How midfield overloads and intelligent pressing saw Arteta’s Arsenal make Mourinho look down

The North London Derby had a very different setting this time, with both Arsenal and Tottenham not having great seasons. Spurs were top of the tree early on but a string of poor performances has seen them fall to seventh, heading into the derby. They were six points adrift of Chelsea in fourth and looking to close the gap in the hope of securing Champions League football next season. As for Arsenal, they were sat in tenth, needing a win to close the gap to the Europa League spots. They were 10 points adrift of Chelsea and eight adrift of Everton in sixth heading into this fixture. Both sides needed a win and although it was not a top of the table clash, there was still plenty to play for. In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics of both sides and our analysis will show how Arsenal managed to overcome an early setback to dominate and win the game.

Lineups

For the hosts, star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang started on the bench owing to disciplinary issues, meaning that Alexander Lacazette led the line. Bukayo Saka started down the right, with Emile Smith-Rowe down the left owing to Martin Ødegaard starting in the attacking midfield position. Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey occupied the defensive midfield spots with Gabriel partnering David Luiz at centre-back and Cédric Soares occupying the full-back spot along with Kieran Tierney.

For Spurs, Gareth Bale started again having been in good form with Harry Kane leading the line as usual. Heung-Min Son started down the left as usual and Lucas Moura occupied the attacking midfield position. Tanguy Ndombele and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg completed the midfield with Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilón occupying the full-back spots leaving Davinson Sánchez and Toby Alderweireld to complete the defence.