Arsenal hosted Manchester City in matchweek 5 of the 2025/2026 Premier League season, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
This game saw a different Man City at the Emirates Stadium.
With just 33%, this was the lowest ball possession Pep Guardiola’s Man City have ever recorded in this fixture.
The visitors opened the scoring through a rapid counterattacking move after nine minutes, as Erling Haaland slotted it past David Raya with ease.
However, after a well-fought battle of over 90 minutes, the Gunners equalised through substitute Gabriel Martinelli in the third minute of injury time.
Although he would have wanted the three points, there are positives for Mikel Arteta from this contest.
Through this tactical analysis, we aim to identify what went wrong for Arsenal in the first half and how their personnel changes helped rectify the deficit in the second half, ultimately earning that well-deserved goal.
Arsenal Vs Manchester City Lineups & Formations
Let’s examine how Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola have fielded their squads.
Arsenal Lineup Vs Manchester City
The hosts, Arsenal, played in a 4-3-3 formation.
David Raya started between the sticks, with a back four of Jurriën Timber (right-back), William Saliba (right centre-back), skipper Gabriel Magalhães (left centre-back), and Riccardo Calafiori (left back).
Timber was replaced by Gabriel Martinelli in the 80th minute.
The midfield had Martín Zubimendi as a pivot, with Declan Rice and Mikel Merino playing in slightly advanced roles.
Merino was subbed off for Eberechi Eze after 46 minutes; meanwhile, Zubimendi came off for Cristhian Mosquera (90’+8).
The attackers were Leandro Trossard (left-winger), Noni Madueke (right-winger), and Viktor Gyökeres (striker).
Bukayo Saka replaced Madueke at the 46th minute, while Ethan Nwaneri came on for Trossard after 84 minutes.
Manchester City Lineup Vs Arsenal
The visitors, Manchester City, operated in a 4-1-4-1 formation.
Gianluigi Donnarumma started in goal. The back four had Abdukodir Khusanov (right-back), Rúben Dias (right centre-back), Joško Gvardiol (left centre-back), and Nico O’Reilly (left-back).
Matheus Nunes replaced Khusanov after 46 minutes, and John Stones came on for O’Reilly at the 87th minute.
Rodri played as Man City’s single pivot.
The four-man attacking midfield comprised Tijjani Reijnders and captain Bernardo Silva, who were the advanced centre midfielders, alongside Phil Foden (right winger) and Jérémy Doku (left winger).
Nathan Aké replaced Foden (68′) and Savinho came on for Doku (87′).
Erling Haaland played as the lone striker and was replaced by Nico González after 76 minutes.
Arsenal In The First Half
In the build-up phase, Arsenal operated with a box in midfield.
Rice stayed in a deeper position alongside Zubimendi.
Meanwhile, Merino was joined by Trossard, who was playing as a winger.
This was made possible by Calafiori, who pushed high and wide to offer width.
In the image above, the box in midfield is visible.
However, this configuration was not set in stone, as Calafiori was also seen drifting into midfield to be a pivot on multiple occasions.
When this happened, Rice moved higher up, and Trossard occupied a wide position.
Although they achieved some success in terms of progression, the frequency with which they entered the attacking third was unsatisfactory.
This was due to the positioning of the Arsenal attackers between the lines.
Here is an instance with Calafiori on the ball, operating outside the Man City structure.
The Arsenal midfield three have all positioned themselves between Man City’s midfield and defence.
However, the passing lanes to them are not open.
The opponent midfielders are blocking the lanes without much hassle.
This was a significant issue in Arsenal’s attacking phase in the first half.
They had to go wide to move the ball forward, despite the numerical advantage in midfield.
Another noticeable aspect of the first half was Man City’s defensive structure in a mid to low block.
On many occasions, they were successful in forcing Arsenal one side and squeezing them in the wide area to regain possession.
Here is an example of what I mentioned earlier.
Man City are in a 4-4-2 defensive structure.
As Zubimendi plays to Rice to shift play, Bernardo Silva steps up on Rice’s blindside to force him back in the same direction.
As illustrated, there is more space in the wide area on the far side.
City were successful in cutting that option out for Arsenal.
Collective actions like these resulted in the visitors winning possession with several Arsenal numbers high up.
They made use of those situations for attacking transition moments.
Here is an example of the same.
City win the ball and are attacking through Tijjani Reijnders as he drives down the left wing.
In the meantime, the other City attackers make supporting runs.
Although they did not have much ball possession, they made sure to take advantage of their transitions.
