Despite a raft of injuries, Arsenal have demolished Real Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League Quarter-Final. Two incredible free-kick goals from Declan Rice (and a killer cameo from Mikel Merino) put the game well beyond Ancelotti's men who were, in truth, lucky to get out of there with what they did.Adam Clery looks at the whole performance to show why Mikel Arteta had Madrid beat from the very first minutes.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, Adam Cleary, AC, FC, and I'll hold my hands up here, did not see that coming.
00:10I thought for all the world this was going to be a story about how if Arsenal only had a goddamn centre forward,
00:17they would have demolished Real Madrid, and yeah, then they just went and demolished Real Madrid,
00:24so this is how they did that.
00:30Right, so we could just get the pants straight off and go straight to the goals,
00:34but I think purely looking at the game as these moments of individual brilliance, which admittedly they were,
00:41does an enormous disservice to just how dominant Arsenal were in this match.
00:48Plus, and this is maybe the one thing that everybody seems to have missed about this match, right,
00:53the free kicks themselves are a direct result of something that said Arsenal dominance forces Real Madrid to do,
01:03which I think is really interesting, so let's look at that.
01:05Now, just to remind you, right, this is actually Real Madrid, and Real Madrid are class,
01:11but they have not been defensively solid this season.
01:15And that's because they faced a bit of a problem this season in trying to bring Kylian Mbappe into this side,
01:20and make it all work with the number of stars.
01:22They've got, and Ancelotti's solution to this has been to pretty much play them in a really sort of orthodox 4-4-2.
01:31And for the most part, it's worked, like, pretty well, they'd say.
01:34He's got, like, over 30 goals this season, but the major downside has been that it's stuck Jude Bellingham all the way out on this left-hand side.
01:41Like, I'll show you his heat map from the season as a whole, right, it's going this way,
01:45and that's not a left-sided centre midfielder, that's like a classic 90s left winger.
01:51Like, yes, he moves more into the centre as they get up the pitch,
01:54but the bulk of his work isn't even in this left half space, it's on this left wing.
01:59Now, that's obviously a bit of a shame for him, but the real problem with it is that when Madrid don't have the ball,
02:04they're pressing you exclusively with Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappe.
02:09And you saw that constantly last night.
02:12For all their astonishing attacking qualities, they are not really programmed to do this,
02:17and they can get played through so, so easily.
02:21As a result, Madrid have looked really vulnerable this season for all the reasons that 4-4-2 originally went out of fashion.
02:28Like, it's dead easy to play past this front line of two,
02:31and whether it's by inverting somebody into the middle like this,
02:33or somebody dropping from slightly further forward,
02:36teams are finding it really easy to get a 3-v-2 in the middle against them.
02:40The guy is sneaking suspicion Arsenal might do pretty well in this game,
02:44because if you saw Madrid against Liverpool,
02:47they found it really easy all through the game to play through this.
02:50And Arsenal, very smartly, were trying to do this exact same thing from the first whistle,
02:55but I bet even they were astonished at just how easy they found it to do that.
03:01Like, I genuinely lost count of how many times this happened in the first half.
03:04Like, Madrid set up in this 4-4-2, and the only thing they're remotely asked about,
03:09the only instruction they've got, is to be narrow to stop the ball into Thomas Partey.
03:14And I know that some people will say that Arsenal haven't been at their best this season,
03:18or not quite the level they were the last two years,
03:20but the one consistent thing about the way Arteta's got them set up,
03:24is that if you are obvious in your approach, they will murder you.
03:29And time and time again, they just played through this structure like it wasn't even there.
03:34Like, it was weird how easy Arsenal made it look,
03:36because this obsession with Thomas Partey meant that Lewis Skelly could invert in behind them,
03:42and they weren't asked.
03:43It meant that Odegaard could drop deeper, and they weren't asked.
03:46They'd move them left to right.
03:48They'd wait for either Bellingham or Rodrigo to get attracted centrally,
03:51and then they'd just literally run around them.
