Mikel Arteta is chasing down his Premier League dream with his long-time mentor Pep Guardiola gradually gaining yards on him.

The six-point lead Arsenal have at this stage is an impressive one, but with the momentum shifting in Manchester City’s favour, every decision will feel more important than the last for the Gunners boss.

Prior to the Champions League quarter-final tie against Sporting, “no fear, pure fire” was Arteta’s rallying cry to the players and fans. And as the Spaniard calls for pure fire from those around the club, some may be hoping for the same in his tactical set-up in the final few weeks of the season.

Novel solutions, on and off the pitch, no matter how small, might decide the title – so let us take a closer look at how Arsenal have played recently and what this means for the run-in.

In recent games, Arsenal have stumbled by their usual high standards with losses to Manchester City and Bournemouth in the Premier League and Championship club Southampton in the FA Cup.

In the Carabao Cup final, Manchester City boss Guardiola appeared to nullify much of Arsenal’s build-up with ease.

City set up in a 4-2-4 block with Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki blocking the middle of the pitch, while Antoine Semenyo and Jeremy Doku pressed Arsenal’s centre-backs, angling their bodies in ways that blocked passes to the full-backs.

Arsenal struggled for a few reasons.

City’s 4-2-4 allowed Arsenal’s central defenders to keep the ball, engaging less proactively compared with Bournemouth. The key for City was to make it hard for Arsenal to access their midfield duo, while giving them reasons to doubt the pass into their full-backs, and ultimately enticing Arteta’s team to play the ball long where City then had a back four and one or two midfielders back – ready to mop up loose passes.

City’s 4-2-4 defensive shape is seen here against Arsenal. Haaland and Cherki were tasked with blocking passes into the midfielders whilst Doku and Semenyo had the job of pressing the central defenders and blocking the passing angle from Arsenal’s centre-backs to their full-backs.

Bournemouth looked to apply pressure more aggressively. Instead of lining up with a flat front four, their left-sided midfielder James Tavernier moved inside to support his central midfielders – particularly when Kai Havertz dropped deep looking to form a midfield three with Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice.

This decision left Ben White free at right-back, but striker Evanilson constantly looked to curve his runs to block off passes to the right, making accessing the full-back harder.

City and Bournemouth’s press differed slightly but there were principles both used that were effective – one being how both sides looked to funnel Arsenal’s play down the left. Gabriel was challenged to dictate the game from deep areas, something his counterpart William Saliba is better at.

When play was forced down that side, Andoni Iraola’s team were able to lock on in a man-to-man fashion. When this happened, Arsenal’s players and coach alike often gestured to Gabriel to look long for striker Viktor Gyokeres.

Since the turn of year, Arsenal have leaned into attacking the spaces that open up when opponents press man-to-man with the likes of Noni Madueke, Gyokeres, Gabriel Martinelli and Havertz, in theory, having the underlying skillset to punish teams in transition.

The Issue against Bournemouth was that Sweden forward Gyokeres, contrary to his physical frame, has struggled to win his individual duels against Premier League defenders, leading to Arsenal failing to dominate possession and get up the pitch. His strengths instead lie in getting his team forward by running the channels, where he showcases strong ball-carrying ability.

An example of Bournemouth’s press working: Left midfielder Tavernier is seen in a narrow midfield position. Evanlison curves his run to block Raya from finding Saliba. The ball goes to Gabriel who ends up playing a long ball into the attackers.

Against Sporting, Havertz came on as a striker and looked to make the ball stick more often. Eze played behind him and the pair combined well with long passes hitting the tall German before bouncing into the space Eze arrived into.

This focus on central play throughout the team against Sporting was an encouraging change in intent too, suiting Eze personally and Arsenal broadly.

If Arsenal are to improve their ball progression, this might be a duo Arteta relies on more often.

Kai Havertz wins his aerial duel, confidently knocking the ball down for Eberechi Eze who is able to take a shot from the edge of the box.

In recent games, Arsenal have still tried to play out of pressure through short passes – attempting to play down the right flank as teams have tried to force them down their left.

