus two had it not been for the third man. So, as they were usually outnumbered in this first

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phase, that high Chelsea mid block quickly retreated into more of a low block for large portions of the game.

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And this is where Arteta's tactical approach came to the fore, as they often used both central and wide overloads to cause the same problems. 'Cause here's the thing, initially Chelsea had a clear game plan when defending, which was

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protect the center. Arsenal maintained ultimate width with a man always on each touchline, but this part didn't bother Chelsea too much because of their back five allowing them to stretch while still having three center backs central, which is plenty. But Palmer and Rogers

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would tug right in almost alongside Jao Pedro so that the central five was hypothetically compact.

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Because of course, in theory, if they'd kept their wingers wider, Arsenal three could have overloaded them here. But by using their wingers so narrowly, the hope was to make accessing either of these central pivots extremely difficult so that James and Lavia could focus on

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shielding the backline. But what do you see here, especially compared to Chelsea? Arsenal were happy to attack wide, down the right flank in particular. And this is where the overloads began because down the left the fullback-winger relationship

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often looked like this with Solace wide and Calhifury inverting, which we will come back to. Down the right, White often pushed high up alongside Saka, particularly if Rice was covering behind him. But that was only the beginning because Odegaard and Rice would come

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across, but the biggest giveaway of the wide overloads may be Hverz. Usually when you have a striker in the false nine mold, the biggest movements will be here, dropping deep for central overloads, but here's his heat map.

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What's the first thing that pops out? He was joining in on these right-hand side overloads. And they only got worse as Arsenal searched for goals as they switched to a back two rather than a back three in the buildup, often to give

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them more offensive numbers to cause these wide overloads. And naturally, this gave them the option to directly play down the right and attack down the right with these overloads if Chelsea were not able to react on time. And even Hverz's magic

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from the equalizer stems from him being able to pick up space down that right-hand side [music] where we can see Arsenal had five men, although the finish is just perfectly placed.

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Naturally, Chelsea adapted as the game wore on, shifting instead to a 5-4-1. But this was not the cure-all, mainly due to personnel reasons. In our first analysis of Alonso's Chelsea against Fulham, we talked about the disadvantages of having

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players like Palmer and Rogers being expected to attack centrally but then defend wide as the workload and their natural attacking instincts [music] would leave them vulnerable, which Fulham made them pay for.

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Well, even when Rogers was wide in this match and it looked like Chelsea were doing a better job of covering that right flank, Arsenal could still have success running off of him and trying to get into crossing positions

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just because defending is not his natural instinct. It was interesting though because usually when we think of wide overloads, it's either because the side in possession wants to directly attack down that flank or to drive the opponents across and then attack the

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opposite flank. But in this match, that lopsided attack actually opened up the center for Arsenal. Namely because Chelsea only had a double pivot. So when we saw those wide overloads down the right or even down the left on occasion,

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a Chelsea pivot was often being dragged across to try and prevent Arsenal from completely running riot down the flanks.

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And while it would help to cope with the wide overload, it left the remaining pivot with acres to defend if the center backs were not pushing up to assist. And for Odegaard's winner, we even see shades of this.

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Lastly, before we move on to Chelsea in possession, once the Blues had shifted to this 5-4-1 in defense and flattened their defensive structure, Arsenal had more success building directly through the center because of that overload.

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Rice Oli moving deep would often trigger Lavia or more rarely James to press, again leading to a similar dynamic where the remaining pivot was isolated with the remaining two midfielders and Calhifury pushing high to get into positions

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to receive between the lines. And we do have to give special mention to Calhifury, as if he had stayed wide it would have been a pretty straightforward defensive shape for Chelsea. But because the Italian was inverting high, deep, and all over the

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place when Netto followed him, Achinong was isolated wide and in effect Chelsea were forced to defend in a back four with a massive gap appearing in this half space that the Gunners could look to attack time after time.

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Now the obvious disadvantage for Arsenal of shifting to this back two in the buildup and pushing so many bodies high is they left huge spaces for the transition and they did look vulnerable today with Rogers, Palmer, and Netto

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looking to attack the flanks. Just before moving on to Chelsea, if you want to start analyzing matches the way we have today, Football Fundamentals is my free 30-day program that teaches you the basics of tactical analysis from the

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ground up. And you can sign up for it through the link in the description.

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Now, this is where Alonso's hybrid approach comes into focus because on paper, Chelsea lined up in a 3-4-2-1 and in possession almost no one stayed in the positions that the team sheet had them in because Alonso had clear goals in

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possession. Like Arsenal, they were willing to go long from their goalkeeper with Palmer and Rogers ready to fight for the second balls. But in open play, the chaos began. Alonso almost never had Palmer wide as the Englishman was the

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creator chief and naturally drifted inside early. Not only that, the right center back more often than not marched forward into the half space to allow Netto to stay wide, potentially looking to force Calhury to defend much more narrowly. This could allow Netto to

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receive the ball in space with a running start against the fullback to get into crossing or shooting positions. But it also meant for the first time rather than just a double pivot, Chelsea could now have a midfield three of their own

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with Palmer having come narrow and Rogers sometimes here as a second 10. So it could technically be a four against Arsenal's double pivot as they defended in the 4-4-2.

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But to prevent this overload here, they tended to be quite conservative with Hverz and Odegaard when defending. And here we saw James drop into the creative space to dictate the play in front of the Arsenal block. Although it was

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difficult to play into players between the lines as Arsenal was so compact and in fact it led to Chelsea's twin [music] tens having to find space outside of this block. For Rogers, it was drifting wide while Hatau instead inverted. And

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when the Blues were able...

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especially when James was deeper, potentially leaving Lavia isolated. Arsenal though always paid particular attention to Palmer when he was drifting deep and they tried to keep a man on him forcing him to drop so deep it would be

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incredibly difficult for him to create from these set positions. The first defeat of Alonzo's Premier League reign.

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But I'm curious what you made of this match. What stuck out to me was just how vulnerable both these teams looked in those transitional phases as they committed so many midfielders high. But what did you make of the match? Drop it

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down below. And if you enjoyed this specific video, then this video will make your day where we deeply examine the tactical evolution since Arteta has come into Arsenal. And trust me, the evolution has been massive. Click on screen now to watch that. But don't

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forget to sign up for football fundamentals through the link down below.

Topics:ArtetaAlonsoArsenal tacticsChelsea tacticsfootball analysiswide overloadsmidblock defensetransition playfalse ninepositional play

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