Tactx

Arsenal adopted a man-to-man press with Timber leaving his right-back position (and +1 on the defensive line) to jump onto Spence at left-back. The roles within this press are defined in the image below.

Havertz would always try to force play to the Arsenal right with pressure on the goalkeeper marking Dragusin. Odegaard, Rice and Partey locked onto the Spurs midfield players to prevent any link passes the player Havertz had left (Dragusin)

You can see here the risk involved to find the spare player. Arsenal have Spurs where they want them.

With this man-to-man press, you can see what Arsenal's defensive line looks like. 3v3, Spurs didn't manipulate this possible advantage. The longer pass into Kulusevski could have been a strong option.

Spurs want to find the spare player in the build-up, but Arsenal are prepared for this. Odegaard marks in fornt of Bissouma in this example. This will force play into the LCB (Gray) and make play predictable for Arsenal.

The only joy Spurs had with the link pass to find the spare player was when Partey didn't go tight enough from his deeper position.

The same again, Maddison drops deeper to link play and Spurs can build from the back.

Arsenal generally got the press right. It was a slight shift away from Odegaard leading the press on the front line but he was still dictating with his tactical understanding. Here he's telling Sterling to get ready to go onto Gray.

We lost count of the number of times Arsenal locked Spurs into the Arsenal right hand-side. Forcing play into this position, they turned the ball over and ensured Spurs could not build any progressive attacks.

Nowhere to go as Spurs are locked in.

The concern for Spurs in this. At no point did they adjust. We want to highlight Brighton. Arsenal tried to lock Brighton into one side and it looked to be working. A slightly different pressing strategy but looking for the same outcome.

Within 5 minutes, Brighton adjusted. Dropping a CM into the defensive line prevented them from being locked into one side.

Arteta adjusted to a full man-to-man press but Brighton simply went over it. Two managers constantly looking to give their team the edge.

This was the most disappointing part of Spur's game last night. At no time did they adjust, and they kept playing into the Arsenal trap. Arteta would have been asking for more of the same for the whole game.

The solutions? Spurs had joy with wide rotations. It's a usual pattern of their play, but they stopped doing it after Arsenal caught them out. Without it, they became predictable. Pushing Spence higher and rotating asks more questions about the Timber role.

Another possible solution is the positioning of Gray (move more central) and Spence (drop lower). Pushing the midfield higher would enable the back three to then divide the press of Sterling and Havertz and create a 4v2 with the goalkeeper This creates a larger distance for Timber to cover. If he jumps early, the longer pass into the equal numbers on the frontline has to be the option.

The potential Spurs solutions.