Second Viewing 2021-22: Burnley vs. Arsenal

Lineup

Emile Smith Rowe ➡️  (61′) ⬅️ Albert Sambi Lokonga
Thomas Partey ➡️  (75′) ⬅️ Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Kieran Tierney ➡️  (78′) ⬅️ Nuno Tavares

Minute by Minute

Analysis

Mikel Arteta put out Arsenal’s most attacking personnel on Saturday. In practice, the team set up in much the same way as they have done all season: Two midfield pivots—the left-sided one peeling into spaces the LB would typically occupy—and five attacking lanes occupied by the front four + Kieran Tierney.

The main surprise was Ødegaard, who operated in more or less the same spaces as any other Arsenal CDM would have. Compare his heatmap against Burnley to Maitland-Niles’ against Norwich a week ago:

Ødegaard certainly got into more central attacking positions than Maitland-Niles, but take away AMN’s ~10 minutes at RB and their positions in buildup are essentially the same.

Having a player of Ødegaard’s ability allowed Arsenal to create a handful of scoring chances that I don’t think would have opened with a less skilled player there. Here’s one from the sixth minute:

Could Granit Xhaka or Sambi Lokonga have made that pass? Maybe. But there’s not a player in the Arsenal team I’d rather see in position to do so than Ødegaard. Props to Arteta for playing him there.

Defensively, Arsenal DID play a bit differently than their usual setup. Specifically Thomas Partey, who was tasked with sitting considerably deeper than normal. At times, he was a full-on third CB.

Doing so gave Gabriel and Ben White a third body to ward off the dark arts of Wood and Barnes. And it mostly worked:

I’ve given Arteta a lot of stick for his tactics, so it’s only fair he gets credit when they work, as they did in this one. Arsenal likely win this game going away without the individual errors in the attacking end from some of their most dependable players.

You can see the chart below: -35 offensively is not great.

Chart

As always, the season chart can be found here.

Player Ratings

Aaron Ramsdale

[+1 Att | +9 Def | +10 Ovr | 90 Mins]

Arsenal’s Man of the Match by a considerable margin, Ramsdale has taken three games to turn fan sentiment from near-universally opposed, to full-on support. Myself included. He was everything Leno hasn’t been for two years against Burnley, starting with his distribution.

This website mocked his technical ability over the summer, but clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about because Arsenal’s build up has taken a leap forward with him as an option behind the back line. Simple passes into Partey that used to have us collectively clenching our asses are now commonplace. And when he goes long…

If his ability on the ball was the biggest surprise in his game, Ramsdale’s dominance on crosses isn’t far behind. We’d heard he was good. He’s been literally faultless in that area so far, claiming four in this game alone. This was the best of the bunch:

Ramsdale is actually an inch shorter than Leno, but far braver—in the air and maybe full stop. That bravery forms the backbone of everything Arsenal do in the defensive end, and gives the back line faith that he’ll come to their rescue when needed. Like, for example, on Ben White’s horrific back pass and subsequent overturned penalty:

Football is a game of inches. This inch saved the three points on Saturday, and probably signaled the end of Bernd Leno’s Arsenal career.

Ben White

[-11 Att | -1 Def | -12 Ovr | 90 Mins]

White’s support is threatening to go the other way. He followed up a disastrous debut against Brentford with a net-even performance vs. Norwich, but he was diabolical in this one. He had four separate -2 sequences, to go along with the -3 pass back above. Pick your least favorite:

Here’s mine:

I’m not worried about a misplaced pass or two. He’s a top professional who Arsenal bought because of his ability on the ball; that hasn’t disappeared overnight.

What does seem to have disappeared is any semblance of defensive awareness in his game. And the lapses are happening every week: Three times against Brentford, twice vs. Norwich, and twice again in this one. He’s lucky Arsenal haven’t conceded from one of them yet.

€60 million is a ton of money, and he’s playing like he has the weight of each individual Euro coin on his back every time out.

The hope is that he’s still getting re-acclimated to playing in a back four, and the light switch comes on soon. For a guy who’s played more than 7,000 Premier League and Championship minutes over the past two seasons, three games is an unbelievably small sample size. It’s not time to get the pitchforks out just yet. It is something to monitor.

Bukayo Saka

[-11 Att | +1 Def | -10 Ovr | 90 Mins]

Much has been made about the dry pitch and its effect on Arsenal’s passing. I’m a bit skeptical. For Saka’s sake, I hope it’s real. He repeatedly gave the ball away on simple passes, and twice killed good Arsenal moves by taking heavy touches inside the box:

Whether it’s the heavy summer workload at the Euros, the penalty miss that no one wants to mention, or an uncomfortability playing on the left instead of the right, Saka’s not been all the way right since July.

But…

Even at his worst, which Saturday undoubtably was, he’s still able to positively influence the game. It was he who checked between the lines in the first half, received the ball on the turn, and drove toward the Burnley goal to earn the free kick that Ødegaard eventually put away.

It’s a testament to his ability that, two weeks after his 20th birthday, he doesn’t get caveat of youth. Arsenal are lucky to have him.

Gabriel

[-4 Att | +7 Def | +3 Ovr | 90 Mins]

That Gabriel ended the day just +3 overall is more a reflection of his offensive output than his defensive one. He had 11 separate positive contributions at the back, and was the anchor around which Arsenal defended Wood and Barnes. We’ve already GIFed the most impressive of the day, but it’s worth showing again:

He’s at least four yards away from Barnes as the ball comes in, but unlike White, reads the flight of the ball and starts moving towards where it’s going before it gets there. That’s the only reason he’s able to get a foot in to clear, and the only reason Arsenal maintain their 1-0 lead.

He also more than held his own against Chris Wood, one of the Premier League’s most physical forwards. Whether the ball was on the floor or in the air, he was up to the task:

He did struggle a bit with the ball, which is what brought his score down. Sometimes that was due to a lack of composure…

…and sometimes it was a loss of concentration:

After the work he put in defensively, we’ll give him a pass for a wayward pass or two.

Looking Ahead – Matchday 6: Tottenham

Opposite results in each of the first five matches of the season have seen Arsenal pick themselves up off the floor, and Tottenham threaten to join them. A 3-0 win would see the Gunners leapfrog Spurs in the table.

Arsenal have won their past two, but haven’t exactly been impressive in doing so. They’ve still scored just two goals all Premier League season.

Even so, I’d rather be Arsenal than Spurs, who in the past two weeks have:

• Taken consecutive 3-0 batterings in the league (including to Crystal Palace)
• Tied a mid-level French club—Rennes, currently 12th in Ligue 1—in Europe’s third-tier competition
• Needed penalties to advance in the League Cup over Wolves, after going 2-0 up

This Sunday’s North London derby promises to be the latest in a two-year series of measuring sticks for Arteta that he hasn’t always passed. The start to the season being what it was, he desperately needs a result, if not also a performance.

I’m nervous he doesn’t get either. Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo has a 2-1 record against Arteta’s Arsenal, including wins in the last two. They’ll have the best player on the pitch, and maybe the best two depending on if Harry Kane has stopped pouting.

Arsenal are better virtually everywhere else, but to win, they’ll need a strong performance from their back line. And to stop wasting their chances in attack. My money’s on the former, but probably against the latter…

Prediction: Arsenal 0 – 0 Tottenham