Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka have become one-on-one specialists at Arsenal thanks to Mikel Arteta’s tactics | Football News

Bukayo Saka has been in good form for Arsenal this season and Gabriel Martinelli’s impact has also been outstanding. But his success was no accident. It has been engineered with Mikel Arteta’s tactics. Opponents struggle to find answers.

The temptation is to put it into individual brilliance and there are many of them. From striking the ball into the top corner with his right foot against Everton with as much conviction as he hit the ball on the left against Aston Villa.

Martinelli ended an eight-game goalless run with a late goal at Villa Park and began to show his quality when he scored the winner at Leicester and added two more against Everton. The extreme range coupled with the finishing is a rare combination.

The Brazilian is the fifth highest goalscorer in the Premier League with Saka not far behind. The England international has also provided nine assists, more than anyone else in double figures for goals. It should be noted that both are only 21 years old.

But these talented young players also benefit from the system they put in place to succeed. “We are trying to help him with the way we play to get into that position,” Arteta said after beating Everton.

Statistics show this clearly. There is data now available that tracks the number of one-on-one situations in which players find themselves. These are the moments in the match when they have the ball and are isolated against one opponent.

Unlike statistics for the number of dribbles, the player in possession is not required to make a clear and clear attempt to beat this isolated defender to be registered as a one-on-one situation. It just logs the number of times this situation is created.

Saka has managed to find himself in this one-on-one situation with the ball at his feet on 270 occasions in the Premier League this season. That’s 67 more than the next player on the list, the only other has received the ball in this way more than 200 times.

That man is Martinelli.

Given those numbers, it’s no surprise that Saka has completed more dribbles than any other player in the Premier League – with Martinelli once again on the list. They are often in situations that encourage them to take notes.

It means that they can also be more dangerous when shooting at the enemy. From already try dribbles the most of anyone in the Premier League but compare it to the second man on that list, Wilfried Zaha, and it’s a different story.

More than half of Saka’s 110 dribble attempts — 65 of them, in fact, or 59 percent — came while in one-on-one situations. Zaha, the Crystal Palace striker, was not far behind with 94 attempts but only 22 – just 23 per cent – when one-on-one.

For Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, the percentage is even lower – just 18 out of 85 dribble attempts when in one-on-one situations. In fact, of the top 10 dribblers, anyone attempts more than half a dribble in one-on-one situations?

From and Martinelli.

Being in a dominant team helps the number of promising situations. Arsenal have more possession than 18 of the other 19 teams in the Premier League. It might seem logical that this would result in players having more opportunities.

But there is more to it than that. The circulation of the ball, the whole set-up of Arteta’s Arsenal team, is designed for this. He tries to create the conditions for the wide players to break through the opponent’s defensive line.

Consider the fact that the overlapping full-backs never seem to be a staple of the attacking game, their presence is used to create an overload if the opposition winger does not track the run or to buy the slightest bit of extra space even if they do. Arsenal are lacking now.

Like Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, who often does the same with Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez, the idea is to stay away from wingers. Look at Ben White’s position early in the game against Everton when Saka was in possession.

Arsenal’s 3-2-5 formation sees White provide defensive support if the winger is dropped while Martin Odegaard moves into the half-space, a player better suited to take advantage of the quick exchanges available to Saka.

The level of detail goes beyond how many times Arsenal can work the ball into wide players in this way. This also includes proper body position when receiving. Arteta wanted Saka and Martinelli to collect the ball in an angle, facing the goal.

“I don’t like making it [straight] the line between the players is wide,” said Arteta. “Why? Because the full-back passes wide players like this and his back is to the goal, he can’t go forward, there’s always someone who can’t play, he can’t play forward.

The example above from Tottenham’s victory in January shows how Saka tries to move wide as possible to receive a pass from White wide so that he has enough space to turn and face the opponent when collecting the ball.

If White is pushed more during the catch, Saka changes his movement instead of looking for a straighter pass that will fight the defender. This example from the Boxing Day win over West Ham saw him cut inside for the ball to go over the top instead.

Most of these moves are mirrored by Martinelli on the left. He has more entries into the penalty box after one-on-one situations than any other Premier League player. His goal at Brighton came from getting on to Odegaard’s scintillating pass.

Martinelli has a lot to do. It takes a lot of quality from the passer and the receiver to go from this position to celebrate the goal just a few seconds later. The outstanding individual ability in this Arsenal team is helping to make the difference in this title race.

But what is clear is that they are given every opportunity to develop thanks to the tactical decisions of coaches who know how best to maximize these strengths. Creating one-on-one situations for young wingers has been Arteta’s masterstroke.