Arsenal 1-1 Manchester Utd : Contrasting styles of attack clash at the Emirates; Ramsey-Jones duel decides game

Premier League Champions Manchester United are given a guard of honour by Arsenal during at Emirates Stadium on April 28, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

There are very few ex-Arsenal players who haven’t won a title in their first season away from the club. But very few fans had expected at the start of the season that Robin van Persie would returned to the Emirates in April with a Premier League winners’ medal. With all the build-up being spent on RVP videos and stats under Sir Alex Ferguson, the much talked about Guard of Honour by the Gunners turned out to be a tame three second affair.

A game that clearly showed Arsenal’s hunger to bag a top 4 spot and Manchester United’s slight negligence to win every ball in the first half, ended in an exciting 1-1 draw. After Theo Walcott squeezed one through in the second minute, van Persie – it had to be him – slotted home a penalty to draw the visitors level.

Arsenal had been dependent on van Persie’s goals last season. But this season they have top scorers in Santi Cazorla and Walcott with Lukas Podolski just behind. These stats were well reflected in the both teams’ approach to the game. As Wenger’s attack was based much more on pace and directness, rather than Fergie’s tactic to have his front two link-up and RvP draw out a defender with his brilliant movement.

The team sheets did not throw up any surprises by Wenger as he replaced the suspended Olivier Giroud with Podolski. Elsewhere Kieran Gibbs came in for Nacho Monreal. Fergie raised a few eyebrows by starting a very strong team; all 3 of Jonny Evans, Michael Carrick and Phil Jones, who were doubtful before the same, started. Rio Ferdinand came in at the back and Nani started on the left. On paper, Arsenal shaped up in a 4-2-3-1 and United in a 4-4-1-1.

Arsenal attack better without a striker, Jones is pushed deep by Ramsey

The start to the game could not have been more enterprising as Arsenal got out of the box immediately with Walcott scoring in the 2^nd minute, albeit with a hint of offside. It was the build up to the goal that was interesting. Tomas Rosisky and Cazorla were started on the left and central areas of the attacking trio and interchanged from the start. That caused confusion in the United backline that lead to mistakes from Evra and Jones.

This uncharacteristic slow reaction by Jones turned out to be crucial for United over the first 30 minutes of the game. Fergie had rightly identified the need for Jones to play in the centre due to the re-emergence of Aaron Ramsey. But what he had not counted upon was the pace and authority with all four of Arsenal’s midfielders would attack through the centre.

Ramsey is turning into the perfect box-to-box player in midfield, and his recent performances have left all his critics reeling. With his willing runs from the midfield onto Jones, Rosisky and Cazorla got all the space to operate in front of Carrick and Jones. Podolski unlike Giroud moved deep into midfield to allow Ramsey and Rosisky to go in through. This has been the trend whenever Wenger has played a supposed false No. 9 like Podolski or Gervinho. Every other midfielder apart from Mikel Arteta has been given a role to occupy that false 9 position at some point of the game.

Another change in the Arsenal’s game was the unusual number of shots that the midfielders were taking on goal. Usually it is almost a lifetime before the likes of Cazorla or Rosisky take a punt at goal. This was mainly due Carrick’s deep positioning to accommodate Jones’s falling back. Another reason for this might be Wenger wanting to test De Gea from long range, as the Spaniard has a reputation of pushing out such shots towards the centre, which the onrushing Walcott could have taken advantage of.

Patrice Evra on the ball during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester United at Emirates Stadium on April 28, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

Arsenal stats from whoscored.com

• Total Shots: 19
• On Target: 6
• Off Target: 6
• Hit Woodwork: 0
• Blocked: 7

United’s stats from whoscored.com

• Total Shots: 12

• On Target: 4

• Off Target: 5

• Hit Woodwork: 0

• Blocked: 3

Rooney’s high No.10 role creates gaps, United’s wingers prosper as Wenger’s vanish

Manchester United started the game with Wayne Rooney on a very high up No.10 role. Though this kept Arteta away from attacks, it also restricted United’s attacks to counter-attacks only due to Rooney’s absence from midfield. So with Jones and Carrick struggling from deep, there was a huge gap between Rooney and that zone.

