Why Mikel Arteta’s tactical approach against Aston Villa made sense

After Arsenal crashed to a damaging 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta inevitably came under scrutiny for electing to change his system.

Arteta reverted to the approach he used earlier in the season, with the much-maligned Oleksandr Zinchenko coming in at left-back, Gabriel Jesus playing up front, and Kai Havertz switching to an attacking-midfield role, having played up front in recent weeks. Judge solely according to the scoreline, and this was a disastrous move. But, as ever, things are a little more complex.

Those two changes essentially went hand in hand. Jakub Kiwior performed poorly at left-back in the midweek 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich, so Zinchenko’s return wasn’t a huge surprise. Takehiro Tomiyasu is another option, but Arteta’s use of Zinchenko was a more positive choice that helped Arsenal dominate possession in the first half.

In turn, that allowed for the use of an attacking option in the left-centre midfield slot, as Zinchenko drifts into that zone, freeing up a midfielder to become a bonus attacker. That’s the role played by Havertz, one of a new breed of curious players who have operated both as a No 8 and a No 9 this season.

Throughout the first half, there were some promising moments. Villa’s high line has caused opponents serious problems this season, and the defence is particularly adept at stepping up to catch a striker offside when they start their runs high up against them. They have more problems against runners from deep, and therefore Havertz starting his runs from midfield rather than attack made sense.

Zinchenko was often the player who tried to find those runs, including this lofted ball in behind, from which Havertz took a heavy touch…

There was also this longer pass, which put Havertz through on goal — although there was a delayed offside flag after the move came to an end.

Then it was Martin Odegaard finding the run of Havertz into that channel. Here, he was outmuscled by the Villa centre-back Diego Carlos, who was named man of the match at full time. The fact he was so important to Villa’s performance, particularly in the first half, shows the extent to which Havertz’s movement caused problems.

Here’s another, slightly different type of situation: Havertz exploiting space in the channel to get onto a Leandro Trossard ball in behind. The shot is a little tame, but the danger was there.

Granted, more of an issue was the performance of Jesus, who has struggled to recapture the goalscoring form of his early games at the club since suffering injury problems last season.

Here, his movement is great to get onto Odegaard’s ball in behind, and his awareness to bring in Bukayo Saka is also encouraging.

But then Jesus checked and held his position on the edge of the box rather than darting towards goal — not a huge crime here, but a common theme when he’s not in goalscoring form. Another thing to note is Trossard at the far post, calling for a pass.

Here’s a comparable…