How did we win 1-0 at Everton on Sunday afternoon to keep our winning streak going after the international break?
Adrian Clarke, who has a keen analytical eye, has studied the game and the post-game statistics to determine what factors were crucial in our first victory at Goodison Park since 2017 in order to find out.
The following are what he considered to be the secrets to our success.
1.Maintaining a distance with the Toffees.
Mikel Arteta, our manager, had a stress-free afternoon and was understandably thrilled to score his first three goals at Goodison.
With a 74% possession share, we spent the majority of this game searching for openings deep inside Everton’s zone. Sean Dyche’s team managed just one shot on goal as our back four and Declan Rice’s careful positioning prevented any counterattacks from being launched by the hosts.
We were so confident with the ball that there weren’t many transitional errors that Everton could take advantage of.
Arteta will have been extremely proud of how we managed to keep them outside of our penalty area against a team known for their physicality and aerial prowess.
Just nine touches were made inside our penalty area by Dyche’s team, which is exactly half of what they had in their previous season’s 1-0 victory over us.
In fact, Everton’s number of touches inside our box this season in the Premier League was the fewest so far for a home team.
Together, we rendered them completely ineffective as an offensive force.
2. Together, an English pair.
Rice is pushed to a more right-sided central midfield position by Oleksandr Zinchenko’s position as an inverted left-back.
The England international is comfortable playing to the left of center, despite the fact that he has done so frequently in the past.
The biggest benefit of this change is that he is now more in touch with Bukayo Saka, and it was wonderful to see Rice make a point of doing so. Rice fed Saka a steady stream of accurate passes between the distances of 15 and 30 yards, fizzing them at him quickly enough to prevent Everton from doubling him.
Saka held his width to extend the play.
In the previous season, Saka’s one-on-one potential was limited by occasionally slow service into him.
He proved to be a constant threat for Vitalli Mykolenko in this instance because he had more room to run at the defender.
3.determining the proper angles.
It was challenging to penetrate Everton’s narrow and deep 4-5-1.
We frequently encountered a seven-man block down the central spine, with their full-backs tucked inside and three strong midfielders positioned on the toes of their central defenders.
We attempted to expose Everton’s wingers, who were serving as backup full-backs, whenever we quickly switched the point of our attack.
Although we did not make as many sharp passes as we would have liked, Zinchenko’s ability to spot Fabio Vieira’s runs in front of the right back was our most effective tactic.
We had just quickly moved the ball from right to left when the clip above was taken just before halftime.
Young is occupied by Leandro Trossard’s position in the field, but outside of him, winger Dwight McNeil must decide between pursuing Vieira out wide and possibly interacting with Gabriel, who has moved into a more advanced position.
Zinchenko selected the Portuguese midfielder with a pass in behind, capitalizing on his hesitation.
Just after the break, Gabriel advances once more to set up a 2v1 situation, giving Zinchenko time to look up and play a forward pass.
Vieira drew Young forward before deftly turning to make a run past his marker that brought him to the byline.
With our distribution, we continuously tried to create these tactical circumstances.
4. a very small corner.
A masterfully designed short corner routine led to our game-winning goal.
The coaching staff will be ecstatic at how we tricked our opponents for the pivotal strike because Everton had a team full of tall players, so it made sense to mix up our plans from set pieces.
Knowing that Dyche likes to bring every outfield player back to defend corner kicks, we set up a 2v2 by the corner flag with six attackers facing eight defenders inside the danger zone.
This allowed us to use Vieira and Zinchenko, who aren’t visible in the picture, as our back-ups in case of an overload, and we did so quite skillfully to defeat the hosts.
James Tarkowski was drawn to the edge of the box when the ball was moved to Vieira, and when he passed to Zinchenko, we had created a 5v4 situation.
With Trossard loitering in a small area, Zinchenko connected with Martin Odegaard, who then connected with Saka from a 2v1 situation.
The Belgian was then expertly identified from the cutback.
His flawless left-footed finish was a high point of the game.
5. Raya’s ideal entrance.
David Raya had a comparatively trouble-free debut in goal thanks to the efforts of his defense. Our loanee successfully claimed two crosses and made one straightforward save.
Raya varied his decision-making in terms of distribution by combining shorter and longer passes.
He completed 30 of his 32 passes, and two of them, both of which were fantastic 60-yarders, found Gabriel Jesus and Saka.
On his first game in Arsenal colors, the Spanish goalkeeper appeared at ease as he forged connections with his backline.
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