Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: The Debrief

Arsenal win their 7th match in a row and open up a gap on rivals

As I said in my thoughts right at full time, there are no matches that you can take for granted in the Premier League. This league is tough top to bottom, with talent up and down the league that has risen with the financial power of the League as a whole.

We saw this in stark relief this weekend, with three of the favorites to finish in the top four this season all losing.

Arsenal did not have their best performance of the season, but they maintained a high enough level of play to scrap out a victory against a very good opposition. This win gave them seven in a row, put them up six points on Manchester City, seven points on Liverpool, and nine points on the same fixtures from last season.

Let’s dig into the meat of this interesting (but maybe not exciting) match.

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: The Graphics

Arsenal vs Crystal Palace: The Debrief

378 - Touches in the middle third for Arsenal in this match against Crystal Palace, this is the 2nd most Arsenal have had in a match this season

140 - Touches in the final third for Arsenal, this is the 3rd fewest that Arsenal have had in a match (only United and Liverpool have been fewer)

49% - Of the play in this match happened in the middle third, this is the highest share of any match that Arsenal have had in a match this season

22% - Of the play in this match happened in Arsenal’s attacking third, the lowest share of any match for Arsenal this season.

This I think has to be the starting point for the discussion about this match.

What I say, and what the data shows very clearly here was that this was a match that through a combination of what both teams were trying to do, the ball was not ever really close to either team’s goal was extended periods in this match.

I have become more interested in looking at where team’s like to play and this match really stands out in this regard compared to what Arsenal (and Crystal Palace) have done this season.

Looking at all of the touches and the overall share of touches hammers this home. Arsenal had a bit more play in the final third but not so much that they overwhelmed or piled on the pressure on Crystal Palace. Crystal Palace, even when they were able to get a bit more a foothold in this match, did not or could not get the ball near Arsenal’s goal with any regularity.

This isn’t an every match tactic from Arsenal, and it does depend on the opposition, but I (and others) have noticed that there is a tweak to Arsenal where they are far more content to hold on to possession in the middle third of the pitch than they have been in the past.

In fact, they will do more than that, purposefully keeping the ball in these zones with the aim to pull the defense out on to them with the aim that this will open up space behind. Arsenal will take the bet that they will more often be able to handle and play through the pressure and be able to exploit the space created compared to how often they will lose the ball and leave themselves open for a transition opportunity.

In this match, Crystal Palace mostly did not take the bait coming on to Arsenal. Looking at the defensive actions, they seemed generally content to let Arsenal’s midfielders and center backs pass it around in the area around the halfway line. They did cut out passing lanes effectively and in the rare occasions that there Arsenal did find their way centrally in the final third, swarmed effectively to turn the ball over.

This was the major tactical chess match that I saw in this match and both teams were more successful on the defensive side of the nullification here.

Crystal Palace were incredibly disciplined and did not grant the space that Arsenal wanted.

Arsenal did not get impatient and force the play, leaving themselves exposed on the counter and the transitions that Crystal Palace hoped to take advantage of were kept to a minimum.

This made it so that the match as a spectacle was a bit lacking in highlights with just 7 open play shots between both teams and very little action around each box.

This has reignited the conversation about Arsenal’s open play attacking performance for better or worse.

25 - Touches in the box for Arsenal, the fewest since the Manchester United match this season and well below the season average coming into this match 36.6 per match

39 - Touches within 25 yards of goal, the fewest since week 1, and well below the season average coming into this match of 49.6 per match

10 - Total shots in this match for Arsenal, again the fewest since week 1. Well below the season average coming into this match of 15.4 per match

2 - Shots from open play in this match. The fewest Arsenal have had this season and well below the season average coming into this match of 9.6

I have written up my thoughts previously on the open play question, so I am not going to repeat myself again, this is also something that Adam has looked into further today and that is well worth your time to check out if you have not.

Arsenal’s numbers here weren’t pretty but I do believe that the issue here was that the game was not played in the boxes, rather it was in the middle third like I pointed out above.

Is Gabriel the best dual threat center back?

