Arsenal 0-1 Leicester City
- gate: Jamie Vardy (£ 10.0m)
- Help: Cengiz Under (£ 5.9m)
- bonus: Kasper Schmeichel (£ 5.5m) x3, Vardy x2, Christian Fuchs (£ 4.5m) x1
A rather heavy affair in the Emirates was settled by a late one Jamie Vardy (£ 10.0m) winner, a goal that moved Leicester City to a top spot in the Premier League.
After Brendan Rodgers initially set up his side in a strikerless wing-back system and Arsenal battled for inventions in the final third, the game seemed to weave its way towards an inevitable 0-0 before Vardy’s intervention.
Rodgers mimicked the tactics that led to success at Etihad in Gameweek 3 and was asked after the game about his “master plan”:
I don’t know about master plan, but it was the plan. It was the idea of refusing space and keeping our lines tight and then obviously playing through the pressure so yeah it worked very well for us.
I thought we started the game well, the first five or ten minutes. We had good possession and of course when you play against a top team you have to deal with the pressure.
Then in the second half our lines were even tighter, we were in a better starting position for our pressure, and then we enjoyed a lot more of the ball and always looked threatened.
CASE FOR THE (ARSENAL) DEFENSE
It seems incongruous to start this piece with a backline that succumbed Sunday and has not conceded since Gameweek 1, but the way the brand of football is currently served by Mikel Arteta’s arsenal, their defensive fantasy Assets arguably more attractive than those that are now further ahead.
Despite playing away against Manchester City and Liverpool, a West Ham United side who scores for fun and are now Leicester in fourth place, the Gunners have only scored seven goals this season – only Aston Villa who played less fewer goals conceded conceded opportunities.
Brighton are the only Premier League team at the time of writing to have allowed fewer shots in the box per game this season meanwhile.
In the form of Thomas Partey (£ 5.0m), Arsenal are now also hoping they have a high profile midfield general who can further protect their backline.
While Rodgers will argue that his tactics worked perfectly on Sunday, the Foxes hadn’t got a single shot within 25 yards of goal before Vardy’s start in the 79th minute.
Arteta said of his team’s post-game report:
I was very happy with the first half, the way we put pressure on, the aggression we showed against a team that is very capable of breaking that pressure and creating opportunities against you. We were very effective against it, we were at the top of the game, we didn’t limit it to anything, we had the right opportunities to attack good space and create some chances.
A violation of the ball game David Luiz (£ 5.5m) upset the Gunners at either end of the pitch but Arteta, unsure of the severity of the problem, said:
I dont know. We lost a couple of players in the last week. David had a muscle problem and couldn’t continue – we need to check him out in the next 48 hours.
Arsenal’s games are mixed at best for the coming month, but they top our Gameweeks 12-20 season ticker, and their defenders, more of whom are names in the “Premium Members Analysis” section as of this point need to be monitored.
Wesley Fofana (£ 5.0m) was excellent for the visitors as he was last week.
AUBA All right
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£ 11.7m) was finally removed from the left flank on Sunday – and switched to the right.
Arteta’s aversion to the central game against the Gabonese international continues, and the top-tier FPL midfielder had an early header from a Kieran Tierney (£ 5.4m) Cross was the only time he touched the ball in the Leicester box.
Aubameyang has now hidden four game weeks in a row, the first time since joining the Premier League.
The recalled Alexandre Lacazette (£ 8.4m) had better odds again when an early header was disqualified for offside before blurring its lines from another delivery from Tierney near the goal.
With few goals from central midfield and rotation being a huge opportunity (other than Aubameyang), Arsenal’s attack doesn’t seem very attractive right now – especially if the games remain in doubt.
VARDY RETURNS
After a brief hiatus with a calf problem, Vardy came out for the final half hour of yesterday’s game and continued his good form against the Gunners: this was his eleventh goal in twelve encounters with the North London red half.
The veteran striker nodded in Cengiz Under‘s (£ 5.9m) square ball after an excellent defense-splitting pass from Youri Tielemans (£ 6.4m) had freed the Turkish winger from Arsenal defense.
Vardy was later denied a second goal when Bernd Leno (£ 5.0m) saved his one-on-one attempt in added time.
All of the striker’s six goals have hit the streets this season (four on-site, of course) and for the Foxes, who looked more comfortable than Leeds during the break in Manchester City and Arsenal, Leeds is the front foot in the next game their last two games at King Power Stadium.
Vardy said of his comeback:
Me and the manager talked yesterday and that was always the plan because I’m coming back from a little problem. You don’t want to be thrown right in, it’s about feeling yourself back in.
It would probably take the last 20 minutes or half an hour and that is exactly what happened and luckily I came and made an impression and we can take three points home.
Harvey Barnes (£ 7.0m) had started the game as a center-forward in Rodgers’ strikerless line-up, who took little delight in the Arsenal defense before retiring in the 74th minute.
Explain his decision to leave out Kelechi Iheanacho (£ 5.7m) says Rodgers:
Iheanacho can hold the ball but I didn’t feel we needed that so Harvey was there to extend the game. The idea was always to win Jamie. Him and Cengo [Under] came and Marc [Albrighton] also made a valuable contribution.
Arsenal XI (4-3-3): Leno; Bellerin, Luiz (Mustafi 49 ‘), Gabriel, Tierney; Ceballos, Xhaka, Partey; Saka (Pepe 65 ‘), Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Leicester City XI (3-4-3): Flattery; Fofana, Evans, Fox; Castagne, Tielemans, Mendy, Justin; Praet (Vardy 59 ‘), Barnes (under 74’), Maddison (Albrighton 81 ‘).
MEMBER ANALYSIS
LESSONS FROM FPL GAMEWEEK 6
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