In the run-up to the FA Cup, Pep Guardiola and Arteta began greeting as early as the press conference.
Arteta thanked Pep Guardiola for guiding and nurturing him on his coaching path, and Guardiola also affirmed Arteta's ability, saying that if he leaves Manchester City, Arteta will definitely be the best successor.
Although as Guardiola said, this scene did not happen because of his contract extension, Arteta came to his beloved Arsenal and has actually successfully copied a similar system, and proved the effectiveness of the system through league results.
However, the Buddha-figures are still looking for a way out of a new system.
In this game, a clear advantage of Manchester City appeared in the first minute of the game:
This confrontation, although it ended with Haaland's foul, but Holding's embarrassment in one-on-one defense is obvious, so in similar scenes after that, Haaland still has a lot of advantage:
Of course, when the ball is not in good condition, Holding can still clear out some threats:
Through the above picture, it can be seen that Manchester City has a potential advantage in Haaland's position against Holding, as long as it is fully utilized and focused on the attack, there is a chance to directly open the offensive situation from then on.
The key to opening the situation, in short, is to improve the quality of passing to this area, play less long balls and slow balls that can be predicted by Holding in advance, and play more short balls and fast balls that make Holding difficult to predict and dilemma, so as to better play Haaland's impact.
Like the pass given by Gundogan and Grealish:
However, such passes are not frequent enough and not good enough.
As with many strong conversations this season, Haaland still didn't get enough support in this game, which made him get opportunities similar to this:
And it also makes tactically, Haaland just rushed out of a yellow card from Holding for a hard 45 minutes in the first half.
The problem lies in Pep Guardiola's system.
In the previous strong dialogue, Guardiola adopted the idea of three defenders + bilateral smoothness, in order to open up the width and make more space for the middle through the bilateral smooth arrangement, so as to create such an environment for Haaland and his teammates behind him:
But one against Liverpool, one against Chelsea, the whole team is hard to say, and Haaland did not win.
Compared with the elaborate and complex transmission lines of the past, the bilateral smooth arrangement makes Manchester City's front-court attack tend to be simpler, which makes it easier for opponents to defend.
So in the recent period, Guardiola still picked up the idea of bilateral counter-footing, just like this game, Grealish and Mahrez played the left and right wingers of the team, which made Manchester City look like before.
But this alone does not change the dilemma of attacking up front.
In-cut players like Grealish and Mahrez can indeed add lines by moving inward, but opponents are also familiar with the style of play of such players, and if they want to cut inside smoothly and connect with the middle, they need to have additional manpower to distract the defense.
The conventional approach is to take away a defender by putting on a full-back, so that the success rate of the inside cut is greatly increased, and the next offensive threat is more likely to play.
But the problem is that in City's new system this season, Ake is basically not inserted, and right-back Lewis is also more focused on the role of adduction and reception.
If the full-back does not step forward, it will require the players who were originally in the middle of the midfield to move to the wing, but this is not realistic for Gundogan, De Bruyne is very good at this, but in the first half, his flanking frequency is not much, the most threatening offensive output is to let other teammates contain the defense, his long-range shot at the front of the box:
So you have to look at it, the Manchester City attack in the first half is still in an awkward state of itching their boots.
It's not as simple as when the two sides are smooth, but the inside effect is mediocre and the linkage between the sides is insufficient, which makes Haaland only have to attack Holding independently again and again, and cannot play enough threat in the first half, let alone translate into a score advantage.
So at the start of the second half, Arteta replaced the yellow card-in-Holding with Saliba, making this a potential disadvantage in terms of physical strength and foul risk.
As for Arsenal, they were really limited a lot in the first half.
One of the more obvious points is that Fabio Vieira should be responsible for the transfer from right to left is not much, which makes the effect of the strong and weak side linkage more general, which is not played, and then Nketia, who played brilliantly before, did not have bright spots. Trossard, who was supposed to hit the weak side in a large space, had a hard time getting the ball in time,
Otherwise there should be more such scenarios:
But even if there is not much space, Trossard's side has played a certain effect, not only with such a cross:
Stones' injury was also rushed out before halftime:
Like Haaland and Holding, if the players had been matched accordingly, Haaland and Trossard would have played better and more effectively.
So speaking of which, this is actually where Saka can still improve.
As the only thigh at Arsenal's starting level, Saka should have done more in the first half of the game. When he sees that Vieira around him is unable to cope with such intensity, as the main general, he should consider giving up the more space to Vieira, change to the more stressed middle by himself, and use his left foot to take on the heavy responsibility of connecting the weak side from right to left.
After all, his success rate against Ake on the wing is not high:
So whether he or Vieira play on the wing, it can only play the role of containing the opponent, and the possibility of improving the attack is to open a right-to-left channel, so that Trossard's side can play a complete advantage, which is what he should be aware of on the field.
Of course, after the experience of the past year, Saka's progress has been very obvious, but in order to further promote from an excellent player to a top player, this awareness of making decisions on the field and taking on heavy responsibilities on behalf of the head coach according to the specific situation on the field is required.
Instead of today, when the pressure was heavy in the second half, it began to occasionally enter the ribs:
As for the only goal of the game, it came from City's increased intensity in the second half.
Returning from the second half, Guardiola clearly stepped up his attacking efforts, with the first signal coming in the 52nd minute, when Rico Lewis, who focused on adduction in the first half, began to intersperse ribs:
Three minutes later, City crossed to the weak side, and De Bruyne sent in a cross through ribs:
In the 58th minute, Guardiola made a substitution, replacing not only the immature Rico Lewis with Walker, but also Alvarez.
So before scoring a goal, he first played a long-range shot from the front of the box:
Then after the ball came to the left wing, Ake cut all the way forward and scored the goal:
With this goal, Manchester City were able to eliminate Arsenal and advance to the next round of the FA Cup, while Arsenal took a lot of work in this game, Saka played 74 minutes, Saliba played 45 minutes, Martinelli played 24 minutes and Odegaard played only 16 minutes.
The only regret was that Thomas was injured. Their next game won't start until February 4th.
So although this game is divided into winners and losers, everyone can see their own advantages, especially Arsenal fans, who only lost by one goal in the main rotation, giving them more confidence in the next six-point league two-legged matchup.
For Manchester City, the confidence of the opponents actually comes from their hidden dangers.
In this game, Haaland once again became a sapper in the front court, whether it was a single attack on Holding in the first half, or the offensive threat from the whole game had little to do with him, which made Manchester City continue to wonder how to play Haaland's characteristics and maintain an offensive and defensive balance for the team.
This question will undoubtedly be directly related to Manchester City's performance ceiling this season. If there is no breakthrough in the Champions League, the league title that once held the handle falls next to Arsenal, next to Arteta, who imitates Pep Guardiola's previous system, and next to Jesus and Zinchenko who joined Arsenal, then evaluating Manchester City this season and evaluating Manchester City after Haaland's arrival will become a very interesting question.
After all, the hardest time of the championship battle is coming.