Tactical Analysis: Manchester City vs. Arsenal

Mikel Arteta, Pep Guardiola’s assistant during the spell of the Spanish manager at Manchester City, decided to leave City the 18th December of 2019 and to go to Arsenal, his last club as a footballer. Last week, Guardiola and Arteta met each other at the Etihad Stadium for the restart of Premier League football and Manchester City won 3-0.

In this tactical analysis, I will break down what has gone wrong for Arsenal and what went right for City.

Manchester City in Possession

City created most of their chances from rotations. In the 20th minute, Riyad Mahrez came infield and Kyle Walker then took the overlap instead of staying in midfield. The same happened for Kevin de Bruyne’s pass to Raheem Sterling, who missed his 1v1 opportunity with Bernd Leno. Sterling found himself on the right after a rotation from Walker and Mahrez being wide right.