Talking Tactics: The Dortmund press that undid Arsenal's slick passing

The Robert Lewandowski factor

As good as Giroud has been for Arsenal, he is no Lewandowski. And that is not to demean Giroud in any way, but to merely emphasize the kind of package that Lewandowski provides for a team like Dortmund.

The Pole is great with his back to the goal, excellent at holding up play, has an eye for a pass and is an ice-cool finisher in the clutch.

Yesterday, he was employed as a bulwark against Arsenal’s two central defenders to duel for the long balls from Sahin, Subotic and Hummels. And they also changed it up with the ball on the ground and the use of Lewandowski as a decoy to instead get the ball to Reus and Mkhitaryan.

Giroud on the other hand was a little isolated yesterday as Dortmund cut off his supply lines. Ramsey who has been in good form for the Gunners was limited and pushed deeper and thus prevented from playing his box-to-box role to full effect.

Lewandowski’s ability to drag the defenders out of position with help from Reus, Mkhitaryan and ‘Kuba’ freed up space for Dortmund’s full-backs, specially Kevin Grosskreutz, who was guilty of not doing enough with the chances that he was presented.

Grosskreutz’s heat map against Arsenal

It was his marauding run that resulted in the cross for Lewandowski’s winner, but truth be told, he was played into good positions many a time where he failed to land a good final ball in.

Verdict

It was good lesson for Arsenal to learn as it was the first major test of their new found form. They ran Dortmund close as the stats would show that there wasn’t much to separate the two sides. Arsenal had two shots on target, Dortmund had three. It was just a matter of how clinical they were.

Yesterday’s game was a superb illustration of how Dortmund tactically out-hustled and pressed Arsenal into submission, to use an oft-repeated term. Klopp once again showed that him and his think-tank at Dortmund are amongst the best in the business and Dortmund really have matured as a team in Europe from a couple of seasons ago, where they failed to win a game.

On the flip side, its not all doom and gloom yet for Arsenal, and this result in no way marks the descent back to Earth for the Gunners. With the return of Walcott, Flamini and perhaps another forward in January, Arsenal could address each of the areas that Dortmund exploited.