Arsenal women and men: A synergy of favor and substance
Synergy has been constructing between Arsenal’s males’s and ladies’s groups for a while. Essentially the most seen image of that is the new stadium art at the Emirates, which options iconic gamers from each groups, however the groundwork was laid way back.
Off the pitch, the hole began to be bridged in the summertime of 2021.
Enhancements have been made to the ladies’s coaching services on the membership’s London Colney base, together with a transfer for his or her workers to make use of the identical analytics instruments as the boys. The ladies’s medical workforce was additionally expanded, with Gary Lewin – who had been the physio for the boys’s workforce from 1986 to 2008 – appointed as their head of sports activities medication and sports activities science, in addition to additional additions to their backroom personnel.
There have been public shows of unity, too, from Rob Holding and Jordan Nobbs providing each other mutual assist of their recoveries from critical knee accidents to the joint announcement of contract extensions for the groups’ respective managers Mikel Arteta and Jonas Eidevall final Could.
The journey continues ✊
✍️ Mikel Arteta
✍️ Jonas EidevallCongratulations in your new offers! 🔴
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 6, 2022
On the sector, too, there was concord, with the 2 sides evolving in comparable methods.
Some elements of Arteta’s squad constructing have been clearly thought-out.
His first signing as Unai Emery’s successor in January 2020 was Pablo Mari, a left-footed centre-back. That summer time, he upgraded with one other left-footed centre-back in Gabriel Magalhaes, who provided extra physicality and athleticism defensively, while bringing the same benefits in possession.
The concept behind bringing in a left-footed centre-back was to convey extra stability to Arsenal’s play and open up the pitch. As a substitute of a proper footer’s go from that place bending in the direction of their left-back and forcing them to gradual their run, a left footer’s go bends forward of the left-back, permitting them to remain in stride.
Eidevall’s first window with Arsenal was truncated by the Swede solely ending the earlier season at his former membership Rosengard in July 2021. Three wingers have been signed that summer time, together with two who joined earlier than his arrival (all three at the moment are at different golf equipment), nevertheless it quickly turned clear he had an analogous concept to Arteta.
Rafaelle Souza, a left-footed Brazil worldwide centre-back, got here aboard within the January, with Eidevall saying: “Once you have a look at the sport on the highest stage, you’re searching for margins and I feel it helps lots to have a pure left foot in build-up, particularly if you find yourself enjoying out in opposition to excessive strain. We’ve got a number of centre-halves, however none are left-footed.”
Rafaelle’s first calendar yr at Arsenal has been disrupted by accidents. However when match, her partnership with Leah Williamson in central defence offered the platform for Eidevall to implement stylistic adjustments, much like these Arteta made with the boys, throughout the pitch.
Eidevall pinpointed his team’s need to control space better all through final season.
This initially got here after they confronted Barcelona within the Champions League, shedding 4-1 and 4-0. Reminders and steps forward came during the year in conferences with Chelsea and Wolfsburg, however consistency was key. It was a part of the reason they held practice matches against the Arsenal Under-15s boys’ side in the summer.
“Whether or not it’s a sport or a observe, for us that may lower the time and house now we have, so now we have to enhance our positioning and decision-making. That’s plain,” Eidevall said of playing the academy boys after the first game of this season.
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The Williamson-Rafaelle partnership performed into this, with their excessive beginning positions permitting colleagues in midfield and assault to press extra aggressively.
Arsenal’s males have benefitted from this all through their league-leading season. Centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel are so snug defending excessive and squeezing up the pitch that it has allowed their team-mates to be extra imposing as a unit.
Right here’s an instance from the 4-2 residence win over Leicester Metropolis in August.
As Leicester attempt to construct an assault on their left flank, 4 Arsenal gamers field them in.
Granit Xhaka covers Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli swings round to chop off the go inside — a demand from Arteta that Xhaka mentioned in pre-season.
This interception resulted in Martinelli scoring the sport’s decisive aim.
Not each press will result in a aim, however when carried out proper, such urgent provides groups an excellent place to begin their assaults.
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This occurred a number of occasions within the males’s workforce’s current matches in opposition to Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, with a press on the latter’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka resulting in the nook which introduced their equaliser on Sunday.
Most urgent groups are inclined to set traps.
As Arsenal Girls’s management of house has improved, their defensive items have set traps in comparable positions on the pitch to their male counterparts, seeking to exploit the identical kinds of areas as soon as possession is gained.
In midfield, Eidevall’s gamers typically hunt in packs, whether or not that’s two midfielders or a midfielder helped by a winger, as is the case under with Lia Walti and Katie McCabe.
Arsenal pressure Everton again right here and preserve pushing up, as Stina Blackstenius comes throughout from her centre-forward place to press the ball…
… inflicting a rushed go into an space dominated by Arsenal shirts, the place Walti sweeps up earlier than discovering Vivianne Miedema open in acres of house within the No 10 pocket.
From there, the assault strikes left to Caitlin Foord, who will get a shot off.
That could be a sample that has cropped up all through the season — it was on present on the Emirates Stadium within the Champions League video games in opposition to Juventus and Lyon. It’s akin to when Arsenal’s males sweep the ball from proper to left to search out Martinelli in house excessive and large, with Foord additionally harmful in these areas.
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The 2 Arsenal groups creeping additional up the pitch has additionally coincided with slight positional tweaks to either side.
Xhaka’s reinvention as a extra adventurous box-to-box midfielder has elevated Arteta’s facet this season, with one other participant for opposition defences to trace. Walti (who, like Xhaka, can also be Switzerland captain) has had an analogous evolution within the girls’s workforce.
Walti tended to be Arsenal’s deepest-lying midfielder underneath earlier head coach Joe Montemurro because of her technical brilliance and two-footedness. Like Xhaka in Arteta’s early seasons in cost, she performed extra like a quarterback. Eidevall has pushed her additional ahead in every of his two seasons, with Walti and Kim Little taking turns to push on and drop.
What Walti does in these areas is barely completely different to how Xhaka operates, although. She normally appears to be like for the line-breaking go that instantly results in an opportunity being created moderately than popping up with a aim or help.
For all their similarities, these groups are usually not similar.
They every have quirks that work for his or her personnel. As an illustration, Oleksandr Zinchenko’s free-roaming position for the boys is exclusive to him.
From a workforce perspective, the boys have had a transparent midfield three setup for the previous yr whereas the ladies nonetheless use a No 10 (though Frida Maanum is extra of a ball-carrier than Miedema). As assaults go, Blackstenius can also be extra more likely to stretch groups with channel runs to the appropriate than both Gabriel Jesus or Eddie Nketiah, who drop deeper to play off their wingers and superior midfielders.
Comparable comparisons throughout a membership’s males’s and ladies’s first groups can be seen with Manchester City. Alternatively, it turns into extra sophisticated in organisations the place supervisor turnover occurs pretty often for one facet or the opposite.
Eidevall cracked a joke when requested concerning the stylistic similarities between Arsenal’s men and women – “Are you asking if I steal Mikel’s concepts?” – however admitted there have been issues he may study.
“Once I see our males’s workforce play, that provides me a number of inspiration,” he says. “They do a number of issues positionally that’s on a really fascinating stage. That’s in all probability one of many causes for it (the similarities). One other is — after we discuss togetherness — the general philosophy of how we need to categorical ourselves on the pitch as Arsenal comes from the identical foundations.
“So it must be very bizarre if the 2 groups regarded very completely different.”
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