Premier League 2019/20: Arsenal vs Chelsea – tactical analysis

In Mikel Artetas first match as head coach of Arsenal, they secured a draw against Bournemouth. Three days later, they returned to the Emirates Stadium and welcomed Chelsea for a London Derby.

Chelsea have lost five in their last seven games in the Premier League, Frank Lampard looked to produce some positives results by beating their rivals. Before the match, they were just a point ahead of Manchester United, barely staying in the top four.

This tactical analysis will show an analysis of how Chelseas tactics allowed them to come from behind and grab the three points against Arsenal.

Lineups

Despite playing in a tight schedule, Arteta did not rotate his squad much. There were just a few changes from the last game. Granit Xhaka missed the game due to illness; Sokratis Papastathopoulos also missed out as he was suffering a concussion from the previous game. Calum Chambers returned from a match ban and partnered David Luiz at the centre of the defence.

For Chelsea, Lampard continued to play with a 3-4-3 formation after their victory against Tottenham Hotspur. Reece James had an ankle problem and was unavailable for this game. Marcos Alonso was not fully fit for the game and he did not get into the match squad.

Chelsea fail to play out from the back

In this game, both teams recorded a high number of passes (387 for Arsenal; 552 for Chelsea), the figures hinted both teams tried to play out from the back. First, we investigate how Chelsea’s build-up failed to break the press of Arsenal.

For the first 30 minutes, Chelsea played with a back-three, moving their ball deep in their pitch. Roughly speaking, their structure was a 3-2-3-2 or 3-2-4-1. Both wingbacks, Emerson and César Azpilicueta pushed themselves high and wide. The pivots, N’Golo Kanté and Mateo Kovačić provided the second layers as vertical options.

Arsenal