Arsenal’s meeting with Manchester City on Sunday was — unsurprisingly — not a very open contest.
Both managers tried to keep things tight. Mikel Arteta fielded Jorginho and Declan Rice together for the first time. Pep Guardiola moved to a system featuring three central midfielders to ensure City competed in that zone. Bernardo Silva played in front of the champions’ defence and kept his distribution short, with Mateo Kovacic and Rico Lewis just ahead of him.
GO DEEPER
Arsenal v Man City 2.0 - a world of set pieces, tough tackles and dogged defence
With so many players in that area of the pitch and in such a frantic, physical game, no one had any space in midfield.
Except, that is, from goal kicks.
These days, goal kicks are a peculiar blend of set piece and open play: a situation where teams have planned moves, to play out from defence and to press the opposition high, but also where a huge amount of grass is unoccupied.
That’s a qualified statement, however, because the most interesting thing about goal kicks isn’t necessarily the specific build-up pattern or the type of pressing, but the areas of the pitch where there is space.
On several occasions during the game, when Ederson or David Raya had possession, the situation was five-versus-five around the edge of the penalty area of the team with the ball, five-versus-five on the halfway line — and absolutely nobody in a yawning gap between the two.
This is a pattern better observed in the ground itself rather than on television — although the use of a ‘scrolling’ main camera, as UK broadcaster Sky Sports debuted on Sunday, may improve things — but here’s an attempt to explain the situation.
Here, inside the first minute, is an old-fashioned goal kick.
Raya has kicked long and all 20 outfielders are within a 30-yard strip across the centre of the pitch, as you would expect.
But later, when Raya kicks long in open play after Arsenal had passed the ball to invite pressure, there’s a different situation entirely. Here, City have five players in attack, ready to shut down short passes…
…and then, when the ball goes forward, City also have five players in defence ready to challenge for that. On this occasion, these include their left-winger Phil Foden, who has tracked back with Ben White, and who Raya seemingly targeted in the air. On this occasion though, it’s Foden who wins the ball.
But the most interesting player in the above shot is Martin Odegaard, positioned all on his own just inside the City half, with oceans of space to himself.
Nathan Ake had half-heartedly closed him down to dissuade Raya from playing the ball towards him, before returning to his place in defence. “It’s difficult, because Raya has the ability to play short and long,” said Guardiola afterwards. “It’s not easy to control these long balls.”
It was the same situation when Ederson had possession.
Here’s one of his typical long balls downfield — Arsenal have five attackers…
…and five defenders, and absolutely nothing in between.
A minute later, Ederson has the ball and plays the most interesting pass of the game.
Because Arsenal are forced to close down a potential short pass, as well as guard against his huge kicks downfield, they leave themselves alarmingly open in the middle. Ederson can now bisect their four attackers…
…and feed the ball to Julian Alvarez, who has not merely 10 yards of space behind him as he collects the ball, but 20 yards of space ahead of him too.
It’s unthinkable that any player would be allowed this type of space at any other stage of the game — “We wanted to find players in the middle more, especially Julian,” Guardiola conceded after the game. City couldn’t quite turn this into a chance, partly because Arsenal got men behind the ball quickly.
It’s these situations where players who find space intelligently can thrive — not necessarily when the goalkeeper has possession, a point when teams often have set game plans and the man-to-man marking takes a predictable pattern — but during the ‘transition’ stage just afterwards, when sides go from being deliberately spread out to determinedly compact.
This is a moment when intelligent players can find gaps as their opponents reorganise.
In matches that are otherwise tight and lacking in room for creative players, these situations are important for ensuring that creative, intelligent players can get on the ball.
And while some of these examples are from open play rather than goal kicks, it’s worth giving football’s lawmakers IFAB some credit for changing the goal-kick law in 2019 to allow teams to play goal kicks to team-mates within their own penalty area — although it’s also worth asking why there was previously a stipulation that they had to play them outside it, which in hindsight seems entirely needless.
That change, as expected, has increased the space opponents have to cover high up the pitch, and because the offside rule doesn’t apply at goal kicks, teams also have to use a deeper defensive line than they’d like. The space is therefore logically in midfield, although the extent of it remains somewhat surprising.
Lots of situations on a football pitch in the contemporary game would feel entirely unfamiliar to a viewer from 10 or 20 years ago.
But this area of complete no man’s land in midfield at specific points within a game would seem strange to someone just five years ago.
That’s how much — and how quickly — a tweak to the goal-kick law has impacted the way football is played.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
