Tactical Analysis: Arsenal vs. Manchester City

In the second battle between master and apprentice, it was the latter, Mikel Arteta, that came away victorious against his old boss Pep Guardiola in this year’s first FA Cup semi-final. Arsenal defied expectations and beat a heavily favored Manchester City 2-0 in Wembley, in part due to their head coach’s effective game plan, but also due to some superb individual performances by their players.

Line-Ups

Arteta started with the 3-4-3 formation that he has favored in all but two games since the Premier League’s restart. Kieran Tierney kept his place in the left side of the back three, alongside David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi, behind the in-form double pivot of Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos.

Hector Bellerín came back in at the right wing-back spot, and the usual front three of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pépé also started. The one surprise selection was Ainsley Maitland-Niles at left wing-back, who did a great job defensively against Adama Traoré at that position late on in the 0-2 win at Wolves two weeks ago.