Arsenal opened their match with Norwich last weekend at a high intensity. The Gunners pressed the Norwich City backline, being led by Martin Odegaard in particular.
In a recently tactical dive, The Arsenal Way displayed how the Norwegian’s press caused Norwich to become trapped as they attempted to play out from the back. It led to many chances for the Gunners, ones they spurned in the first half in particular.
Brandon Williams and Grant Hanley were left helplessly playing the ball back to Tim Krul who would then kick the ball long towards the sole forward of Teemu Pukki. Arsenal’s players were often the winners of the aerial duels, turning over possession as shown below.
The problem for Arsenal this weekend is they face a Burnley side who have two clear advantages when avoiding the successful tactic Mikel Arteta deployed against the Canaries.
Speaking with LancsLive Burnley FC writer Alex James for The Arsenal Way’s preview of the match, James explained one of these two issues Arsenal will have to circumvent.
“Burnley, unlike Norwich and unlike Arsenal, don’t tend to play out from the back. Very rarely do you have 3 or 4 passes inside their 18-yard box. It just doesn’t happen," explained James.
“Sean Dyche take a bit of the Brian Clough which is ‘You score the goals with the people at the other end. So, we need to get the ball to them as quickly as we can.’”
Secondly, the two-striker partnership of Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood will have much more joy winning aerial balls compared to Pukki.
Burnley will look to press Arsenal and in turn attempt to turn over possession in the same way the Gunners were so successful against Norwich City. This Burnley press is what earned them the equaliser in the same fixture last season.
Ben Mee and James Tarkowski only need to beat Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe and Martin Odegaard in the air to turn over a long ball from likely starter Aaron Ramsdale.
The former Sheffield United stopper, whilst a better distributor of the ball than Bernd Leno, does like a long clearance and this could be something Dyche recognises and attempts to use to his advantage.
Tactically the matchup is the complete opposite for Arsenal and how the likes of Ben White deal with the Burnley forwards could be a decisive factor in the game.
To combat this, Arsenal must therefore keep the ball moving quickly on the floor. Pressing Burnley when in possession but not so much that they over-commit in the final third leaving big gaps between the midfield and forward line.
The quick counterattack will be key and Arsenal must look to stop the crosses in the wide areas from reaching Wood and Barnes.
It will be a real test for Arteta’s side in how they deal with such different style fixtures in succession.
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