The same happened when they scored in the ninth minute.
City win the ball in the midfield third.
Haaland receives inside a small pocket.
Once he releases to Reijnders, most of the Arsenal players are taken out of the game.
As Reijnders carries the ball forward, the Norwegian makes a darting run into space.
It is through Haaland’s pass that City are in a three vs two situation in attack.
The Dutch midfielder releases Haaland at the right time for the striker to take a touch in his path and finish in the far bottom corner.
Their own half was not the only area City dispossessed the hosts.
There were instances when Arsenal committed errors in their own defensive third, which led to Man City winning the ball.
Here is an example: Merino gets stuck surrounded by three Man City players, each blocking a lane for an exit pass.
As the Spaniard is unable to relieve the pressure, the visitors have a shot from the edge of the penalty area.
The combination of these situations led to Arsenal’s shaky first half despite having the majority of the ball possession.
One of the key reasons why they had the amount of possession was the willingness to press high.
Here, we can see Arsenal pressing high.
The Gunners’ blocking all the short options forces Donnarumma into going long frequently.
Due to this, City were rarely able to control the game.
Apart from being able to control the game during the first half, Arsenal had a silver lining in terms of final third entries.
Noni Madueke was a usual suspect, offering width and attracting multiple defenders.
Moving the ball to him was a way for the hosts to achieve some penetration.
Here, Madueke has fixed two opponents, which frees up space for his teammate to cross.
Here, we can see Madueke drifting inside to receive in the half-space.
He ends up hitting the target from this sequence.
However, Arsenal required more activity in the central zone, which came with the substitutions in the second half.
Arsenal In The Second Half
The introduction of Erebechi Eze was a significant step in Arsenal taking full control of the game.
Arteta’s side was missing intelligent positioning between the lines during the first half.
With Eze’s positioning, he either dragged a defender to create space for a teammate or got enough space to receive in an advanced position.
Here, Eze receives in the half-space, beating his direct opponent on the turn, and continues to drive forward.
In this situation, Zubimendi gets enough space to receive on the turn and carry the ball forward as Eze attracts the nearby defender.
By the time he reacts to Zubimendi, the Spaniard progresses the ball.
Apart from good positioning, Eze also made some incisive runs in-behind.
Here, he is making an in-to-out half-space run to receive inside the penalty area.
Viktor Gyökeres was also seen making these runs.
This action offers the attacking team depth in attack.
Man City was the target of a tedious task: tracking these runners, which disrupted their defensive structure.
Gyökeres makes an in-to-out run to receive in-behind.
These runs in-behind in situations when City had a high line helped Arsenal with plenty of opportunities for penetration and final third entries.
This was also the case with the equaliser scored by Martinelli.
In this situation, Arsenal regain possession in their own.
As Eze gets on the ball, City fail to put pressure on the ball.
Martinelli makes a well-timed curved run to get onto the pass played in-behind before clipping it over Donnarumma to slot it home.
As the game progressed, the City players’ average positions in the defensive phase kept dropping deeper. They eventually switched from a 4-4-2 to a 5-4-1 defensive shape.
Here is an example of City defending in a 5-4-1.
Calafiori and Rice usually occupied the half-spaces, while Saka and Trossard offered width.
In these situations, Eze generally operated outside the structure, which helped him get more of the ball and start combination play in half-spaces and wide areas.
Whenever Arsenal were shut out centrally, they quickly moved it wide to either get crosses in or runs in behind to play cutbacks.
Here, Rice makes a half-space run to open space for Saka to cut inside and cross.
Here, Jurriën Timber makes an out-to-in run to receive in-behind in the half-space with the intent of cutting it back.
One prominent reason for Arsenal’s frequent penetration during the second half was City’s disconnected press.
Here is an example: Man City press with four players.
However, they are not compact enough and get split by a vertical pass.
Zubimendi receives and drives into space.
Since the second line of pressure has not followed closely, Arsenal can progress into the opponent’s half.
Conclusion
Arsenal played with a box midfield during the first half.
However, they were unable to capitalize on their numerical superiority due to their positioning between the lines.
Frequently getting dispossessed in different areas of the pitch did not help their case despite having a lion’s share of the ball possession.
However, they had a few positives in the first half, particularly through their high press and some attacking third involvement from Noni Madueke.
The introduction of Eberechi Eze in the second half altered Arsenal’s position in the game.
Owing to better positioning between the lines, the Gunners achieved more penetration and combination play, and ultimately scored the equaliser in added time.
