Arsenal 1 Manchester City 1: tactical analysis

Arsenal substitute Gabriel Martinelli equalised in added time to salvage a point from this early-season encounter with Manchester City. Although only five games into the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, defeat for the home team would have been a real blow to their title aspirations. Instead they finally found a way to breach a City defence that had been keeping them at arm’s length, following Erling Haaland’s ninth-minute opener.

The Norwegian struck the first blow in impressive style. He won the ball in his own half, before sprinting to receive a Tijjani Reijnders pass to score his seventh goal in six games for City this season. Arsenal subsequently struggled to create anything of note, prompting Mikel Arteta to bring on Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze at half-time. It was the latter’s pass that found Martinelli for a superb finish to leave things all square.

How the managers saw it

“We started the game very well,” said Arteta. “We completely dominated. I think after they scored the goal, doing absolutely nothing before that, we were a bit shaky for five or seven minutes and after that we got the grip of the game again and started to dominate it... the second half was a continuation of that.”

“We cannot make analysis without talking about what happened this week,” said Pep Guardiola. “We played tough games against [Manchester] United and Napoli. Hats off to the team and the resilience. When you are not effective in the pressing, always it is difficult. I think the result is fair. We made some transitions but I think Arsenal was better… and we were tired.”

Arsenal’s left-side movements

From their initial 4-3-3, Arsenal placed a fourth player in central midfield – usually from their left side – as they bossed possession. Left-back Riccardo Calafiori moved into midfield, supporting Martín Zubimendi as a second pivot, ahead of a back three. Declan Rice readjusted outwards, with Mikel Merino providing similar passing support on the outside shoulders of Manchester City’s two central midfielders (below). The home side duly dominated possession, building from deep inside their own half.

Arsenal showed variety with their movements on the left as they controlled possession early on. When Rice stayed alongside Zubimendi, Trossard dropped from his initial high and wide position on the left. Calafiori then advanced in his place to give Arsenal three players on the top line against City’s back four. Merino offered within the right inside channel as Arsenal controlled the ball with multiple short passes, largely between the back three and their two deeper pivots (below).

City’s defensive responses

From City’s 4-1-4-1 in-possession shape, on defensive transition Bernardo Silva moved higher to join Haaland in the first line to defend in a 4-4-2. When City occasionally pressed high, Silva’s energy helped force the play wide and lock Arsenal to the touchline. Wide men Phil Foden and Jérémy Doku pressed outwards on their respective sides, with Rodri and Reijnders aggressively supporting from midfield. The full-back on that side provided further support, ready to jump on any attempted passes around City’s midfield four (below).

City mostly utilised a mid-block to defend. Haaland and Silva remained very deep – often goal-side of Arsenal’s pivots, so that the Gunners had four or five players in front of City’s first line of pressure. From this mid-block, City’s midfield unit narrowed, with Foden and Doku tucked in – the former especially narrow to deal with Arsenal’s left-side rotations (below). As a result, Arsenal were unable to penetrate City’s block, while Haaland’s goal gave the visitors a lead to protect.

Arsenal’s right side

With Arteta introducing Saka and Eze for Madueke and Merino at the break, Arsenal immediately shifted to more purposeful and occasionally direct passing. Eze in the right inside channel was particularly influential, linking well with right-winger Saka. At times Arsenal attacked with fewer numbers than the first half, with Leandro Trossard and Viktor Gyökeres sometimes the only targets in the final third. But they had more forward-passing intent and penetrated more frequently. Rather than looking for central combinations, they got the ball to Saka and Eze, with Timber overlapping from deep as a third option on their right side (below).

Arsenal continued to create and threaten on their right, with Timber much higher, much earlier, supporting Saka. Eze’s deft passing between lines helped work the ball into the penalty area, while Saka and Timber’s crossing posed City problems. Arsenal committed numbers from midfield, with Rice and Zubimendi making more forward runs rather than being required to stay deeper and make constant short passes. As a result, Doku was often forced all the way back to defend (below), limiting City’s best counter-attacking outlet for a period. 

Guardiola responded to the shift in momentum by adding Nathan Aké to his back line, using a 5-4-1 block to try and see out the game. City’s five defenders meant they could get better, earlier pressure to the wide areas via their wing-backs, while keeping a strong central defensive presence for any crosses. They also began to limit Eze’s impact between the lines – though not enough, as it turned out. And Doku was positioned higher for longer, meaning City could utilise his ability to drive up the pitch on transition.

Despite defending well as a block, City were eventually undone by a well-timed ball from Eze. His pass found a run in behind from Martinelli, who superbly adjusted to lob a stranded Donnarumma. It gave Arsenal a point that lifted them back into second in the Premier League, five points behind leaders Liverpool after five games. With City a further three points behind, in ninth, both teams lost ground on top spot, albeit with most of the season still to come. 

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