Analysis: Arsenal Women turn West Ham’s aggressive press against them

‘They came out differently from what they’ve played this season so far in preseason, so they come out in the back five… what we saw clearly during the first half, there was a lot of space in behind. They were aggressive stepping forwards. There were 1V1 moments for the nine and of course, that’s one of Stina’s big qualities.’ This was Renee Slegers’ explanation to Arseblog News for bringing Stina Blackstenius on at half-time against West Ham.

If you cast your mind back to this fixture last season, Blackstenius came on as a sub and won a penalty and set up Rosa Kafaji in an eventual 2-0 win. That formed part of why she came on at half-time, but let’s look at some examples in the first half where Arsenal were slightly surprised by West Ham’s player for player approach and did not find the spaces they found in the second half, or else did not execute.

In the second minute here, Mariona feeds Mead and because West Ham are tightly tracking runners, you can see a big hole has been left in their defence which Maanum is interested in.

But Mead’s return pass under pressure is slightly behind Mariona and then Mariona tries to go backwards to Emily Fox, who is also under pressure. There was space to play into the channel and Arsenal didn’t use it.

Mead, however, does start to recognise space developing in West Ham’s left defensive channel. She moves in from the line here to collect from Katie Reid.

Mead finds Maanum and because West Ham are pressing player for player, Mead breaking that pressure means there is space for Frida to pass into.

But the pass from Maanum isn’t quite angled well enough for Russo to run onto and Tysiak intercepts.

But you can see that Arsenal are starting to understand that space. As van Domselaar looks to build from the back, look at Kim Little looking and drifting to the right side.

Kim pulls right over to the right-back position and wellies it first time into the right channel. Mead pulls towards Little because she knows Hanshaw will follow her and vacate space. It’s really clever movement from Beth Mead.

It means Russo has space to run into and Fox, Mead and Maanum are all making supporting runs.

Russo holds the ball up and Mead runs to support her. But watch this piece of movement from Mead.

At the last second, she shifts her bodyweight and runs on Hanshaw’s blindside.

That last second shift of bodyweight takes Hanshaw out of the picture and gives Mead time and space on the edge of the area and two West Ham players are drawn to her, which means…

Maanum can attack that space and she hits a good low finish to equalise.

You can also see from this angle that Emily Fox has taken a West Ham defender for a walk towards the corner flag to create space for Mead to run into.

Arsenal work a nice angle here as Foord moves in from the line as Mead has been doing and she redirects Mariona’s pass first time to Maanum.

The ball here is in behind to Russo.

But she doesn’t quite sort her feet out, checks back and the chance for the through ball is gone.

Here we see Kim Little facing up and Russo is interested in that space that West Ham keep leaving (also, at this point, cast your mind to the second goal by Stina Blackstenius and how it unfolds).

Russo has made the run and because it is tracked, it still leaves a space in the middle of the area. Arsenal could work a shot here but Little decides to pass back and start the move again. Arsenal put emphasis on being more aggressive and more accurate in passing into those channels in the second half.

If you sense your opponent is leaving space in the channels, there aren’t many strikers you would rather send for than Stina Blackstenius, who changed this same fixture from the bench last season.

Early in the half, Arsenal force a turnover here and Russo, playing in a withdrawn role now, collects the ball and you can see what Blackstenius wants to do.

Russo duly plays the ball in behind but it’s just got too much angle on it to yield a shot. But Russo’s presence is important here. Arsenal didn’t want to just dump the ball into the channel and have Stina chase it. The point is that West Ham players were jumping out of their positions, so Arsenal wanted to manipulate space before teasing that pass.

But as much as Arsenal didn’t want to just spam the ball in behind, they did want to be more adventurous in working the ball into those areas. This is not an easy pass for Mariona to Russo but she takes it on.

Because West Ham are touch tight defending, Russo has the presence of mind to flick the ball into Stina’s path, knowing full well that Tysiak will commit to following Russo.

Stina does the rest. Arsenal got the balance right between being assertive and manipulating space. It’s not a dissimilar space to where Arsenal work the equaliser.

As much as Arsenal didn’t just want to pump the channels, Caitlin Foord has a goal disallowed for offside shortly after the second goal and look how the move is initiated.

‘AVE IT!

Again we just see Arsenal be more assertive here about hitting the channel. Blackstenius has drifted wide and taken her marker with her, so Mariona makes a surging run from deep and Mead tries the difficult pass.

Mead finds Mariona with a brilliant lofted pass and her eventual cross to Foord is just scooped up by Walsh.

Arsenal consistently used West Ham’s intent to press against them. Blackstenius swivels here under very close attention from Tysiak.

She spins deftly and plays the ball in behind for Foord in a dangerous position. Arsenal kept teeing up situations where they would attract West Ham defenders out of shape before playing the killer pass in behind.

Arsenal know West Ham will follow every player and Slegers’ side really got to grips with how to move them around. Foord plays the ball into Mariona here knowing full well the West Ham defenders will commit to following her.

Mariona just prods the ball into the area and two West Ham defenders are taken out with the third stretching. The corner won from this move yields the third goal.

Once again, we see Kim Little over on that right side and not eschewing the difficult angled pass into the channel.

Gorry telegraphs this pass straight to Mariona.

And Stina’s powerful running forces another last ditch intervention.

By the end of the game, look how wary West Ham are of Stina’s runs in behind. Two of them go with her as Smith turns here.

That’s what creates the extra yard for Russo on the edge of the area to unleash a rocket into the top corner.

This was very similar to the LCL game in that, once Arsenal worked out West Ham’s pressing scheme and their game plan to pressure each player in possession, they worked out how to manipulate space and turn West Ham’s aggression against them.

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