WHZ Tactics: Arsenal left-flank will pose big threat to West Ham on Sunday
West Ham will have to be on top form this Sunday if they’re to win the London derby clash with Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
The Gunners are in a good run of form, losing just once in their last five league matches. The defeat came against Manchester City and was the only match in this run that they’ve failed to score.
After a lacklustre start to the season, Arsenal are finally beginning to play to their strengths. Their main attacking threat is clearly down the left flank, something we need to approach with caution.
Artera’s side has scored from the left against Spurs, Leicester, Burnley and Leeds in four of their last five league games. Kieran Tierney is a huge influence to their attacking play, be it with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Emile Smith-Rowe or Bukayo Saka in front of him.
According to WhoScord, 40% of Arsenal’s attacking touches come down their left-hand side when playing away from home. As well as this, 18% of their shots come from the left-flank, this has picked up a lot in weeks as Abumayang has started scoring again.
Tierney is the main point of focus, we feel. The Scot is one of Arsenal’s most consistent performers and picked up an assist against Spurs last weekend. He averages 5.09 crosses per 90 minutes and has completed 64.5% of dribbles successfully this season [WyScout]. He loves to support the attack and make overlapping runs.
It’ll be an interesting battle between him and Vladimir Coufal. Neither were involved in the reverse fixture. Tierney was injured and Coufal still hadn’t made the move from the Czech Republic. David Moyes could adopt a tactic from earlier in the season, the double up on the right-wing.
Away to Aston Villa, Moyes deployed Ryan Fredericks ahead of Coufal so they could face Jack Grealish two on one. It was highly effective as we won 3-1. The alternative is to put them on the backfoot, which we hope we’ll do.
Moyes got it wrong last weekend at Old Trafford. He set up with a back five and it gave off a negative message to the players and supporters watching at home. Hopefully, he won’t show Arsenal the same level of respect and sets out a game plan to go toe-to-toe with our visitors. He’ll have to keep an eye on that left flank, though.
In other West Ham news, is Aaron Cresswell worthy of an England call-up?