Online Reporter
ARSENAL kicked off the defence of their Premier League title with a convincing 3-0 win over Coventry on Friday night.
While the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool all struggled in their opening games, there was no such trouble for the Gunners.
Goals from Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard swept Frank Lampard’s newly-promoted side away.
However, set-piece mastermind Nicolas Jover also delivered once again – by unveiling a brand new ‘ghost’ corner routine that completely baffled the visitors.
SunSport’s tactical expert Dean Scoggins broke down the victory for Mikel Arteta’s side in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed.
First things first, did you spot the little ghost trick?
Look at Ben White’s run on the blind side of the goalkeeper where nobody’s going to pick him up because Coventry are marking zonally – and so he’s not been seen. Arsenal take a sneaky short corner, after the one-two he receives the ball from Bukayo Saka and he gets on the ball inside the area.
Riccardo Calafiori does a job as the decoy man as Arsenal crash the box and then White passes to Tzolis.
Arsenal taking even their set-piece tactics to another level.
We’ve got to acknowledge that with the refereeing this year and all the talk of the cut down in grappling, Arsenal need to find another way to be a threat at set pieces and on matchday one, boy did they do it.
And while it was the old guard on the scoresheet, it was new boy Christos Tzolis who stole the show.
In a lesson in Greek philosophy, the wide man proved he understands exactly what Mikel Arteta wants from him, disrupting Coventry’s defence by running across the line into the areas his manager wants him – not just standing there and making himself easy to mark.
That also opened space for Riccardo Calafiori down the left for Arsenal.
At other times, he unselfishly kept the width and that led to the Saka goal, as he stayed out of the congestion centrally to put the low ball across.
It was a really impressive start from Tzolis, knowing when to come in and when to go out – the Tzolis Hokey-Cokey. He may not be an elite winger like Vinicius but he is showing an elite tactical brain straight away.
Finally, Arsenal also debuted a daring new-look 3-1-6 formation in possession, using Myles Lewis-Skelly to dominate central areas – and the gaffer may have taken inspiration from Paris Saint-Germain.
The elite young midfielder rotated effortlessly with Declan Rice in the middle of the three and the solo one in midfield to enable Arsenal to overload the Coventry defence with six attacking players. There were times last year when Arsenal got a bit stodgy and didn’t take enough risks but with Lewis-Skelly in the Marco Verratti role, it would be ridiculous to sell him.
The 3-1-6 gives six men in attack with the full-backs released due to the midfielder dropping in.
They created a 4v4, a 3 or 4v4 and an overload on the two pressers. That shape gives them more players in the right positions. Ben White even hit long cross-field passes because of the overload which means even if they did lose the ball, they can counter-press 2v1. – Sun
