Wednesday 29 May 2019

How Mkhitaryan and Ramsey absences give Arsenal a big tactical problem against Chelsea

The Gunners take on their Premier League rivals in the Europa League final without two of their most important players

When Arsenal swept Chelsea aside so comfortably at the Emirates in January in the Premier League, it was Laurent Koscielny who walked away with the man of the match award.

But it could be argued that there was another player in red who was the key ingredient in Arsenal’s London derby success, although his contribution was perhaps not as tangible.

And that player was Aaron Ramsey, who Unai Emery deployed at the tip of his midfield diamond against the Blues.


Ramsey didn’t score either of Arsenal’s goals and he didn’t set either of them up, but his importance to the home side’s victory was huge nonetheless.

Arsenal were dominant at the Emirates and, having taken a two-goal lead into the break thanks to strikes from Alexandre Lacazette and Koscielny, they never looked like surrendering their lead.

Chelsea ended the game having just one shot on target and a key reason for that was the role Ramsey played in stopping their supply line at source.

And that source is, of course, Jorginho.

The game in January was played around the time when it had become clear that if you denied Jorginho time and space to dictate the play, then Chelsea would really struggle to open teams up.

The Italy international midfielder is the fulcrum of the Chelsea side, he is the player that Maurizio Sarri looks to in order to get his team moving up the pitch with his incisive passing.

But, whenever he has faced an opponent who has marked him tightly and disrupted his rhythm, then both he and Chelsea have struggled.





GOAL

No comments:

Post a Comment