Arsenal’s 2-0 reverse to Liverpool in the FA Cup underscored the key difference between the two leading challengers to Manchester City’s crown. After watching his side get torn apart time and again by their wasteful hosts, Jurgen Klopp reacted during the half-time interval.
Klopp called Liverpool’s transformative substitutions “the story of our season” earlier this term, so frequently has the manager been able to impact the game from the bench.
Arteta would be right to point out that Arsenal do not have the same strength in depth as Liverpool but it was a positional switch between two starters – Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez – which loosened Arsenal’s stranglehold on the contest.
If Arsenal’s starting setup – be that personnel and formation – is not working, Arteta has to find a way of impacting the game from the touchline.
Keep up the intensity
The statistical quirk behind Arsenal’s finishing woes has exacerbated the lack of attacking fluency that has plagued the Gunners all season. Up against packed defences and stubborn low blocks, Arsenal have struggled to create clear chances from open play. “When you’re sitting in traffic,” Arteta observed, “I want to go 100 miles an hour but I have three buses and 55 taxis and motorbikes around me, so it’s tricky.”
Arsenal have bypassed the gridlock with their set-piece expertise but they cannot afford to drop their intensity off the ball either. Klopp famously claimed that a well-oiled press was better than any playmaker, a theory Arteta clear subscribes to.
The Gunners have created 40 shots from high turnovers this season – the best figure in the Premier League. Yet, Arsenal have only scored three goals from such situations, a tally that nine clubs can better. While their actual playmakers are crowded out of contests, Arsenal must continue to press feverishly. Eventually, these chances will be converted, theoretically.