There were examples of build-up play that helped Arteta’s side escape pressure before failing to capitalise on their good work because of poor individual actions.

Against City, with goalkeeper David Raya involved in deep build-up, Arsenal were able to shift the ball to the far side while outnumbering City’s front four.

Havertz often dropped deep from his number 10 position into midfield and when he did Bernardo Silva defended him tightly. This left Ben White free, who combined with Havertz to help Arsenal bypass City’s press.

William Saliba drags Jeremy Doku towards him after receiving a pass from David Raya (off-screen). Kai Havertz quickly darts towards the ball with Bernardo Silva in pursuit before playing a first-time pass to Ben White, the free man.

Liverpool similarly found some joy with three players in the first line. They did this by moving Curtis Jones from midfield into defence, pushing Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk wider, rather than having their keeper become the third defender.

Jones broke the lines through City’s front four to find Liverpool’s midfielders around the City midfield duo. Florian Wirtz moved infield from the left wing to join Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai in what became a three-v-two situation.

Curtis Jones drops into the middle of a back three. Cherki fails to cover the passing lane into midfield and Wirtz receives the ball in midfield, having moved infield from the left wing. Liverpool have four midfielders around City’s two.

Another solution Arsenal have used comes in the form of central midfielders suddenly dropping deep to receive passes from the centre-backs. Opponents who man-mark are always reacting to the actions of the attacking team so a sudden movement can provide a moment of unmarked time on the ball.

As mentioned earlier, against Bournemouth, Havertz attracted left midfielder Tavernier which left White free. Raya found Rice who sharply moved into space before sweeping the ball into the area where White was unmarked.

In this example the pass was overhit, a pattern that is becoming more common, but the patterns on show against this type of pressure worked more than a few times and are ideas worth persevering with.

Raya finds Declan Rice who has run towards the ball, finding separation from his marker. Havertz (yellow) has dragged left midfielder Tavernier infield leaving White, the intended target, unmarked. Rice overhits this pass and White struggles to control it.

Evanlison tries to block right centre-back Saliba from getting the ball from Raya. Rice makes a quick movement deeper, loses his marker, and after receiving the pass from Raya, sweeps the ball to Saliba with ease.

Defensively, Arsenal will need to be alert to the threat Nico O’Reilly possesses. The versatile 21-year-old has underpinned much of City’s revival starting at the back end of last season, and scored twice against Arsenal and once against Chelsea in recent weeks.

Through his unusual positioning, he often finds himself in areas in between traditional positions – not as a left-back, or a winger, or an attacker on the last line, but arriving into these areas for brief moments. This makes it hard for teams to defend against him.

Arsenal alternated between having Saka and Zubimendi pick up O’Reilly with both men responsible for losing him for a goal each. Chelsea had Andrey Santos almost man-mark O’Reilly wherever he went too, but the Brazilian midfielder eventually lost his individual duel as O’Reilly towered over him to put Manchester City ahead.

Zubimendi does well to drop into the back line forming a makeshift back five. The Spaniard plugs the gap that O’Reilly so often exploits but ultimately the height and physicality mismatch lets O’Reilly win his duel to score the opener.

Arsenal have shown glimpses of having the answer to some of the many questions they have been asked in recent weeks, but have lacked the ability to complete those moves consistently with sloppy passes creeping into their usually reliable game.

The loss of Bukayo Saka to injury has dampened their ability to pin teams back and dominate the game in the final third as often as they did with him in the starting eleven.

Paired with what looks like a more cautious approach on the ball from some of their players, an argument can be made that the physical and mental aspects of the title race are taking a toll.

As Arteta continues to galvanise Arsenal’s players and fans, it appears he feels the mental part of the game is key to competing with a Manchester City side in the ascendency.

Dealing with that, while having to ensure the right tactical tweaks are made game-on-game, makes the final few weeks no easy challenge – but Arteta and his players may be closer to wrapping up a historic campaign than fan sentiment suggests. (BBC)

Update news