Second Viewing | Matchday 1: Arsenal vs. Fulham

Lineups

Looking to put their worst season in 25 years behind them, Arsenal kicked off the Premier League season by traveling to West London to take on newly promoted Fulham.

After 13 straight seasons in the top flight to start the century, the Cottagers spent five of the next six in the Championship. Their last Premier League appearance: 2018-19, in which they won only seven games (four before being mathematically relegated) en route to finishing 19th.

Arsenal were in no mood to roll out the red carpet. Alexandre Lacazette’s tap in put the Gunners up inside eight minutes, and new signing Gabriel Magalhães doubled the lead off a corner kick four minutes after halftime. By the time Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored Arsenal’s third, they were well and truly flying.

Tactics

After 18 months with no discernible identity under Unai Emery, Arsenal have a clear plan A under Mikel Arteta. It was on full display in this one.

The Gunners lined up nominally with a back three, and they certainly played with three central defenders when Fulham had the ball. Granit Xhaka and Lacazette have swapped positions here, but you can still get a good idea of their setup: A standard 5-4-1:

But on offense, Arsenal played with only two central defenders, pushing Kieran Tierney up the field as a more classical left back and freeing Ainsley Maitland-Niles to tuck inside and form a center midfield three. You can see Bellerin doing the same on the opposite side of the field.

The result was a well-organized defensive line without the ball AND enough bodies high up the pitch offensively to provide passing options in a variety of layers and lines.

Here’s a breakdown of Arsenal’s build up:

Arsenal Build Up — via Reddit u/Cannonieri

We’ve seen this system work against teams at the top of the table, and although Fulham were terrible in this one, it was the first example of the system working against one at the bottom. Albeit one that couldn’t sit in a low block all game given the early goal.

Player Focus

Gabriel

It’s hard to overstate just how impressive he was in this one. After the second-minute hiccup that almost saw Arsenal concede, he basically didn’t put a foot wrong. His goal was probably the least impressive thing he did on the day (other than the aforementioned second-minute hiccup).

I can’t decide what was the most impressive. It might have been his 1v1 defending. Here he is on an island vs. Aboubakar Kamara:

Five minutes later, he holds his ground on Kamara, standing him up and forcing Fulham to turn back:

He showed good pace too, beating Neeskens Kebano to the through ball here, looking like it took very little effort:

But any defender in Arteta’s system has to be able to play with the ball at his feet, and Gabriel showed himself capable in that phase as well. His best pass of the day was one of these:

After making an early mistake that nearly cost Arsenal a goal, Gabriel’s willingness—nevermind his ability—to pass between the lines shows the signs of a top professional. About the only thing he did wrong was put his socks on backwards…

Willian

Gabriel was BT Sport’s Man of the Match. Arsenal fans voted Willian as theirs.

The 32-year-old Brazilian was everything Arteta hoped he’d be when they agreed to sign him to an eye-watering three year contract that ties him to the club until a few months shy of his 35th birthday.

We all know he won’t be this good at 35. If he can play well enough this year to get them back into the Champions League, it won’t matter.

We’re a long way from three years from now, but the early signs (read: game one) were positive. His accuracy on cross-field passes is something else:

Arsenal don’t score on the first one, but they create a scoring chance out of virtually nothing because Willian’s pass is inch perfect.

They do score on the second.

He’s the RW, but with Arsenal pushing Bellerin high and wide he’s clearly been given liberty to come infield to influence the game.

That freedom was on full display from minute one. Here he’s playing as the number-10, literally within the first minute.

Arteta played down the individual battle for places between Willian and Nicolas Pépé, but Pépé will have to step his game up significantly if he wants to be first choice for this Arsenal team.

Mohamed Elneny

That’s two weeks in a row Elneny has run the show for Arsenal. His inclusion in the starting 11 came as a surprise given the return of Dani Ceballos, but Ceballos would be hard pressed to top Elneny’s performance in this one.

Defensively he was a rock:

We always knew he was.

But he spent last season on loan in Turkey because of his limitations technically. And while he’ll never be mistaken for Cesc Fabregas, he showed a surprising offensive ability these last two games.

Take Arsenal’s third goal:

Is that a lucky flick-on or representative of something more? The more often he does things like this, the more I’m inclined to believe it’s the latter.

Watch him carry the ball from midfield into the Fulham end too:

He’s advancing into the attacking third when it would certainly have been easier to play the ball back to Holding or Gabriel.

Here’s another example of attributes he’s added to his offensive game:

He bursts into the box and shows good creativity to take Harrison Reed out of the play for a shot. Arsenal got virtually no goal scoring contributes from midfield a season ago. This is more like it.

I have no idea how a mid or bottom table Premier League team hasn’t snapped him up. Is he good enough to start for Arsenal week in and week out? Probably not. Can he fill a role at Arsenal if they can’t find anyone to buy him for €5 million? Based off of this performance, yes.

Hector Bellerin

If Arsenal are going to improve their midfield they need to generate funds from somewhere. With no takers for Mateo Guendouzi and apparently only loan offers for Lucas Torreira, Arsenal might have to part with one of their prized right backs.

Which one remains to be seen, but performances like this one from Bellerin will either make Arsenal a boatload more money, or force the Gunners to keep him. Five separate passes resulted in scoring chances, ranging from decent…

…to on a plate:

There were plenty in between:

Bellerin was among Arsenal’s best players before a knee injury cost him almost a full calendar year, and he was well off his peak even in June when play restarted. If I’m honest, before this game I would have rather sold him than Maitland-Niles.

But a bursting run to set up Aubameyang’s winner in the FA Cup final preceded another strong (STRONG) performances in this one, and now I’m not so sure. If he can play like the pre-injury Bellerin (like he has for the past three games), then he’s got to stay.

Looking Ahead – Matchday 2 vs. West Ham

The Gunners return home to face a reeling West Ham in game two of the Premier League season, and if Arsenal are the Arsenal we all hope they are, they’ve got to run them off the pitch. The Hammers were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle last weekend, and look to be moving in the exact opposite direction from Arteta’s Arsenal.

David Luiz will no doubt try to make his return from injury, but with how well Gabriel played against Fulham you have to think Maitland-Niles, and not him would make way if the Brazilian were able to play. If I were a betting man, I’d still wager on a Tierney – Gabriel – Holding back line.