The week that was
A few dubious observations on the impact of Reiss, the positioning of Martinelli, and the front-foot defending of a team forgetting how to worry
“Is everything okay?”
That’s the middle one, not sufficiently brainwashed yet, playing with his toys in the other room.
Yes, son. Everything is OK.
Reiss Fucking Nelson just won it.
With the smoke clearing, I thought we’d devote a little time to a few things we learned in the last week as we await the key matchups against Sporting CP and Fulham.
So here are some odd notes. Let’s start with the person whose silhouette is likely burned into the screen of your phone.
The world will know Reiss
It’s easy to recall the moment when Reiss Nelson reintroduced himself as a chartered member of the Arsenal present and, perhaps, future. He didn’t start against Nottingham Forest — but by the 57th minute, he had two goals and an assist.
In a goal that was a nod to the things to come, he loaded up a pump with his right and sent his defender flying:
From there, he cut back to his left and fired a shot at the keeper, which spilled out in front of him:
…and next, he cleaned it up with his right:
That calmness — that head-up-ness, that two-footedness — would continue to show itself in the limited minutes to come.
As an all-around presence, he may have even been more impressive during an appearance that was broadcast with all the magisterial éclat befitting of a third-round Carabao tie. (That is to say, it wasn’t fuckin’ televised at all.)
As we watched through the pixelation of some guy’s potato phone, and later caught the replay, we saw that Reiss had actually carved up an excellent Brighton side in the bleh 3-1 loss. In certain moments, he looked like a Premier League star who had dropped to a meandering U21 side for fitness.
He started with a tricky body feint that left Moisés Caicedo in the dust (never wanted him anyway…):
…and with some close control, he brought it all the way to the attacking third, attracting the attention of four Brighton defenders in the process. This opened up a run for Eddie, who scored on a Henry-esque one-touch bender:
There was more of that throughout, and he ended up winning 10-of-17 duels, passing at a 93% clip, and firing 4 shots off. The close control was ever-present.
His form continued into the friendlies, playing on the left-wing and scoring against Milan before sustaining a hamstring injury against Juventus that sidelined him until Bournemouth.
Ah, Bournemouth. Coming off the bench for Trossard-nay-ESR, a surprising goal would have been plenty. (I’ve only watched the replay once or twice, why do you ask? Certainly haven’t watched it back in more languages that DuoLingo offers. Not me.)
I can’t say anything about the strike that you don’t already know. But that slow-ass step to wind up has to be one of the coldest things I’ve seen in a long time:
But what was so exciting about his performance was that the goal didn’t feel fluky given his play up to that point. In fact, if we hit pause before the corner and had to wager who the goal would come from at the moment, we may have said him. He was electric every time he got the ball.
Throughout, he played with that perfect balance of urgency and calmness. He was always decisively moving towards goal, but never looked quite in a hurry.
When he would accept the ball out here, the defenders didn’t really know what to do with their bodyshapes. He may take them on 1v1 with stepovers, he may sprint to the endline, he may cut inside and shoot, he might cross with either foot. It made him a difficult mark:
We’ve seen too many wistful floating pop-crosses into the middle this year. Reiss, in contrast, always had his head up and a specific target in mind. It was true of the assist to White, and also true of this late setup for Ødegaard:
In all, it was a complete display, and one that would seemingly make both playing time and a potential extension more likely.
He’s a player who is probably best evaluated from the training ground at this stage. For all the exploits and buzz of his younger years, everything since has felt like “error: insufficient data” thanks to injuries and other interruptions. It’s been a long time since Nelson made Arteta’s first-ever Premier League starting XI, but looking back at some of his Hoffenheim tape again, I saw a lot of what we observed against Bournemouth.
He’s always induced uncertainty in a defender. His skills with close-control and composure are apparent, and he’s fired off some of the more decisive, intentional power crosses of late. We’re still in the “insufficient data” period about his ability to maintain consistent fitness, how his defensive game has evolved, and how his pure pace matches up against top full-backs. Otherwise, he’s clearly evolved in ways that aren’t neatly discernible through his sporadic appearances.