03:54Like, this bit is a mere 12-minute in.
03:57It's a passage of play that just sort of screams Arsenal have got their number here.
04:02They've now added Rea to the back three to make a back four.
04:05Mbappe and Vinny are still only bothered about closing off Partey,
04:09so you've got Odegaard and Lewis Skelly both moving into the space behind them.
04:14Now, this attracts both Bellingham and Rodrigo,
04:16but still, just do a quick head count here.
04:20This is 6v4.
04:22They move them wide like it's the easiest thing in the world.
04:25Odegaard's now between the lines.
04:27He checks quickly to make sure Lewis Skelly's having as much fun as he is,
04:31receives the ball, plays it to him.
04:34There's like a token half sort of, whatever, movement for Rodrigo.
04:38Lewis Skelly gets turned, and all of a sudden, they're away.
04:42Like, it's the easiest thing in the world.
04:44They've just opened Madrid up down the sides.
04:46Like, this is their midfield line.
04:48These are the two players that are supposed to be defending these areas.
04:53And Arsenal have gone from, like, a 6v4 build-up
04:56to now just running directly at the back four
05:00with 1v1s in both full-back areas.
05:03Hey, don't get me wrong.
05:05I know it won't have felt like this if you're an Arsenal fan watching it
05:09because the human brain and the body,
05:11that little tap, tap, tap,
05:12and nerves right in the back of your head
05:14when you're supposed to be enjoying yourself.
05:16But I, as a relative neutral, saw this sequence of play
05:20and thought, do you know what?
05:23They might do them here.
05:25Like, I didn't think they were going to do them 3-0, obviously,
05:28but you know what I mean.
05:29Anyway, though, this just kept happening.
05:31Like, this is the 25th minute now.
05:33Miles Lewis Skelly, he's come into the middle,
05:35and just watch how easy this is.
05:38That is David Wright effectively just playing the ball
05:41through the middle of Real Madrid's entire press.
05:44Like, it's not even there.
05:45The two of them have one job, mark this player,
05:48and he still just doesn't give it a second thought.
05:51And the really mad thing about this bit is that he turns,
05:53he breaks forward, but then he checks back
05:55because Timber's off the pitch,
05:57and they're actually a man light in this area.
05:59Madrid take this opportunity to get back goal side,
06:02and yep, well done, lads.
06:03That's the bare minimum.
06:04And then they still just forget that he's there.
06:08Like, I genuinely kind of believe what I'm seeing here.
06:10Like, look how easy it is for him to get back into loads of space.
06:13And then again, how easy it is for Arsenal to find him in that space.
06:19And just to highlight how easy this was, right,
06:20this is Miles Lewis Skelly's pass map,
06:23both successful and unsuccessful,
06:25in just the first 45 minutes.
06:28Like, I've seen these look like that after 90,
06:31not after one half of football against Real Madrid.
06:34This is near total freedom to come into this part of the pitch here,
06:38where there's supposed to be players marking him,
06:40and then carry it forward into the final third.
06:44Like, that is, that's dominance.
06:46Just having the ball anywhere in the first two thirds of the pitch
06:48was so comfortable for Arsenal.
06:51It was genuinely, like, quite mad to watch.
06:53Like, these are two of the best, best players in world football.
06:57It's just that they are horribly miscast as pressing forwards.
07:01But, but, but, but, but, but, I am not going to shock you here.
07:05What looked like it might undo this whole plan,
07:09Arsenal's only problem in this match,
07:11was the lack of a centre forward.
07:16Need that for later.
07:17For all they had Real Madrid over a barrel,
07:20for all their plan of getting these 1v1s in the wide areas was working,
07:24the fear was that they would not then be able to convert that into a goal.
07:29Martinelli gets down the left, beats his man,
07:31that's what they want, he dinks it in,
07:32and there is not enough of a challenge or a run to take any advantage.
