WHZ Tactics: Arsenal’s lack of defensive structure will benefit West Ham
West Ham must start on the front foot against Arsenal on Sunday if they want to take all three points from the game.
After a very disappointing display last weekend at Old Trafford it is crucial that we win this game. Arsenal will be confident having won their North London derby with Spurs. The Gunners do have their weak spots, though, particularly in defense.
Recently, we’ve been rather inconsistent with how we start matches. Tottenham at home, for example, we took an early lead in both halves and set the tone for the game. Then Leeds in our following home match scored two early goals that were ruled out by VAR. This needs to be corrected first of all. Arsenal have shown against Leicester and Manchester City recently that they start games slowly.
One of our main strengths this season has been our organisation. Since David Moyes came back to the club, we are defensively sound and have become very hard to break down. We’ve been able to build a team on our defensive solidarity. Ironically, it’s the opposite for our visitors.
Arsenal’s main weakness? Their back-line. They don’t have a leader at the back, as a result, their defensive structure has often had huge gaps. According to WhoScored, 65% of their shots against have come down the middle, as the centre-halves have struggled.
One example can be seen below. David Luiz is partnering Pablo Mari away at Leicester. When the Foxes win possession, the defenders are all over the place. Just look at the gap between the centre-halves.
Kieran Tierney, who is so often effective in the attacking third, is nowhere to be seen until nearly four seconds later. By this point, Youri Tielemens has travelled around 50 yards with the ball, whilst Mari gifts him a free run into the box. Luiz, the more experienced of the two, should be instructing him to close the man down.
Tielemans slots home and Leicester take the lead. Below, we have circled the positioning of the back four at the time of conceding. It’s rotten defending really, and sadly for Arsenal, it’s something that’s becoming all too common. No organisation at the back at all. It’s worth noting they went on to win this game, but they started ever so poorly.
This sort of defending is what our front-line can thrive off. Michail Antonio, Jesse Lingard and Jarrod Bowen each have blistering pace that can exploit these gaps in the back-line of the Gunners.
According to the Premier League, Arsenal are joint fourth for goals conceded from defensive errors. Lingard should be well-rested and raring to go, he’ll be fully aware that Gunners defence is there to be got at.
It’s a game we must win if we are to keep up a serious challenge for the European places.
In other West Ham news, Arsenal’s left flank will pose the biggest threat to us on Sunday.