Should we keep expectations firmly in check? Surely. After all, he missed the last two gameday squads altogether despite reaching fitness, a new reality given a deepening talent base. Said Arteta: “Football-wise, it was my decision not to put him in the squad in the last 2 games because we had other options.”
But Arteta said something else, too: “He’s been training really well. It’s a good lesson for me and the coaches that we need him.”
Unleashing Martinelli
If you’ll allow a brief foray into navel-gazing: watching Everton last Wednesday was probably the best I’ve ever felt after writing an Arsenal thing. As you may recall, I went through an embarrassing amount of old Martinelli tape to better understand where and how he projects moving forward, and laid out my conclusions in a typically overlong essay called Profiling Martinelli.
It included a bunch of stuff that I was hoping to see over the next couple years, and much to our collective delight, the timeline for seeing some of those changes was to be measured in hours.
From the piece:
The idea shouldn’t be to perfectly delineate who is the winger and who is the striker, but to continue blurring the lines of the two to where they’re virtually indistinguishable. Total football, baby.
In terms of play-style, it’d be nice to see a few things continue to evolve in the short-term: a little less reliance on straightforward 1v1’s far away from the goal, a little more prodding the back-line for through-balls in advanced areas, and (maybe most importantly) a lot more Martinelli-triggered rotations. So many of the season’s best moments have not been through “automatic” rotations, but through a player like Martinelli simply deciding to do some shit. If things are getting stuck like they did last time against Everton, I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much unexpected cutting, rotating, cross-zone dribbling—and in Jesus’ absence, Martinelli is the front-line player most capable of providing it.
That night, we saw Martinelli play perhaps his “freest” game yet in an Arsenal shirt. With Leandro Trossard occupying the nine — or, what we’ll call the nine for now — Martinelli was unlocked to freelance wherever he chose, and was instrumental in creating opportunity after opportunity.
We can see the changes in where he received passes compared to the disappointing first leg against Everton:
He helped create the first goal by rotating over to the right-wing and forcing Mykolenko to choose between marking him or Saka:
He netted home the second goal by pressing from the CF position and gathering Saka’s successful tackle:
He kicked off the third goal by running hold-up play (a little awkwardly, it must be said) as a more standard-issue False 9, which eventually got Trossard in space to cross it into Ødegaard for the goal:
…and then he crashed the central area for a drifting Nketiah, putting home the goal that made it 4-0 before switching out to right-wing:
Compared to an isolated performance on the touchline against Everton the first go-round, the differences couldn’t be more stark.
Against Bournemouth, Trossard was subbed out at 22’ with a knock, and Martinelli was thrust into action as a primary striker (where he’s presumably the fourth option).
It was a sturdy, capable performance, if slightly less dynamic. The most enticing moments were when Martinelli was the top man after a ball recovery. His central position allowed a little more dialogue with the likes of Ødegaard and Partey, and those are matches made in heaven.
In the second half, Ø blasted this one into space, and Neto narrowly obstructed it before it turned into a possible goal for Fast Gabi:
A little later, Partey did the same. In a breathless moment, Martinelli roasted the last defenders and got a shot in the box off, which sailed high:
In all, Martinelli proved that he is indeed comfortable in a central striking position after all these years, and his endless prodding and work-rate helped keep everything off-balance for defenders.
A few notes I’d add:
As we covered, there is still much to learn from Mané and Martinelli’s own model, Ronaldo, when it comes to optimizing role and position in a front-3. They’re different players, but that line from a Ronaldo scouting report still rings in my ears: “What exemplifies Ronaldo’s increase in attacking instinct, is that rather than receiving the ball in deeper areas of midfield, and aiming to create a chance through breaking down the opposition defence, Ronaldo now makes off ball runs from the left hand side of the “BBC” (Bale, Benzema and Cristiano) front line.”
Ideally, that means others taking on the true false 9 responsibilities of dropping deep — whether Jesus, Nketiah, or Trossard — while Martinelli holds height and makes probing runs left-to-middle on the back-line. Then, when possession settles in the attacking third, the delineation between “9” and Martinelli becomes immaterial. They’re just playing football.
