How Arteta's changes turned tide against Chelsea

As Leandro Trossard stabbed the ball into the bottom corner Stamford Bridge fell into a stunned silence.

See: Arsenal fightback keeps unbeaten start

An Arsenal comeback had not seemed possible only eight minutes earlier when Chelsea, 2-0 up and cruising, looked to have a statement win in the bag; looked to have the Mauricio Pochettino era up and running.

But a misplaced pass from Robert Sanchez was enough to shift momentum and completely rewrite the story of this match, preserving Arsenal’s unbeaten start and undoing all the good work of what had been an excellent Chelsea performance.

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2-2

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Nevertheless it takes guts, confidence, and smart tactical calculations to come back as Arsenal did, and Mikel Arteta deserves credit for how he flipped his side’s ponderous and risk-averse first-half performance into a second half of brave attacking football.

ALex Keble explains how Chelsea got themselves into such a commanding position – and how Arsenal bounced back:

Pochettino’s surprise blunts Arsenal possession

The most unexpected – and consequential – of Pochettino’s tactical surprises on Saturday evening was to abandon his usual hard-pressing and high-line approach to defending for a more cautious midblock.

In the 1-1 draw with Liverpool on the opening weekend, Pochettino’s front-foot defending produced a wild end-to-end match and clearly the Chelsea manager wanted to avoid a repeat of that, hence a tightly squeezed 4-4-2 that sat off the Arsenal defenders, blocking the route through.

It worked well, surrounding Arsenal’s deeper midfielders Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko and therefore preventing the visitors from getting any sort of rhythm going.

However, Chelsea were assisted by some ultra-safe passing and a hesitant Arsenal performance arguably influenced by the driving rain and sticky pitch.

Palmer & Gallagher combine to force errors

The harassing energy of Conor Gallagher and Cole Palmer, leading that 4-4-2, certainly helped force some sloppy Arsenal moments. This included the handball that led to Chelsea’s first goal from the penalty spot and the misplaced pass from Ben White that allowed the hosts to quickly counter for the second -  a Mykhailo Mudryk cross that David Raya might have been in a better position to stop.

Pochettino deserves praise for his use of Palmer and Gallagher almost as dual “false nines”, which helped to considerably outnumber Arsenal in central midfield.

Throughout the first 68 minutes (prior to the flurry of substitutions that changed the match) Declan Rice and Jorginho man-marked Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, which meant being pulled out of position and leaving both Gallagher and Palmer free to pick up progressive passes.

It led directly to the penalty-winning incident. Jorginho and Rice were caught ahead of the play, man-marking Caicedo and Fernandez, which left Gallagher free to drive forward.

That combination – Chelsea strong on the break, Arsenal stilted in their passing – had looked to settle the match as a clear tactical victory for Pochettino. Then Rice scored and everything shifted.

Arteta’s subs swing momentum

Arsenal were more assertive, hard-pressing, and direct in their passing right from kick-off at the start of the second half, but Mudryk’s 48th-minute goal winded them, and the contest seemed dead until Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah came on for Gabriel Jesus and Jorginho.

Suddenly Arsenal had two No 10, Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard, to occupy the half-spaces and provide options for braver, riskier forward passes.

Connections between Smith Rowe and the Arsenal defenders helped them build a little momentum, although it was unlikely to have been enough without the Sanchez error that allowed Rice to smash home from 35 yards.

Still, from that moment Arteta’s attacking substitutions began to push Chelsea back and put them into some awkward, static positions – hence the error from Sanchez, and the subsequent space Arsenal found to create the second goal.

Kai Havertz, on as a substitute, found the kind of room between the lines that simply didn’t exist in the first 70 minutes. He laid the ball off to Bukayo Saka to cross for Trossard, another substitute, to score the equaliser.

Arsenal expose Chelsea inexperience

It was Arteta’s tactical shift and his smart subs that paid off, although more fundamentally it was about attitude; about taking risks.

“From the start of the match, we didn’t play with enough purpose and clarity,” Arteta said, before adding that Arsenal “became a much better team” after the break.

From a Chelsea perspective, perhaps this was another example of youthfulness letting them down, both in their inability to react to the Smith Rowe and Havertz substitutions and in making those errors late on.

It leaves their recent revival a little dented. Chelsea are now ninth, with only three wins from their first nine matches under Pochettino.

In fact they have only won one of their last 12 home Premier League matches, and failing to see out a 2-0 lead could further damage the confidence of this young side.

Arsenal meanwhile have escaped with their unbeaten record intact and move into second, level on points with leaders Manchester City.

The top seven

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
1	Man City MCI	38	+62	91
2	Arsenal ARS	38	+62	89
3	Liverpool LIV	38	+45	82
4	Aston Villa AVL	38	+15	68
5	Spurs TOT	38	+13	66
6	Chelsea CHE	38	+14	63
7	Newcastle NEW	38	+23	60

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Arteta will be delighted with the start his team have made to the season - and with the character his team showed by shaking off a cowering first-half performance to play fearlessly in the second.