Juan Mata – Rafael da Silva combination key for Manchester United against Arsenal

Valencia kept the likes of Cazorla in check, and also looked into Wilshere’s wanderings upfront

United’s disastrous season has all but hidden Arsenal’s horrible performance at Anfield. If United’s 37 million man was slightly slow in his defencive tracking, then Wenger’s 46 million man was calamitous to say the least. There has been a massive amount of criticism thrown towards the German playmaker and promptly many have questioned his desire and motivation to continue playing in North London.

But rather than hitting out at Ozil, there needs to be major acclaim directed towards Liverpool’s pressing higher up the field. Ozil has often been seen dropping into deeper areas in midfield so as to avoid the opposition marking him out in the “hole”, also seen against Phil Jones at Old Trafford. But at Anfield, the duo of Henderson and Coutinho pressed the German deep into his own half and the presence of Suarez and Sturridge upfront prevented an obvious back pass.

This is where Arsenal’s over reliance on their central midfielders’ accurate distribution came into play. It is very common to see Wenger’s fullbacks pressing higher up the field when the ball is still with the likes of Arteta or Wilshere in midfield. The fullbacks have started to expect these central midfielders to deliver accurate balls into their flanks and thus bomb forward to receive these.

Liverpool took advantage of exactly this fact by quickly closing down the Arsenal midfield and stationing the likes of the pacy Sterling and Sturridge on the flanks.

In that respect United might not be ideally suited to exploit this particular flaw in Wenger’s team, as both Jones and Carrick prefer to sit deeper off-the ball, in order to ward of the threats of Cazorla and Chamberlain. So the only pressure on the deeper Arsenal midfielders would be Rooney’s presence, which more often than not is sporadic. But the aspect of exploiting the space left behind by Bacary Sagna on the right flank is very much feasible, as the likes of Adnan Januzaj or Welbeck can easily beat Mertersacker for pace and reach Mata’s favored lofted balls behind the defence.

A look back at the earlier game at Old Trafford shows a Van Persie header to a corner which was defended zonally by Arsenal, and that to without Mertersacker at the near post. All of Arsenal’s pressure in the first half was thwarted by Jones’ presence in midfield and Vidic in defence, and the only danger Wenger’s men posed was via Sagna galloping freely on the right.

Vidic’s injury and Jones’ shift into defence saw the likes of Wilshere prosper in making runs into the box, and the only thing that stopped Arsenal from scoring was the lack of natural width in the team and also Wenger’s decision to bring on Gnabry only in the last 10 minutes.

Rafael key to restricting Arsenal’s wing play

The key now in this encounter remains how high United can close down Wenger’s midfield. Moyes is going to pose a definite threat in attack via Rafael and Evra, but despite Mata’s capture, the team still lacks the bite with 2 deep midfielders. In Arsenal’s case it will be all about how much Chamberlain can outmaneuver Evra and play in intelligent balls to Giroud, who will up against Vidic for one last time.

Prediction: Arsenal 0- 0 Manchester United

Statistics courtesy of Squawka.com