Tactical Analysis | How Arsenal surgically demolished Chelsea with pace and movement

Personally, I do not believe in destiny. It is too definite for my liking. But days like yesterday makes you wonder about its existence. At the Emirates on Saturday, everything came together for Arsenal. Arsene Wenger's philosophy was translated poetically on the pitch, his big money signings—Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, and Shkodran Mustafi—provided commanding presence on the pitch. Youth products like Alex Iwobi and Hector Bellerin repaid Wenger's faith, while Theo Walcott showed signs of the Theo Walcott he was expected to grow into a long time back. Every variable came together to write an ode to the Frenchman on his 20th anniversary as the Arsenal manager. The Stadium stood on its toes and applauded what Arsene Wenger has created. For one day, everything was perfect in Wenger's wonderland. Football does not hand out free gifts to anyone, but if anyone in England deserves to be an exception right now, it is Arsene Wenger.

You can almost hear all the moans on social media when the Arsenal lineup was announced. Where is Xhaka? Where is Perez?—on another day these things might have mattered. Not today. Arsene Wenger stuck to his team and by the end of the 90 minutes, he proved the cliché “Arsene knows”.

Poor Antonio Conte. He is desperate to field a 3-man defence, and he will do as soon as he has three fit center backs to field. But with Terry and Zouma out injured, there is not much he can do. However, what he did do was to give Cesc Fabregas a start ahead of Oscar, and boy did the move misfire!

Chelsea drops deep once again. This time into a bottom-less pit

The willingness to surrender space in front of the defence suggests that Conte is not too confident of the pace of his defenders to chase down runners who get behind them. But somehow, they ended up doing exactly that despite dropping deep into their own half. There was no mystical power involved in this development, though. It was down to poor coordination in the backline and Sanchez's natural instinct to drop back into the midfield.

Sanchez is not a traditional center forward who would battle for the ball with his back facing the goal, like Giroud or Perez would do. He likes to run at defenders, and that instinct of his forces him to drop back from the forward line. This, of course, provided a predicament for the Chelsea center backs—should they hold their ground, or should they go with him. If they held their ground, it gave Sanchez a lot of space to exploit between the Chelsea midfield and the defence, while the alternative gave the Arsenal team space to run behind the defence. With Kante and Matic hardly providing any cover to the back four, Arsenal had a fun time pulling apart Cahill and Luiz. Arsenal's second goal was a perfect example of that.Sanchez dropped off the defenders and both Cahill and Luiz were dragged towards him. This left a gaping hole between Luiz and Azpilicueta, who was now left with a tricky choice between tracking Walcott's run through that gaping hole or marking Bellerin on the outside.

Sanchez dropped off the defenders and both Cahill and Luiz were dragged towards him. This left a gaping hole between Luiz and Azpilicueta, who was now left with a tricky choice between tracking Walcott's run through that gaping hole or marking Bellerin on the outside.

Cahill's downhill journey continues

Gary Cahill has gone missing, At least the one who had helped Chelsea win the Champions League. It is hard to fathom that Luiz and Cahill are the same players who manned the Chelsea defence during that memorable final win against Bayern Munich in 2012. The Englishman, in particular, has had two poor games in a row. He was awful against Liverpool and shambolic against Arsenal.

After Ozil left Kante for dead in Arsenal's half with a delightful turn, it was two against two at the back for Chelsea on the break. Ozil passed it to Sanchez, and strangely, both Luiz and Cahill got dragged towards the Chilean, leaving Ozil unmarked for the return lob. Cahill was closest to Ozil and he should have marked him, instead, by the time the ball reached the German in the box, Cahill was seen scampering across the pitch to block him. It was too late, and Ozil was too good. Cahill has gone over the edge, and is sliding down to the bottom with every game.

At times in the past, Arsenal would struggle to break down teams who would defend deep in their own halves. At times, their passing game would slow down to a standstill. Not yesterday, though. They were fast, crisp, incisive, and most importantly fast. Walcott and Bellerin might be one of the fastest combinations in world football right now, and the duo created havoc with their pace. To add to that, they have Iwobi on the other side of the pitch and Sanchez through the middle. Even Ozil, who at times refrains from using his well-noted pace, was not hesitant to burn down the grass. It was breathtaking, dazzling, and super effective.

There was pace on display at the back as well. That tackle from Bellerin, where he out-ran Pedro, who is no slouch and had a head start over his fellow country man, is memorable. In Koscielny and Mustafi they have two defenders who can match most of the forwards on ground, as well as in the air.

There is pace in this Arsenal team all over the pitch, and combined with Wenger's philosophy, it creates a divine manifestation of the football that very few teams can compete with in England when they get it right. And, they got it right yesterday.