Between the lines with Chelsea

Arsenal will be facing Chelsea in this year's FA cup final at Wembley on 1st August. Both the teams defeated the Manchester clubs in semi-finals making this an all-London affair. It is a battle between two rookie managers (at top level), who have set minimum high standards for players and haven't shied away from making tough decisions during the tenure. From Arsenal's point of view, this is a Chelsea side that doesn't make many mistakes and has a very good work ethic. Let's look at Chelsea's expected starting line-up and move on to couple of situations that Arsenal needs to keep an eye on.

Chelsea’s formation and forward line:

Chelsea played most of their season with a 4-3-3 formation with amazing N’Golo Kante being the pivot in their midfield. But with injury to Kante recently, Chelsea have changed their system in their FA Cup semi-final tie against Manchester United to 5-2-3. They have not changed their formation and starting line-up since, except for the decision between Willian and Pulisic in their forward line. And I don’t see that changing against Arsenal in FA cup final. I expect Frank Lampard to start Willian ahead of Pulisic, purely based on recent team selection and experience of big games. Therefore, any big news coming out of Chelsea’s team selection would be very surprising, of course, unless forced due to injury. I am ignoring the noise around Willian’s transfer rumors created just before the FA cup final.

Chelsea midfield - off the ball:

Now there are many areas that can be looked at when a team doesn’t have the ball. But there is one aspect of the game when Chelsea looked vulnerable is when one of Chelsea's midfielder leaves space in midfield, while he joins his forward players in pressing higher up the pitch. This was evident in the game against Manchester United many times. Every time Kovacic joined the front three Chelsea player in pressing higher, he left a lot of space in midfield to be exploited by Bruno Fernandes. Bruno received the ball in a similar position in between the lines (picture above) at least 6 times during the game.

Typically, Arsenal doesn’t play with a # 10 in their team, but someone like Bukayo Saka can play that role from the right side. He has the smartness to move in the inside-right channel and position himself between the line. Mikel Arteta did try him in a similar role in one of the games after the restart.

It is not an easy job to defend in the midfield and more so when one of the midfielders is tempted to leave his position and join collective pressing higher up the pitch. You can see that Kovacic and Jorginho aren't in position to form the second line of defense. I don't think Jorginho or Kovacic have that understanding between them to cover each other in such a situation. Being isolated in midfield is not ideal situation for either of the Chelsea midfielder especially when they have to cover 2 passing lines. This is exactly when opposition must exploit space in midfield. In the picture above you can see Bruno Fernandes moving in that empty space. Even as he receives the ball, Chelsea's defensive line is broken forcing one of the defenders to step out either to stop the ball from being played behind or to stop a direct shot at the goal. This is an area where both Xhaka and Dani Ceballos has been very effective since the restart, due to their positioning discipline off the ball.

Cesar Azpilicueta – player to watch-out:

Now, of course, the trio of Mason Mount-Oliver Giroud-Willian are the usual suspects for Arsenal in Chelsea’s attacks. But expect Cesar Azpilicueta to quietly move into the area shown in the picture above, and put in decisive cross looking for Giroud in the center and Alonso on the far-post. During the entire game against Manchester United, he crossed at least 6 times into the penalty box, including low crosses from wings. Looking at his number in past, you can see that he has a knack of making a difference in the big games not just with his defending, but also crossing. Combining well with Azpilicueta in the attack, Reece James also contributed with 3 low crosses in the same game. Clearly, Arsenal has to look out for these situations from Chelsea’s right, and also late runs from Alonso at the far post. Will the height difference between Alonso and Arsenal’s right-back options matter in the end?

Final words:

Arsenal players have to turn up for the final, unlike the game against Chelsea in last year’s Europa Cup final. A lot depends on the day, but I do think Arsenal has a better forward line than Chelsea and that may well decide the game. I am hoping for Saka to start the game ahead of Pepe and if he does, look out for his reverse pass to Lacazatte for the winner.