The other note I’d add is that Trossard’s role against Everton probably can’t be neatly described as “False 9,” at least not of the Firmino variety. He handled a lot of build-up responsibilities through the middle, but he was often a full winger — taking up the position early and often, and not just “drifting wide” or in momentary rotations. This really unlocked Martinelli making his touch map go full Jackson Pollack.
We talked a little bit about how Martinelli hasn’t been fully unleashed in the press of late given the evolution of the system. With Saka as a hybrid presser in the right, and the striker usually cutting off the pitch to induce play that way, Martinelli has largely been tracking full-backs in a lonely role on the left. More active switching means that Martinelli can play a more central role in the press, both literally and figuratively. That’ll serve everyone.
In the weeks to come, the hope is that Martinelli continues to be the “rotation alpha” — not waiting for others to rotate to slot in to new locations, but originating the manual rotation with a boldness that continues to pay off.
To attack is to defend
Aside from the new arrivals, perhaps the biggest contributor to Arsenal’s success this year has been a tactical update. The insufficient TLDR, which is all well-worn territory by now, is that the full-backs have been inverted and Xhaka has pushed up into a front 5.
What this has done is switched the Arsenal rest defence into a sturdy, ever-rotating 2-3-5 (or 3-2-5), which has had dramatic effects on the team’s ability to maintain possession, squeeze out counter-attacks, and play high.
Here’s Juanma Lillo explaining why you can never really separate your attacking philosophy from your philosophy in defence:
As the Bournemouth game progressed, it’s difficult to overstate just how committed Arsenal was to a full three points, and how claustrophobic they increasingly made it for the visitors as a result. In addition to it being the highest-possession game of the year, they set some other high watermarks.
According to fb-ref, against Bournemouth, Arsenal featured their:
Most touches (891)
Most passes attempted (801)
Most passes into the final third (75)
Most progressive passes (107)
Most crosses (48)
Most corners (17)
Most shot-creating actions (55)
…and in high defending, they also notched their:
Most tackles won in the attacking third (7)
Most tackles won, period (13)
Most touches in the attacking third, by 104 (480)
Most aerial duels won (19)
Now, there are many reasons for such high numbers, not the least of which being that it’d be literally impossible for Arsenal to be chasing a win for a longer period of time.
Upon rewatch, two players who deserve particular credit for keeping up the momentum late are Oleksandr Zinchenko — who was relentless in creating opportunities, crossing, and pushing the ball forward — and William Saliba.
Saliba’s previous high for touches in the attacking third was 7. He had 22 on Saturday. More than any stat, though, was his energy while playing late. Bournemouth cleared it 60 times, and Saliba was responsible for many of the recoveries, as well as helping facilitate play from a ridiculously-high Ramsdale. Every touch that Saliba made was as good as screaming “keep going, we are fucking winning this, guys.”
For all intents and purposes, this allowed the boys to close out in the ‘ole 3-7 formation:
Other notes
Here are some other things in my notebook:
We keep a lot of players committed forward during the second phases of corners, and while it’s paid dividends in a few ways of late, there is something to keep an eye on. At 17’, the team kept up the pressure with Big Gabi, Partey, and Tomiyasu all staying in the box looking for crosses. Saka received it out wide and both Odegaard and Zinchenko then overlapped him: this left a single player (Saliba) behind Saka as he blasted a shot attempt into an impenetrable three-man wall. The counter was a little too easy from there, with Trossard sprinting from the other side and pulling up in the process. I’ll always be in support of more aggression, more players forward, more rotations, more shots — but this is probably not the exact situation you want to easily lose possession for a tiny-% chance on goal. If you do lose it, lose it on a cross in the box, where you have players around.
That moment notwithstanding, our eyes have adjusted to a beautiful horizon, and I still think it’s possible for people who love Saka to underrate him. Here’s a test: if you have to say “one of” when describing him — one of the best young talents in England, one of the best wingers in the Premier League, etc — ask yourself if you have to include the modifier any longer. He’s the best player at his position in the whole world.