As usual, United started with two out and out wingers against the Gunners and both Nani and Valencia who initiated all the attacks. Though Arsenal pressed in quite brilliantly in midfield, there was a lot of space left on the right wing due to Walcott’s inward runs. This left Sagna to cover huge spaces and left him in a tentative condition to cross or defend. Nani and van Persie took advantage of this and played much higher up on this wing.

The United goal came from a misplaced pass by Sagna, the recovery for which saw the Frenchman concede a penalty. Up to this point United’s attacks were based only on quick counters. Similar to Ramsey in Arsenal, Jones broke ahead with pace for United; and with Arteta covering Rooney, Jones bundled through in free space. He got to the end of two crosses in the game and should have scored at least once.

As United were prospering on the wings, Arsenal showed an overall negligence of the wings; this affected them defensively and in attack. Walcott kept popping up in the box from the right and Cazorla kept drifting in from the left. This often left the wings empty with no option for Ramsey and Rosisky, who had to get more central.

Defensively this tactic has not affected Wenger’s team, but with the likes of Evra and Rafael bounding forward on the wings, Arsenal’s flanks were overloaded. The duo of Gibbs and Sagna were sticking to the wingers Valencia and Nani, and so United’s fullback started to drift in rather than overlap on the wings. This often saw Rafael or Evra appearing on the edge of the box in shooting range. An overload on Arteta was again visible due to the negligence shown by Cazorla and Walcott.

Fergie rectifies midfield, Arsenal finally finds a stable centre back duo

The second half did not see any personnel change immediately but Fergie moved to a 3 man midfield by pulling back Rooney. Now Jones had much more space by combining with Rooney and United started to dominate down the right. This in turn pulled Arteta out to cover for Gibbs on the right, and so RvP saw a dangerous amount of free space materialize through the centre.

Robin van Persie of Manchester United scores their first goal from the penalty spot during the Barclays Premier League match against Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on April 28, 2013 in London, England. (Getty Images)

This is where Mertersacker and Koscielny came in so importantly. The duo had a brilliant game as they divided responsibilities of covering the Dutchman. Koscielny took up the role to cover the passes played in to him, and Frenchman aced this job. He won every header and tackle ahead of the Dutchman and rarely was RVP allowed to take a touch or turn.

Mertersacker on the other hand would have been the one Fergie would have picked out as the slower and weaker link. But the German gains in intelligence what he loses in pace. His positioning in front of RvP was always brilliant and he came in only when the Dutch striker was taking up positions at the far post for across balls played in by Rooney.

Though the duo tackled the RvP situation well, they were often caught out by diagonal balls across the face of the goal. United would have definitely got a goal or two more as a result of these balls only if Rooney would have shown more willingness to attack.

Ramsey had an impressive outing and all the claims of having lost his youthful talent to that injury have now vanished. He was again sacrificed to bring on pace on the wings in the form of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Jack Wilshere’s introduction made Fergie bring in another midfielder who could distribute from deep better than Jones as Anderson came on for Rafael with Jones going to right-back.

The tie was pretty much in the bag till now as both teams cancelled out each other. Though Arsenal looked much likelier to score in the final moments, United’s defence continued the great job it has done since the turn of the year.

The essence of the game for all Arsenal fans was to see how Arsenal have manifested since RvP left, and all signs from this game would be encouraging even though they struggled earlier in the season. Rarely has Wenger’s team seen four midfielders run at the oppositions defence rather than an out-and-out striker terrorising the defence.

Men of the match: Lauriant Koscienly/Aaron Ramsey

Flop of the match: Bacary Sagna