Although so many hearts and spirit arsenal will already dream of a semi-final of the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain next week, Mikel Arteta knows that he cannot afford to look at Crystal Palace-and he will not want either.
The victory will postpone the celebrations of the title of Liverpool, but, more than anything, he gives Arteta a last chance to resolve his most difficult selection dilems before the biggest evening of his management career and recent history in Arsenal.
Prepare the counters
Few sides are as devastating on the counterattack as PSG. The French team only needed four passes during their second stage against Aston Villa to move from one penalty surface to another for the unleashing of the rear nuno Mendes to place the visitors 2-0 in the night.
Palace may not wear the same glamor, nor install in the same system, but there are still similarities between the two so that Artata to use as a practical dress for the week on the net.
Oliver Glasner’s team is in the top six for what the Opta statisticians call `Fast Breaks ” in the Premier League this season and only Liverpool, Newcastle and Villa had more fire from them in a single match that the Glasner team succeeded against Villa in February.
Mikel Arteta will be fully focused on the arsenal warranty will not suffer a defeat at Crystal Palace
French champions Le Paris Saint-Germain is waiting in the semi-final of the Champions League next week
Crystal Palace of Oliver Glasner can be a useful opponent before the confrontation of PSG
Arteta must find a way to cancel two teams that use the width and deep runners to bring five players into the third striker. For the palace, it comes from the Daniel Munoz and Tyrick Mitchell wings while Ebelechi Eze and Ismaili Sarr broke in the middle.
For PSG, this width goes through the Khvicha Kvaratskhelia wingers and Désure Doue, with the rear Achraf Hakimi even offering a bombardment on the right. Their runners in the channels come from the midfielder or, as for their third crucial goal during the first leg, from the marauding Mendes.
Arsenal is one of the best in the company to defend against the teams who attack so freely – only Liverpool has conceded fewer goals of fast breaks this season and they have not lost a traditional team of `Big Six ” of the League for almost two years.
Much of this comes from a key area in which Arteta now needs to find a solution.
The form of Paris Saint-Germain for the third goal against Aston Villa in the first stage saw five in attack
The form of Crystal Palace earlier in the season also had five players determined to attack the opposition
Merino in the midfield?
Declan Rice was furious when Thomas Parte’s late yellow against Real Madrid took him from the first stage by suspension. Without him, Arsenal loses his key midfielder disruptor.
Party won more duels and more interceptions than any other arsenal player in the League this season while Rice and William Saliba recovered possession more often.
Without him in front of the back line of the arsenal, Arteta must find another way of stifling the attack on PSG but while also suffocating his.
“We have to make some adjustments, not because of PSG, but because of the situation we had with Thomas and a few other players,” said Arteta. “It’s good because the team shows adaptability, versatility so that some players play in different positions.”
Arteta gave him a whirlwind in Ipswich by moving rice at the base of the midfielder, which he rarely does because Rice is at his best when he advanced the ball.
This meant to move the makeshift man Mikel Merino in the machine room. Merino was a revelation playing as a fake new in the absence of Kai Havertz, marking six and installing four others, including the two arsenal goals in their famous night in Bernabeu.
But Merino, a box-to-box midfielder when not in the moonlight as an attacker, is a duel monster. He earns more per match than any other Arsenal player, even Party. It will be vital against PSG.
Having merino there allows Rice to be more productive, even from the base of the midfielder, due to the depth he likes to fall.
Mikel Merino can return to the Arsenal midfielder in the middle of the loss of Thomas Partey due to the suspension of PSG tie
Arsenal Average positions against Real Madrid during the Bernabeu return match (Rice 41, Merino 23)
Arsenal Average positions against Ipswich (Rice 41, Merino 23, Trossard 19, Odegaard 8, all deriving on the right)
The average position of Merino against Real Madrid when playing as an attacker was deeper than when he started in the midfield against Ipswich. The quality of the opposition of 10 men counts for part of this, but, in the two games, the average position of rice was more ahead of him. Rice succeeded 94 keys against Ipswich, the second largest number he had in the league all season.
This also allowed Arteta to start Leandro Trossard instead in advance and he was able to stay high while Merino fell.
Did White do enough?
Ipswich’s victory was the first time since November that Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White started a Premier League match – and you could see what they missed.
Until Saka’s injury in December, with White also released for a lot of this time, almost half of the chances of arsenal created fell on the right. In its absence, it was less than a third.
The Gunners intimidated Ipswich on this side while all three were superbly linked. Odegaard and White touched the ball more than anyone who and in a single match against Leicester earlier in the season, two Arsenal players created more combined chances than the five of Odegaard and Saka managed the weekend.
Trossard derived from this side to help overload Ipswich even more, but it was White’s performance, overlapping frequently on the right, and finding Gabriel Martinelli with a crimping field in five minutes that showed how his attacker instincts add an additional dimension to the Arsenal game.
Arsenal’s right will probably hold the key against PSG, as he did Real Madrid. Saka hopes to give Mendes the same white nights he made on the left back of Madrid, Daniel Alaba.
Ipswich’s victory was the first time since November that Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White (photo) started a first League match together
Ben White’s tactile card in the 4-0 arsenal victory against Ipswich on Sunday (Opta graciousness)
It is, however, the balance that Arta must weigh. Jurrien Timber was a rock on the right back in the absence of White. He had one of the most dangerous attackers in the world Vinicius JNR on the locking in the quarter -finals, which ended only one of his nine attempts to dribble on both legs.
The wood has not only led nine times in more than 2,300 minutes of action in the trimester. The players exceeded whites 14 times in 854 minutes.
The sight of the winger of PSG Kvaratskhelia by passing in front of the defense of Villa with the ball of his feet and crushing it in the upper corner will surely be in the mind of Arteta.
No one has tried more dribbles for palace than its left back Munoz, who will provide a last test. It is Arteta’s last chance to make sure he is right.
