Last week, Unai Emery gave an interview to Sky Sports, in which he explained in detail what his Arsenal was missing.

“Before the arrival of Wenger, the Arsenal was stable in defense, but did not shine at all in the attack. When Arsene came to the club, he used this reliability and added more class to the team ahead. The invincible Arsenal was born out of this balance. In recent years, everything has changed. Arsene had good technical players in the attack, but the team lacked strength in defense. Now we are in a transitional phase and are just trying to find a balance,” - Emery explained.

Words Unai easily confirm the numbers. In terms of sharpness of shots, the team ranks sixth in the Premier League, in the sharpness of admitted shots only 8th. A similar picture with goals. By goals scored, Arsenal is already the third in the league, and missed is only the ninth. Roughly speaking, the “gunners” play decently in the attack, but they defend themselves at the level of the middle team. Not the balance that Emery talked about.

In this sense, the match with Chelsea is the standard to which Emery aspires. The Spaniard has prepared the perfect tactical plan. By influencing the outcome of his decision, perhaps the most effective in the framework of the top matches of this season. This master class, which Unai translated into a well-deserved and important victory.

Even in the first match with Chelsea, the Spaniard found the weak link of the “blues” in defense - the left flank. There are more adventurous Alonso and Luis - they miss their opponents behind their backs and corny defend worse. Through their edge, the “gunners” penetrated into the penalty area at Stamford Bridge. Across their land, they emerged from the pressure of Chelsea already at Emirates.

The pass map of the hosts on another third of the field perfectly captured this moment. In the first 15 minutes, Arsenal lined up attacks through longitudinal passes to the flank of Alonso and Luiz. After one of them, the "gunners" created the first clear moment with the blow of Aubameyang.

The pass map Arsenal on someone else's third of the field in the first 15 minutes. The length of passes on the right flank characterizes Emery's idea.

To press the guests themselves, Arsenal took the idea of ​​Tottenham. In the home game against Chelsea, the “spurs” lined up in a 4-4-2 scheme with a rhombus in the center of the field. This helped with the tutelage of both central defenders and Georgina. Then the Italian was supervised by Dele Alli.

Arsenal set out a similar scheme in which Aaron Ramsey took on the role of Alli. This is both an arrangement for an opponent and a bug fix. In the first round, Emery relied on Ozil, but the German failed the task and gave Jorginho too much freedom. Ramsey is more disciplined without the ball.

In this plan of Emery was also justified. In the first half hour, Chelsea made eight losses in its own half. Two mistakes directly led to shots on goal. This is an awful lot for the team, which specifically provokes the opponent to pressure.

Emery's derivative idea was to block the blues through Alonso and Luiz and direct their attacks to the opposite flank. This is an extremely thoughtful step - Azpilicueta and Rüdiger handle the ball worse, looking for options for a pass more slowly. In the first half hour, Chelsea made most of the gear through their flank. A rare example, when Luiz was involved in the attack, ended with an elegant one-on-one pass to Pedro.

Picture of the first half an hour. Arsenal selects balls in the Alonso and Luiz zone (left), Chelsea is forced to attack Azpilicueta through the flank(on the right)

The key influence on the outcome was the standards to which Emery was again involved. In the first half, Arsenal struck ten times, five of them - after corner and free kicks. Twice this led to clear moments. The consequence of the standards is both the goals scored by Arsenal.

A short draw of corners is definitely a new feature that has definitely confused the guests. Such effectiveness is a bonus for any coach who plays with Sarri. At the time, Maurizio got the nickname Mr 33 just for the manic attention to standards.

Already the attackers helped to dry the game. In Emery's scheme, the weak link was the flank. There, Arsenal had only one player (Bellerin - on the right, Kolašinac - on the left), Chelsea - two each (Alonso and Willian - on the left, Azpilicueta and Pedro - on the right). This slightly unbalanced the Arsenal after the start-up period, but thanks to the support of the strikers it did not result in a large-scale problem.

Since Aubameyang and Lacazette played in pairs, there was always a dilemma in front of the fullbacks of Chelsea. Connect to the attack and hit the weak point of the "gunners", but leave Luiz and Rüdiger against a speed duet, or help defense partners, but deprive the team of the option ahead.

A cautious option is the banal fear of Lacazette and Aubameyang. The advantages of the bold minimized the amazing work capacity of the duo. In order not to leave the team without support in defense, both Aubameyang and Lacazette smartly worked out from behind. The Gabonian issued three successful tackles at once, all in his own half of the field. The French have three interceptions.

In the context of the entire season, the performance of the attackers looks even more impressive. Aubameyang makes 0.7 tackles on average per game - against Chelsea, he increased this figure five times. On the account of Lacazette 0.5 interception per game - against Chelsea, he made six times more.

It is the charge of the strikers to defend that predetermined the dull character of the remaining 60 minutes. Arsenal lost the threat in counterattacks, but Chelsea lost at least some advantage on the flanks. The combination of his own ideas and the elegant execution of their players allowed Emery to at least one match to find the balance of which he so dreams.