After an obliteration against Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League last time around, Arsenal needed to win against Hoffenheim to get their European campaign back on track. The English side were the favorites going into the match and came out of it with a resounding 4-0 win over their German counterparts.
Now, the scoreline might suggest otherwise but Hoffenheim were able to give an account of themselves against one of the most in-form sides in European football. If the final third play is ignored, this was quite a match between the two sides for most of the 90 minutes, however, Arsenal were always the better side in terms of their final third entries and output efficiency — even though they weren’t really at their best.
Hoffenheim were set up in 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 depending on different scenarios, with two banks of four/five closely placed and not allowing much room for Arsenal to play through them. Arsenal also matched their counterpart’s system and went with a 4-2-3-1 but functionally it was more a 4-4-1-1, especially in the first half, with Jordan Nobbs playing just behind Vivianne Miedema.
In the buildup, Arsenal had their center-backs, Leah Williamson and Lotte Wubben-Moy, split apart and form (a sort of) back three with the goalkeeper, Manuela Zinsberger inviting the press from the Hoffenheim forwards. The two Arsenal midfielders were tightly marked by their opposite numbers meaning even though they had a +1 advantage in the buildup, Arsenal back three including the GK vs Hoffenheim’s two forwards, they couldn’t take advantage of it consistently enough due to lack of central passing options.
Instead, they progressed the ball through the full-backs, the ball was circulated amongst the back four and it was progressed to the player further forward when either of two women up top, Miedema and Nobbs, shifted wider to create overloads on the wings. This was especially fruitful on the left-wing with Katie McCabe and Tobin Heath combining to progress the ball into the final third with Nobbs floating into the left half-space.
McCabe’s aggressive positioning and Heath’s brilliant ball retention meant Arsenal were able to progress the ball even when overloads couldn’t be created. Infact, they might have had more to show for their output had Heath’s final action been better, time and time again she was doing brilliantly to get herself into a position to make the killer pass or have a shot but mostly she ended up squandering her chances.
With time Arsenal became more confident about themselves and were playing out from the back through the middle with their front two dropping deeper consistently to link-up play. Arsenal split their center-backs wide apart, opening up space between Hoffenheim’s press to facilitate central progression. However, they still couldn’t get themselves a goal for their efforts, primarily because they seemed a little ‘rushed’ and weren’t entering the final third at the ‘right time’
Now, the ‘right time’ here doesn’t correspond to an instance of time but rather the positioning of the Arsenal players in Hoffenheim’s half. Until that point, Arsenal had done well to play around Hoffenheim’s press and reach the final third, but they were timing their arrival wrong. In simple words, the ideal scenario to reach the final third against a compact well set-up side is to have enough players in the middle third to manipulate the oppositions’ structure, carve an opening, and then enter the final third with an optimal opportunity to create a goal-scoring chance.
This is why Arsenal’s first breakthrough came through a penalty with Kim Little slotting it past Martina Tufekovic, their first open play goal didn’t come until the last few minutes of the first half.
However, towards the dying moment of the first-half, Arsenal finally got it right, a sequence of passing interchanges in Hoffenheim‘s half resulted in a lopsided structure for the German side. That was exploited by a change of flank and a pinpoint cross from Katie McCabe to give Arsenal their second and Tobin Heath her first goal of the match and her Arsenal career.
In the second half, Hoffenheim started off as the dominant side as Arsenal had tired legs in the frontline making their press suboptimal and in turn making it easy for Hoffenheim to play through them. The German side were able to carve multiple opportunities for themselves but some heroic saves from Zinsberger and poor finishing from Hoffenheim let Arsenal off the hook.
Jonas Eidevall was quick to turn things around with some timely substitutions with all of Arsenal’s front four replaced with fresher legs. Arsenal found their rhythm back, started defending from the front again and the match swung in their favor back again.
Substitutes Nikita Parris, Caitlin Foord, and Mana Iwabuchi gave a good account of themselves in the limited minutes they got. Parris even got close to a goal on multiple occasions but couldn’t finish it off.
It was a regular day at the office for Arsenal in the last twenty minutes or so with the English side capping the professional performance with a thumping header from Leah Williamson, who was delightfully good all match.