A historic evening at The Emirates saw Leicester City emerge victorious in North London for the first time in 47 years, whilst simultaneously claiming three straight away wins for the first time in the clubs history.
Aside from breaking records, Leicester City showed the footballing world the calibre, and depth of their tactical approaches, as Brendan Rodgers reverted to a 3-5-1-1 formation – a very similar structure to the team that dismantled Manchester City three Premier League games prior.
The ideology for the two fixtures was identical, but the systems were ever so slightly different. Against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, the Foxes deployed a 5-4-1, with a lone striker of Jamie Vardy, but without a recognised attacking-midfielder. This time out, it was a 3-5-1-1 with a definite attacking-midfielder in James Maddison, but a bigger vacancy up-front, as Harvey Barnes played through the middle instead of the talismanic Vardy, who made the bench after an injury ruled him out of the UEFA Europa League tie in the week.
This is where the Rodgers deserves all of the plaudits. He started the fixture without a striker, but was well aware of Vardy’s late game potential. Barnes was almost deployed as a decoy, filling the spaces Vardy would operate in, so the shape could remain similar – he would also offer the same pace in transition. The idea wasn’t to provide Barnes with goal-scoring opportunities, he’s nowhere near as clinical as Vardy, instead he was utilised as a filler, until the 60 minute mark.
Once in the game, Vardy changed the complexion of the fixture. All the statistics pointed towards the 33-year-old scoring against the Gunners, his record is quite startling, and when Youri Tielemans’ expertly weighted ball found Cengiz Ünder (who’s run was exceptional, a little in-then-out movement to drag his marker – Granit Xhaka – out of the defensive line, giving more space to move into) in-behind the Arsenal defence, it was always going to be Vardy that finished the move off.
Consequently, the majority of the credit will go to the post-Vardy substitution moments, but I think the Foxes controlled the game throughout the entire second-half, and in the first-half they executed their defensive structure almost flawlessly. The slight gamble was allowing David Luiz time to spread play, especially into Kieran Tierney at left-back. This required very smart movement from their summer signing, Thomas Partey, who dragged his man-marker (Harvey Barnes) away from the centre-back, to give him space to progress into.
Ultimately, once the ball found Tierney, the Gunners couldn’t muster up anything in the centre. It was a plethora of corners, of which they scored a disallowed goal from (in my opinion, this was a harsh goal to disallow), and not a lot else. Once Leicester City weathered this storm, Arsenal offered very little – due to the defensive shape of the Foxes, but also a lack of quality in zone 14 from the hosts.
I mentioned earlier that Leicester City implemented a 3-5-1-1 formation, but out of possession it was most definitely a 3-4-3. To facilitate this, the Foxes needed two players flexible enough to play a couple of different positions throughout the game. Up stepped James Maddison and Christian Fuchs, the former slotted into the left-wing position inside the 3-4-3 – with Dennis Praet shifting into right-wing, helping Harvey Barnes through the middle.
In defence, Fuchs was initially deployed as the left centre-back in a three – a position he’s starting to own, purely due to his reading of the game and the slight lack of pace making him struggle as the full-back. However, in transitions, Leicester City needed the full-backs to push high and provide width – meaning Fuchs slotted into the left-back role to allow James Justin to flourish in an attacking sense. Both played unsung hero roles yesterday and deserve recognition.
Finally, Rodgers deserves a lot of credit. I think he’s one of the best managers in the world for getting his game plan correct prior to a fixture. I’ve questioned his in-game adaptions, substitutions, and other decisions, but he got everything correct against Arsenal. This is another system and formation that he’s added to the Leicester City portfolio, which is drastically growing with every passing fixture.
I think this is extremely important and bodes well for the future of th
is season. Having a multitude of different formations that Leicester City feel comfortable playing in, will allow consistent adjustments depending on the fixture – with a European escapade, and three cup competitions this season, there’s a wide variety of matches all with different requirements.
The Foxes are starting to build a reputation of being “giant killers” after good wins away at Manchester City and Arsenal already this season, but are struggling to bypass “lower” tier opposition at home. Once Rodgers understands the formula to beat these sorts of teams, Leicester will be a very difficult side to outplay this season.