I broadly liked Vieira’s game, particularly on rewatch, even if it didn’t all come together. There were a lot of “almosts,” and I think if he played like that over a three-game span, he’d probably have a couple of goal contributions. So much of his next step is continuing his offbeat brand of aggression while speeding up his decision-making by tiny margins. We got an early glance at a high-left-side with Martinelli, Trossard, and Vieira: three players all capable of playing all three roles, or even rotating back with Zinchenko. It’s fun, particularly against low blocks, and Vieira always looked like he knew where to be.
It’d be natural to say that Xhaka offers significantly more defensive solidity than Vieira, and there’s some truth there (particularly when communicating in a mid 4-4-2 block), but it’d also be difficult to point to actual specific moments this year where Vieira has been physically overmatched when out-of-possession. In fact, he continues to reveal himself to be a capable, energetic defender, not too far off Ødegaard, winning the ball back in a few decisive moments on Saturday (and no, I don’t think he had anything to do with the first Bournemouth goal, really. My analysis is: shit happens). The “problem” really only shows itself in team makeup on defensive corners: if the team starts, say, Zinchenko, Vieira, Martinelli, Trossard, Saka, and Ødegaard, the opponent is probably going to figure out how to isolate a matchup they like in the air. It’s a teamwide issue at the moment, and Xhaka has been on the pitch for many of the struggles, so he’s not a fix-all, and in this case, it was Partey losing connection with his man that led to a goal. Players like Rice and Caicedo (believe it or not, given his stature) would help in this dimension as far as overall roster construction goes.
It sure feels as though White’s game is getting more ambitious as the weeks roll on, while his crossing is on an upwards trajectory. He certainly has the raw passing talent to be a little more dangerous there, and I’d like to see more power-curls and fewer dinks.
I needed this reminder from David Seaman that Ramsdale is doing all of this at 24-years-old. Historically speaking, he is still ~4 years away from entering his peak as a goalkeeper.
I watched a post-match analysis that had Ødegaard as the Man of the Match, and he was probably … sixth (?) for me, which is more of a testament to others than anything about him. The fact that there are fair arguments either way is probably a good sign about the depth of performances we saw. Couldn’t be happier to see 11 shots in his statline.
On the second goal, there was a stubbornness to a Thomas dribble through the middle — with nippy defenders making contact all around — that unlocked everything, and ultimately got Nelson isolated on the wing. He also brought a relentless energy to the game’s closing stanza.
The next few weeks will be so interesting for ESR. He had such good judgment on the header that led to the first goal. For the most part, he looked like a player who was coming back to fitness, but there was a brief vignette of an aggressive forward dribble right before he was subbed off that brought back #memories.
Big Gabriel, team of the season. He makes so much of this possible.
Onto Sporting CP we go. It’s an intriguing one. I’ve always had my eye on Pedro Gonçalves, who offers a lot of interesting qualities as a flexible, energetic, attack-minded player who could fit in across the Arsenal attack. They showed up with different levels of pressure in Portugal compared to the Champions League, where they narrowly missed advancement. In league, they keep a lot of the ball, and rank highly in terms of PPDA (passes per defensive action) and challenge intensity.
From the few games I’ve seen, they look a little more rough at the edges this year, which makes sense given who they’ve lost (Palhinha and Nunes, among others). Manuel Ugarte will miss the game as well for an accumulation of yellows, so I’d guess (?) it’s 19-year-old Mateo Tanlongo and Hidemasa Morita in midfield, which should be advantage Arsenal despite Morita’s qualities. They’ll likely line up in a 3-back with twin wingbacks, one of which is our old friend Hector.
As far as Arsenal goes, we’ll get an interesting lineup in an hour or two. I’ll be curious to see if ESR is ready for a start, and if so, if it’ll be in the right-8 (Ødegaard) spot or off on the wing. While he came on at LW on Saturday, his preparations seem to be pointing him towards the Ø spot. From there, Kiwior really impressed me with his passing range and raw talent in the U21 game, and as an established Serie A starter, should be capable of stepping in with a strong side, adjustment period and all.
Why did I just type that out when it’s likely to be outdated in about an hour? Good question, Billy.
All-time fun week behind. Big-time week ahead. Jesus is coming.
Happy grilling everybody.
🔥
(The "is everything OK?" was in response to a strangely-pitched primal yell that I have never heard my body make before)