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Football London
Football London
Sport
Bailey Keogh

Mikel Arteta's Smith Rowe experiment unlocks Arsenal's world-class duo to finally give fans hope

Arsenal got their first away win of the season after a convincing 1-0 victory against at Turf Moor which was sealed by a wonderful Martin Odegaard free-kick.

Arteta decided to change the personnel and the formation from last week and instead opt for a 4-3-3 formation which worked a treat.

Thomas Partey made his first start of the season as the anchorman in midfield with Emile Smith Rowe and Odegaard playing either side of him.

The Ghanaian was head and shoulders above other players on the pitch and he controlled the game and added a sense of composure which is something the Arsenal midfield has been missing.

The creative burden was also relieved of Smith Rowe’s shoulders as Martin Odegaard was excellent playing from the left-central midfield position.

He had multiple link-up plays with Kieran Tierney which created a few dangerous opportunities for Arsenal.

This formation also made Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seem less isolated and had support from Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe who were much more narrow than usual.

The reason this was is that the full-backs were able to push forward in wider positions due to Odegaard and Smith Rowe playing in deeper positions which allowed them to cover.

This was the best defensive performance in a long while for the Gunners, as a trip away to Turf moor is never easy, but Arsenal eliminated Burnley’s greatest threat which crosses from wide positions.

Arsenal nerved this threat so excellently, that Sean Dyche was forced to change his team's approach and instead went for a more short ball style of playing, subbing in Maxwell Cornet and Matej Vydra.

This formation may not have worked if Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu did not feature because their composure on the ball when playing out from defence was superb.

Tomiyasu was also great defensively and Ramsdale gave the defence the reassurance that they are usually receiving when Bernd Leno is between the sticks.

If Arteta can keep these players fit then today’s game proved that this is the correct formation to run with in the future.

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