FAWSL 2023/24: How Arsenal’s out-of-possession approach nullified Manchester City’s threat – tactical analysis

This weekend saw a top-of-the-table WSL clash between Arsenal and Manchester City.

Manchester City came into this game in fantastic form, leading the league, having only dropped points against reigning WSL champions Chelsea in a 1-1 draw where City went down to nine players for the last fifteen minutes.

In stark contrast, Arsenal come into this game in underwhelming form, having been knocked out of the Champions League by Paris FC, losing on opening weekend against Liverpool, a 2-2 draw against Manchester United and requiring two injury-time goals to win 2-1 against bottom-of-the-table Aston Villa.

In this tactical analysis, we will take a look at how Arsenals tactics were set up and were able to nullify the Manchester City threat with an analysis of some signs of significant positives to build on for Arsenal moving forward.

Team News

Coming into this game, Arsenal have changed their formation and lineups regularly. With Jonas Eidevalls squad slowly returning to full fitness, he appears to be still searching for his best lineup and having started the season in a 1-3-4-3 shape with both Russo and Blackstenius starting in the front line together. Then Arsenal moved away from the 1-3-4-3 and opted for the 1-4-2-3-1 they deployed against Manchester City.

In this game, they opted for a midfield three of Pelova and Walti as the two deeper midfielders behind Kim Little playing as the ten behind the striker. They had previously started Maanum in the midfield. The major change in this game for Arsenal was Lacasse, who was put on the right wing, starting her first game since the opening game of the season against Liverpool. This meant the in-form Katie McCabe was moved back to right back for this game.