91 - Pass Attempts (1st on Arsenal), 82 passes completed for 90.1% pass completion percentage with a 104.4% pass efficiency compared to expected passing

5 - Final 3rd entry passes completed

2 - Progressive passes completed

5 - Long passes completed, for a 45.5% - Long pass completion percentage

1 - Key Passes for 0.28 xA

1 - Shot, 0 on target, 0.10 xG

2 - Touches in the box and 3 deep touches

0 - Times dispossessed

0 - Tackles (0 attempted) and 0 fouls committed

2 - Interceptions plus blocked passes

2 - Blocked shots

6 - Clearances

4 - Aerial duels won out of 8 aerial duels contested

There are very few players that are as much of a threat off of set plays as Gabriel. He didn’t get a goal here in this match, but he was again a major threat and has the ability to single handedly distort a team’s defense with his presence on any set play.

He backs this up with incredible defending and somehow still underrated passing skills. He’s made a strong case for himself as one of the best center backs in the world and is deserving of a lot more praise than he is getting from the outside of Arsenal ecosystem.

Mixed game for Eze, but he has the moment of magic to win it

2 - Shots (2nd on Arsenal), 1 on target, 0.10 xG, 1 goal

29 - Pass Attempts (7th on Arsenal), 22 passes completed for 75.9% pass completion percentage with a 92.5% pass efficiency compared to expected passing

4 - Final 3rd entry passes completed (6th on Arsenal)

2 - Progressive passes completed (5th on Arsenal)

1 - Box Entry Pass

0 - Key passes

25 - Passes Received (6th on Arsenal), 1 Miscontrolled pass

6 - Progressive Passes Received (2nd on Arsenal)

5 - Final Third entry pass received (3rd on Arsenal)

1 - Touch in the box

3 - Deep Touches, touches within 25 yards of goal (5th on Arsenal)

1 - Dribble Completed out of 2 attempted, 1 time fouled, 0 times dispossessed

5 - Progressive Carries (1st on Arsenal)

3 - Carries into Final Third (1st on Arsenal)

2 - Tackles, 0 times dribbled past, 1 foul committed

1 - Interceptions plus blocked pass

1 - Ball Recovery

Eberechi Eze is not Martin Odegaard. The way that he will and wants to play the right midfield “8”/”10” position is significantly different than how we have seen it played in the past.

This is something that I am adjusting to and I am sure that the Arsenal team is also doing that.

Eze is very good at finding and taking up positions in the pockets for others to find him and then trying to combine or create a chance. What he is not doing is taking up the ball progression load that Odegaard carries when he is playing this position.

One of the places that this shows up is that Eze’s pass combinations to the starting attackers was just 4 passes completed in this match, with just one pass completed to Bukayo Saka.

In a match where service into those congested central areas was hard to come by, it made it a tough match for Eze to impact the game from open play.

Yet, Eze still found a way and scored a goal that was pretty special and fairly unique to him amongst the players in this Arsenal squad.

These moments of magic were one of the big selling points for Eze, and he delivered in this match.

Zubimendi struggles to open up the mid-block

75 - Pass Attempts (2nd on Arsenal), 64passes completed for 85.3% pass completion percentage with a 99.4% pass efficiency compared to expected passing

8 - Fin 3rd Entry Passes completed (1st on Arsenal)

3 - Progressive Passes completed

2 - Deep Completions (not Cross)

1 - Key Pass for 0.02xA

5 - Progressive Carries

0 - Carries into Final Third

0 - Times Dispossessed, he completed no dribbles with 1 attempted, while drawing 1 foul

56 - Passes Received (3rd on Arsenal)

1 - Miscontrolled Passes

2 - Tackles out of 5 attempted, 2 times dribbled past 1 foul committed

2 - Interceptions plus blocked pass

4 - Ball Recoveries (4th on Arsenal)

6 - Clearances (1st on Arsenal)

3 - Aerial Duels Won out of 4 Aerial Duels contested

This is something that goes a bit along the lines of the Eze discussion and I believe that Martin Zubimendi is another player that is feeling the impact of missing Odegaard.

Without Odegaard there is a larger burden that falls on the shoulders of the Spainard and in this match, he struggled to find the key to unlock a very tough and very good Crystal Palace defense.

Zubimendi had the most passes attempted in the middle third of the pitch but was not able to turn that into anything incisive and he had a few passes that were uncharacteristically off leading to some of the few transition chances that Crystal Palace had in this match.

Some of this might have been the tactics that Arsenal were employing but there was also a distinct lack of ball progression in the midfield here with tons of sideways passing.

It’s unrealistic to expect a 8, 9, or 10/10 performance every week and this was an off one. The positives here is that even though he didn’t have his best match on the ball, he was still quite good and active at helping to keep Arsenal solid at the back and not let anything through.