I was going to lead with that second title, but it reminded me of something involving two people and a cup, so I went with something a bit more high-brow. If you want low-brow, somebody just wrote a bawdy limerick on the men’s room wall. Go ahead. I can wait. Anyway, the story of our second goal, the one that broke Fulham’s back and put the match out of reach, is a story of 21 passes spread across 71 seconds, give or take, with outfield player involved at least once. Zinchenko even thought to initate the backheel sequence in the early going.
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| Xhaka’s all alone as Fulham overcommit to their left. |
After bit of the ball pinging around, Trossard settles it. At this point, Fulham have six players in our half. We recycle possession a bit, pressing forward only to withdraw a bit, testing and probing to see how Fulham react. By the time Saliba receives the ball inside the 18 (for the second time), Fulham have now committed seven players into our half, two of them inside the 18 and six in the upper left quadrant (and a seventh withdrawing). Their press is overcommitted to their left, leaving Xhaka all alone on Fulhams’s right. Saliba finds him and the break is on. You can see Xhaka at the very bottom of this second photo, beckoning for the ball. There’s not a Fulham defender within a country mile, allowing Saliba to switch the field without worrying that Tete will pull a Bellerin and intercept the long pass and charge in on goal.
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| Xhaka presses ahead, Fulham are stretched. |
With Fulham having committed those seven to the left flank, they’ve left just three to defend. That seventh player manages to recover, but Xhaka is now spearheading a five-on-four break with Trossard false-nining to his left, Martinelli central, Ødegaard to his right, and Saka wide right. Tete can’t figure out whom he should commit to, Trossard wide or Xhaka probing the inside channel with the ball. By rights, Toson should close down on Xhaka so that Tete can mark Trossard, but this doesn’t happen. Worse, Tete has turned inside, showing his back to Trossard and losing sight of him. Xhaka exploits this by playing the ball just behind the defender, and the chance is on.
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| Leno barely fits in the frame. |
Trossard rinses Tete with a tight left turn and floats a cross into the box. It’s at this point that our fluidty and incisiveness mesh with Fulham’s being at sixes and sevens. They’ve taken up something resembling a zonal marking system, but neither Toson nor Ream have anyone to mark. Leno overcommits to his right as if Trossard would should from such a tight angle. Never good in the air, he’s now fatally out of position. Worse, Robinson, whom Saka and Martinelli terrorised by varying degrees, has taken up a “position” on the wrong side of Martinelli. Martinelli is alone four yards from goal, surrounded by four defenders. He’s the only one who’s ever getting a touch on the ball as it slowly drifts his way. Robinson ducks, perhaps hoping to pull a Kane by undercutting Martinelli. Ream never reacts to the ball. Leno shows too much to his left (in fact, he’s just a shade right of center as Martinelli nods home.
This is the kind of purposeful possession we lacked under Wenger. All too often, we would dominate possession only for opponents to sit back and absorb the pressure. It’s something we struggled with under Arteta before he could drill his tactic into his squad. Instead of squeezing our opponents deeper and deeper into their own third, in effect parking their bus for them, we’re getting better at drawing them out, enticing them further and further away from their goal as they chase the ball and maybe an equaliser, and hit with a lightning-fast counter. One doesn’t often equate dominating possession with hitting on counters, but that’s what we’ve seen here.
Of course, it’s one thing to pull this off against the likes of Fulham. It would be quite another to do the same against Newcastle, Liverpool, or Man City. We may just want to hold these cards closer to the vest until we go to Anfield, the Etihad, or St. James’ Park…
