Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal: The Debrief

Arsenal took a point at the Etihad to stay in the title race

I was gone from Arsenal and did well to unplug on a needed long vacation as you might have noticed from the lack of posting but Arsenal are back and so am I, throwing myself right back into things after a long red-eye flight to be back home by Easter.

I am happy that Arsenal delivered to make sure it wasn’t a disaster accomplishing the first and probably most important goal of this fixture, they had to not lose and keep themselves firmly in the hunt for the title.

Overall I think Arsenal played well and I come away highly confident that this Arsenal team can go toe to toe with any team in the world and look like they belong on the field with them.

Let’s break it down.

Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal: The Graphics

Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal: The Debrief

Arsenal run the muck up the game plan

20 - Fouls Committed by Arsenal in this match, the most Arsenal have committed in a Premier League match and the second most in the FBref database.

4 - Players with at least 3 fouls each (Gabriel, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard - 3, Kai Havertz - 4)

62 - Minutes of ball in play time in this match, this is the 8th lowest total Arsenal have had in the Premier League this season.

64 - Minutes of ball in play time is the overall average for the Premier League this season. Arsenal’s matches before this have averaged 65 minutes of ball in play time.

70.1% - Arsenal’s pass completion percentage in this match, the lowest in a match this season

17.7% - The percentage of passes attempted that were longer than 30 yards

5 - Passing sequences of 7 or more passes by Arsenal, the fewest Arsenal have had this season. Arsenal only managed 11 sequences of 5 or more passes in this match.

38 - Passing sequences of 7 or more passes by Manchester City and 52 of 5 or more passes.

28 - Clearances by Arsenal, the most they have had in a match this season. This is only the third match this season in the Premier League where they have made more than 20 and well above their average of 12.9 per match

We have seen teams try to frustrate Arsenal all season with a compact defensive shape and it is something that is tough to create against. We have been frustrated at times as fans with this approach to varying degrees but understand that it is a perfectly valid tactic to try and win points.

Arsenal took this and played it pretty close to masterfully.

This was the lowest average defensive action situation of the season for Arsenal. Arsenal were almost always 8 or 9 men behind the ball and when they did have the ball, the goal was looking to quickly play out through the City pressure and look to get the ball into space.

The defensive game plan seemed to work to near perfection. Outside of a chance from a set play, Manchester City were held to 11 shots and 0.6 xG. They had a lot of possession but until the final quarter of the game, they were limited to pretty undangerous positions, turning 245 final third touches into just 16 touches in the box (through 76 minutes).

The final 20 minutes plus stoppage time was a bit scarier as the fatigue seemed to creep in but before that Arsenal looked like they were about as comfortable as is possible against a team as good as Manchester City.

The numbers City were able to produce back this up as well. This was by far one of their weakest attacking displays, they had a lot of the ball but struggled mightly to turn that into anything dangerous.

One of the more interesting phases of this game was Arsenal’s pressing here. Overall the high-level measure of pressing, passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) was indicative of a team that pressed significantly less than normal with 13 passes allowed per defensive action in this match (second lowest pressing numbers this season, only Liverpool away was lower), compared to the season average of 9.2 PPDA.

What Arsenal looked to do most often was to slow Manchester City down by cutting out the middle of the pitch and not allowing them to quickly push Arsenal to defend around their box. There were still times that Arsenal picked their moments to spring pressure to win the ball back but it was not the suffocating pressing we have seen at times.

Arsenal did create 6 high starts from pressing, compared to just 4 from Manchester City but like many things in this match the chances couldn’t be converted to a shot.

After the game pundits, fans of other teams, and Manchester City players have come out saying that they didn’t like the way Arsenal set up but I think that is pretty easy to dismiss. We do watch sports for entertainment but the purpose of the game isn’t always the spectacle and rather trying to accumulate points. Often the best way to do that coincides with creating an entertaining match but not always. This was one of those cases.

This wasn’t a swashbuckling attacking performance by any stretch of the imagination and was pretty close to the lowest attacking output of the season.

Even still this was a match that had several good chances for Arsenal to score, both ones that ended in a shot, and a couple that didn’t. If one of those goes in the narrative of this match is probably significantly different. Not unlike what happened in the home match, where Arsenal had a bit more of the ball but still tried to keep the game tight and not get exposed by taking attacking risks.

That match just had the good fortune of producing a goal from one of the few chances created while this one didn’t. Classic results-based analysis but obviously readers of Cannon Stats know better than that.

It is a quick turnaround with a full slate of midweek matches so more coverage of that as things come thick and fast.