Tactical analysis of Aston Villa’s 2-0 win at Arsenal

With this stunning victory, Unai Emery’s Aston Villa became the first team to win home and away against Arsenal in the 2023/24 season. In the process, they kept themselves in the box seat for fourth place and Champions League football. For Arsenal, defeat was a major blow to their title hopes, leaving Manchester City two points clear at the top with six games to go. And there could be no complaints about the result.

Villa’s presence in the Champions League places makes it three Spanish head coaches in charge of the Premier League’s top four. With Pep Guardiola no doubt an interested observer at home, here it was former Arsenal manager Emery against compatriot Mikel Arteta. Although Emery’s Villa left it late to go in front, their goals – both composed finishes, from Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins – felt like they had been coming. Only the woodwork had prevented them from taking the lead either side of half-time, but in the end Villa would not be denied.

How the managers saw it

“[In the second half] we were struggling to bring the ball and do what we did in the first half,” said Arteta. “We lacked a lot of composure, rushed things with the ball and never had enough sequences in areas that we wanted, like we did in the first half.”

“When they were playing with their skill and positioning at home here with the fans, we need to stop them” said Emery. “That needed very high commitment from everybody to get our best performances defensively, helping a lot in individual duels.

“We didn’t dominate with ball possession in the first half a lot, but we avoided their press and were adding confidence. In the second half, we were getting better, imposing ourselves.”

Below, our UEFA-licensed coaches have picked out the pertinent tactical points from the game…

Inside-channel spaces

From Arsenal’s 4-3-3, Oleksandr Zinchenko moved inside from left-back, as Aston Villa defended in a mid-block. The visitors’ centre-backs were extremely compact as a pair, but with Arsenal creating maximum width via wingers Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard (below), significant spaces appeared within Villa’s back line – most notably between full-back and centre-back. This became a key space for Arsenal to exploit, especially as their central-midfield overload had plenty of possession to work their way through into the final third.

With Villa’s centre-backs so narrow, Saka’s runs were Arsenal’s best means of exploiting the space inside Lucas Digne (below). In tandem, Martin Ødegaard demonstrated his quality in midfield – often from a deeper position than usual – with deft through balls for Saka. The England winger had opportunities to cut inside and shoot, or cross near the byline after running blindside of Digne. Gabriel Jesus also came across and made similar runs, with Ødegaard picking him out with his impressive passing range.

On Arsenal’s left, the inside channel was exploited by Kai Havertz’s penetrative runs from deep, with Ødegaard again picking out a teammate (below). In the build-up, Trossard pinned Ezri Konsa wide left, with Havertz running off John McGinn and behind Villa’s back line.

Villa were compact in a 4-4-2 mid-block, making space congested for Arsenal’s central combinations, yet right centre-back Diego Carlos was on constant alert to recover back. Despite not taking the lead in the first half, Arsenal did manage to penetrate through, around and over, almost exclusively through play inside the Villa full-backs.

Villa’s free player

In the second half, Villa’s deeper build connected with their free central midfielder, especially when Ødegaard jumped forward to join Jesus in pressing the Villa centre-backs. When Arsenal’s wingers pressed the full-backs, Morgan Rogers dropped deep from his number 10 starting position. This added another connection to the free midfielder and often dragging his marker, Gabriel, with him. Declan Rice thus dropped back for Arsenal in cover, allowing Villa to  find their free player (Youri Tielemans, below) to escape Arsenal’s press. The difference to the first half was that Villa didn’t then clip longer, unless they were forced to.

Once into the final third, Digne advanced high from left-back, with Nicolò Zaniolo moving inside (below). Watkins and Rogers worked around the central defenders, with Moussa Diaby – and later on, substitute Leon Bailey – holding the width on the right side. From the converted back trio, Konsa or Pau Torres stepped forward with the ball, working around the front-line pairing, in Arsenal’s 4-4-2 out-of-possession block. McGinn and Tielemans were then charged with screening and blocking counter-attacking access into the front two. Villa were then particularly strong attacking from the wider spaces.

Villa go more direct

To try and disrupt Villa’s build-up and growing dominance of the ball, Arsenal pressed with more numbers – notably Rice jumping with Havertz on to Villa’s double pivot. However, Villa quickly adapted by playing more direct passes into the front line, exploiting the emerging spaces between Arsenal’s lines – especially from Torres widening towards Villa’s left (below).

From here, they looked to hit Watkins and Rogers, or the narrowing Zaniolo. Runners – including Digne from left-back, who dragged Saka back – further helped Villa gain territory and pin Arsenal back. They deservedly took the lead late on, via Bailey at the back post. Watkins then sealed the points with a superb dinked finish on the counter-attack, to the delight of Emery and the travelling Villa supporters.

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