07:36Then later, Saka has Alaba on f***ing chips, by the way,
07:41but nobody has any instinct to get across the line of this ball
07:45for what would have been an easy tap-in.
07:47Even that example of the build-up I showed you before,
07:49the way that ends is with Declan Rice making this near post run,
07:53and Marino making the same near post run.
07:56And the thing is, that in itself isn't a terrible decision,
07:59you've got a good chance of getting the ball,
08:00a good chance of scoring,
08:01but it's not what an experienced forward would do,
08:05knowing that someone else was making it.
08:06What he would do is hang back around the penalty spot
08:09in case there's a cutback or a deflection,
08:12which if Marino had done that,
08:14he would have been stood here when the ball broke in the box.
08:18Instead, because he made the same run that Rice did,
08:20he's actually running away from the goal to try and retrieve that,
08:23and you can't really score from there.
08:24And I know we all know what happens later on with both Rice and Marino,
08:27so this might feel like a weird point to be making,
08:30but trust me, I am going somewhere with it, right?
08:32Arsenal's average positions for that first half,
08:35Marino was really struggling to have any impact in this final third.
08:39He's practically touching the ball more in his own defensive third
08:42than he is the attacking third.
08:45There's just a huge hole here
08:46where you'd want a centre-forward to have a presence.
08:49And the reason I choose to highlight this
08:52is because Real Madrid are not stupid.
08:55Like, they could see all of this.
08:57They knew this is the way the game was going to go,
09:00and that factored into their own game plan.
09:03They knew this piss-weak press
09:05was going to allow Arsenal to get the ball a lot in the middle
09:08and dominate a lot of the possession,
09:09but also it kept putting Madrid in situations
09:13where Mbappe and Vinicius were receiving in space
09:16and running directly at Arsenal's back line.
09:19All of their good chances came from that.
09:22It was the gamble they had chosen to make.
09:25They clearly decided that they were happy for Arsenal
09:27to basically dominate this entire two-thirds of the pitch
09:30because they lacked the firepower necessary
09:33to hurt them where it really mattered.
09:36But, and this is where the game was won and lost, right?
09:39So dangerous were Arsenal starting to look.
09:42In a certain area, it forced Madrid to make one small concession,
09:48and that's what cost them the game.
09:50So dangerous did Bakaio Saka look in these one-on-ones.
09:54Ancelotti reasoned that because Lewis Skelly
09:56was liable to be making overlaps here
09:58and Timber was more likely to be tucking in,
10:01he could afford to ask Jude Bellingham
10:04to drop much further back and double up on him.
10:08And that was actually, I think, pretty smart
10:10because it made life a lot harder for Saka.
10:11It meant someone was in much closer attendance to Erdegaard.
10:14But what it also did was just sort of force everybody back enough
10:18that it opened up this inside area of the pitch instead.
10:23Like, you can see it here.
10:24Bellingham would probably be in this area,
10:26but now he's much deeper trying to help out.
10:29And not to grossly oversimplify this,
10:31but because Bakaio Saka is an incredible footballer,
10:34taking away the ability for him to easily beat a man on the outside,
10:38he decides instead, you'll go exploring this inside instead.
10:43This time he gets it wide.
10:44Bellingham covers the space behind so he can't breeze past Alaba.
10:47He carries it into the middle,
10:49probably just to see what might happen.
10:53And what happens is he gets fouled.
10:56And just to sum up what this exact foul signifies, right?
11:00Real Madrid decided that without Kai Havertz,
11:03they could probably live with Arsenal from open play.
11:06And without Gabriel, they could probably live with Arsenal from set pieces.
11:10But what the really good teams, what the really good managers can do
11:15is that they turn up in big games like this,
11:18missing their best weapons,
11:19and then just find something else.
11:23And for Arsenal, that something else was taking a player
11:26who has not scored a free kick in 342 professional games,
11:30and having him put the ball in a f***ing centrifuge twice.
11:36Like, scoring both of these free kicks back-to-back in training
11:39would be one of the maddest things that ever happened.
