Arteta and Bender’s positioning styles key as plethora of attacking options unfold at the Emirates

At some point of time the talk had to shift in Aaron Ramsey’s direction, and the Welshman’s immense confidence at the moment is allowing him to raise the bar with every game. Ramsey presence alongside Arteta here gives the midfield battle a completely different dynamic in comparison to Dortmund’s midfield. Ramsey’s game against Norwich showed his growing tendency of running with the ball and from the board below his failed passes can be seen as short midfield ones rather than long balls. But his counterpart in yellow Nuri Sahin is more of an Arteta like player but playing alongside a deep lying tackler Sven Bender. Sahin’s distribution has been his stronghold’s and now due to Reus’s drifts to the centre, Sahin has started to be involved in more link up play from the left.

But actually it is Sven bender who turns the equation in Dortmund’s favor here. The German international has been seen to operate from extremely deep positions and at times is almost a 3rd Centre back for Klopp. Though this has led to the 2 CB’s Hummels and Subotic spread out and then get caught off the ball, Bender has been able to put in tackles in much deeper positions too. This will be particularly important against the likes of Ozil and Rosicky, who will start the match alongside Giroud for Arsenal. Giroud has been seen being used as the fulcrum on the offside line by Wenger for his midfielders to run past, so Bender will be required to push quite deep into the defence to cope up with such situations. It is in the aftermath of such a situation that the energetic pressing by Ramsey and Wilshere could affect the game, as Dortmund’s midfield will tend to get stretched due to the huge gap being created by Bender.

Though Hummels and Subotic were at one time one of the best defensive pairing, regular individual errors by either of the pair have often led to silly goals being conceded. In this regard Klopp’s men are quite similar to Arsenal’s entire defence, which though now is looking good, could be blown wide open at any point of time.

The game can be expected to be a very cagey affair in the final third for both sides. There is no lack of talent in the attacking midfield area of both setups, and it is down to how Arteta is able to deal with the deep duo of Reus and Lewandowski while Bender sits deeper to track down Ozil’s direct runs into the box.

Pie’s call: Arsenal 2-1 Dortmund