Arsenal vs Aston Villa and the value of second phases | OneFootball

Arsenal experienced a severe dent to their title chances this weekend, falling foul of old enemy Unai Emery as they let a 2-0 lead slip within the space of right painful minutes against Aston Villa.

What will be extra painful is that the final stab of irritation came from a situation Arsenal have leveraged excellently all season: a set-piece. And, more specifically, the moments after the original kick: the mess of a ‘second phase’.

Aston Villa, in the forced absence of first-half injury victim Amadou Onana, set up well for the second bounce. On the far-side, Luas Digne, Jacob Ramsey, and Ollie Watkins are all positioned for the header back across — a staple of the (set-piece coach) Austin MacPhee diet Villa have been feasting on this year. On the ball-side are Matty Cash and Morgan Rogers, perfectly positioned to deal with the clearance on the edge of the area.

It’s smart positioning given the ball is being placed towards Ezri Konsa at the back post and, barring disaster, there’s very little chance that ball ends up anywhere Villa don’t have players.

It’s no surprise, then, that following Mikel Merino’s first header, Villa were able to keep the pressure. Rogers and Cash engaged in a favourable matchup against Merino and Leandro Trossard — with Rogers nicely keeping a huge aerial threat out of the box. In the box, Villa then had some favourable matchups not exploitable during the game.

Gabriel was taken up by Tyrone Mings, Jurrien Timber was attached to Konsa at the hip, Kai Havertz is watching Lamare Bogarde from a distance. And, most importantly, the ever-instinctive Watkins was up against Thomas “very much not a defender” Partey. Declan Rice was covering Ramsey at the far post and can’t help either. This could have been as a result of Rice being responsible for playing Alexander Isak onside when tracking deep in the equally painful defeat to Newcastle United in the EFL Cup.

As the cross comes in, Partey looked to jump forward aggressively, mimicking the movement of fellow “very much not a defender” Martin Odegaard. But given he’s part of the last line defence, all this managed to do is to free up Watkins. While he was a right game in this game, Partey was performing the role of a centre-back having to cover between the posts. By stepping up, Partey is putting the weight of north London on the head of Havertz.

While Havertz does have excellent success in first contacts from corner, this particular delivery is an entirely different vibe. And his insecurity on defensive positioning shows badly, emphasised by the lack of defender behind him. Havertz couldn’t make contact, and the ball floated to Watkins to smack it home.

Although we could simple say, “Arsenal were playing Partey at right-back and Timber at centre-back and the rest is moot”, it isn’t as simple as that. Arsenal have chopped and changed all season, but are still lowest in the league for Expected Goals Conceded from set-pieces (3.91). In this game, we were seeing the value of giving your set-pieces a support structure, and dominating the second phase.

This is not the first time Villa have done this. It’s not even the first time they’ve done it at the Emirates.

In the 83rd minute of their game last April, Villa once again set up to maintain the pressure, and use smart positioning of players near the target areas for the ball (plus expected clearance zones). Three players were near the taker in case the cross struggled, and two on the edge where they expected clearances to go if the cross made it into the box.

When the ball is cleared by Takehiro Tomiyasu, Villa were once again in a position of lovely matchups they don’t typically get. Rice is again holding far-side width — as a left-back — Oleksandr Zinchenko and Tomiyasu are operating as weird half-full-backs over on the right side. Zinchenko was on his opposition side too, all supported by Havertz as de facto winger. Villa hit exactly this aera, behind the right-side trio, using the lack of instincts for all three to earn big pockets of space in both near- and far-side wide positions, as well as at the front post.

The ball across reached the six-yard box due to the lack of full-back, then fumbled through to the back-post due to the lack of actual left-back there. Rice and Gabriel Martinelli were switched off, sure, but these were forced errors due to Villa’s commitment to pressure.

What Villa and MacPhee showed in these two games is that if you want to beat the best, you’ve got to find the margins where you can shape them the way that suit you. A back four with Gabriel and William Saliba at centre-back might be hell. One with Havertz and Partey, however? That doesn’t win titles.