11:41But to score them both in the quarterfinal of the Champions League
11:46against Real Madrid, when you have been much the better side
11:48but cannot find a way through,
11:50and they've got Mr. Tickle in goal,
11:53is incredible.
11:55It's one of the single greatest things an English player has ever done
11:59on this stage.
12:01Genuinely.
12:02And the reason I've spent all this time talking about Arsenal's dominance
12:05and talking about all the stuff they were doing in their build-up
12:07when clearly this is a game
12:08about two absolutely beautiful strikes of a dead ball
12:13is because even the second goal
12:14comes as a direct result of this first one.
12:17Because now, when Saka gets the ball and dribbles in fields,
12:21all of a sudden, Madrid are scared of them doing that.
12:24When they'll have been preparing for this game,
12:26Madrid will have discussed what happens
12:28if Arsenal get free kicks in this area.
12:31And obviously, without Gabriel,
12:32they're not as worried about the cross.
12:34And given they have not scored a free kick since September 2021,
12:40they probably didn't think in a million years
12:42anyone would even try and shoot.
12:44And thus, you can see in the build-up to the second free kick
12:46when Saka gets on the ball,
12:47there is a palpable anxiety in that Madrid squad
12:51about what happens if they foul him.
12:53They allow him to go so much further than they should.
12:57And in the end, end up in a better position for a free kick
13:00than if they just brought him down originally.
13:02I mean, still though, like the quality,
13:05the quality of that strike.
13:06I am not an Arsenal fan by any stretch of the imagination.
13:10I was off the sofa hooting and hollering.
13:14And then, you know,
13:15just because everything's going your way at this point,
13:17and Mourinho even finally makes the correct centre-forward decision.
13:21He drops not where the easy pass would be,
13:24but he drops to where he can find the ball.
13:26And that finish is superb.
13:29And if you start through all of this,
13:30it might just feel like we'll cram the goals in right at the end.
13:33But like I said at the start,
13:34I really think this is a story about how Arsenal just dominated from Madrid
13:39all the way from back to front
13:41and how that dominance eventually led to cracks that they could exploit.
13:47Probably not the kind of cracks they expected.
13:50Probably wasn't anything in training about Declan Rice
13:52just whamming in both of those,
13:56but that's what good teams do.
13:57That's what good players do.
13:58And I think, honestly,
14:00there's an argument that this goes down as Arteta's best ever win
14:03as an Arsenal manager.
14:05There's certainly an argument that it's an English side's best ever win
14:08in European football.
14:10And the only shame about all of this is
14:12that's not the tie done.
14:15That's not the tie even nearly done.
14:17But, again, if you are an Arsenal fan,
14:19if you take one thing from this video,
14:21it should be that the confidence you have going into this away leg
14:24should not be informed by the fact it's 3-0.
14:28It should be informed by just how well
14:31and how much better than Madrid they played.
14:34And also, if you have made it all the way to the end of the video,
14:36very, very quickly,
14:37in, like, five weeks' time,
14:39I am running the Hackney Half Marathon in London,
14:41which is where Arsenal is for Calm,
14:45the campaign against living miserably.
14:46They are an absolutely vital suicide prevention charity here in the UK.
14:51Resources to help fight that kind of thing are scarce
14:54and not readily available,
14:55so the work they do is incredibly, incredibly important.
14:58And if you have got a couple of quid burning a hole in your pocket
15:00or you put 3-0 on Arsenal to win that,
15:03you'll have a pretty penny from that.
15:05I would imagine all donations are, like,
15:07massively, massively, thankfully received
15:10and go so, so much further than you think.
15:13But that's it.
15:13That's it for me.
15:14That's it.
15:15That's it.
15:15Goodbye.
15:16I'll see you.
15:16I'll see you next week
15:18where they have to play them again,
15:20which will be fun.
15:22Laters.
15:24Nobody says laters.
15:25I can't believe I said laters.
15:26Bye.