In the first match of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal defeated Scott Parker’s Fulham in a resounding 3-0 victory. Let’s take a look at the tactics behind the maiden game of the season.   Line-ups     Arsenal’s Lopsided Formation    During the end of the 2019/20 campaign, Arsenal played their best…

Arsenal enjoyed a mixed first eight months under Mikel Arteta’s leadership. The Spaniard initially employed a 4-2-3-1 formation. His reign started with a lot of promise, but was followed by an embarrassing exit from the Europa League and inconsistent league form. The season was cut short in March due to COVID-19, but after its resumption…

Having departed Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff at Manchester City, Mikel Arteta arrived at Arsenal in December 2019 with new ideas on the pitch and behind the scenes. From his first game in charge, his playing ideologies and tactical framework were on full show. Despite being dealt with a relatively poorly built squad, he began putting…

“I am immensely proud to be returning to Chelsea as head coach. Everyone knows my love for this club and the history we have shared, however, my sole focus is on the job in hand and preparing for the season ahead. I am here to work hard, bring further success to the club, and I…

Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad selection has raised a few eyebrows for a couple of reasons. The first is there are no natural left backs in the squad despite Ryan Bertrand and Bukayo Saka being available.   The second is that the central midfield options are noticeably starker than usual. While Jack Grealish and Kalvin…

You play football with your mind, and your legs are there to help you. – Johan Cruyff.   The above quote was uttered from football’s seminal leader, the unofficial king of the modern game, Johan Cruyff, and it may just be the most important of his innumerable, incessantly quoted adages.   If we take the…

Playing three centre backs is often presented rather superficially as defensive system, as many anticipate it will manifest itself as a back five: subtracting either a midfielder or a forward in favour of a defender. However, many teams such as Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta use the extra cover provided by a back three to allow…

Over the past five years, only two managers have managed to win promotion to the Premier League in their debut season in the Championship: Rafa Benítez’s Newcastle in 2017 and Nuno Espírito Santo’s Wolves the year after. However, Slaven Bilić joined the club last month after a 2-2 draw with QPR on the final day…

After two weeks of exciting action in Lisbon from Europe’s elite, the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League Final was held at the Estádio da Luz on August 23. In the blue corner, Thomas Tuchel’s Paris Saint Germain, who were chasing their fifth trophy of the season after completing a domestic clean sweep; in the red corner,…

When Jude Bellingham was presented at Borussia Dortmund on July 20, the German club’s CEO Michael Zorc made it clear that the 17-year-old was going to play a role in the first team next season. Evoking the words of Austrian manager Jochen Fallmann, who once said, “There are no young and old players, there are…