How has Leandro Trossard improved Arsenal attack?
Arsenal's title push is going strong, with an improved attack giving them a new dimension. Ninad Barbadikar analyses the impact of Leandro Trossard.
Before looking at Mikel Arteta's recent tweaks in attack, it's worth going over the three game blip that the Gunners experienced in the late January-early February period.
Knocked out of the FA Cup at the hands of Manchester City, the Gunners then lost to Sean Dyche's Everton in his first game incharge of the Toffees, before dropping points against Brentford and unfortunately losing out to Pep Guardiola's side again.
Since that three game stumble, Arsenal have recovered well, winning five and drawing one out of the six that they have played, most recently winning 3-0 against Marco Silva's Fulham.
This run of positive results has also coincided with the introduction of Leandro Trossard into the starting XI. The Belgian joined the Gunners in a January move from Brighton and has scored once and made five assists in nine appearances.
His addition to the side has allowed Mikel Arteta to turn fortunes and recreate the kind of form we saw in the pre-World Cup period where the Gunners looked simply unstoppable. They had Gabriel Jesus then, and now Trossard is helping Arsenal play their best football.
How did the attack look with Gabriel Jesus?
Let's travel back to August 2022, and look at Leicester City's visit to the Emirates in what was Arsenal's second Premier League game.
Mikel Arteta fielded Jesus as his number nine as part of a front three alongside Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
The relationship between Martinelli and Jesus on the left is key, the latter's ability to always make himself available and support the attack on either flank is crucial. And when he drifts, Martinelli goes more central.
How that rotation disrupts defences is best seen in the build-up to Jesus's first in the game. A long ball from Thomas Partey finds Jesus in behind and at this point, he has dragged Jonny Evans with him to the left, thus creating space in the middle.
Martinelli drifts into the space, occupies then Leicester defender, Wesley Fofana, Jesus escapes Evans, finds himself in the box and after a neatly worked combination with Martinelli and Granit Xhaka, he finds the top corner.
Even aside from this whole sequence there are other examples of how Jesus's movement into the half-spaces (or deeper if necessary) and willingness to make himself available for others benefits Arsenal's attack hugely.
By that point, Jesus had five goals and five assists to his name in fourteen starts.
How did Nketiah change things?
Eddie Nketiah had not started a single Premier League game until December 26, against West Ham. This is the start of the period where Arsenal did not have the services of Jesus up front.
This meant that for the first time this season, Nketiah was starting for the Gunners. He had finished the 21/22 campaign as the defacto starting number nine ahead of the more experienced Alexandre Lacazette.
The 23-year-old has come leaps and bounds in his improvements this season and in Jesus's absence, he did always attempt to pick up the kind of positions that Jesus would. This is evident in Arsenal's 3-1 win over West Ham at home.
Nketiah can drop deep to assist with build-up and is willing to ease pressure on team-mates by withdrawing from the opposition defensive line and showing to receive from Saka and Martinelli.
He has improved with his back-to-goal play and that benefits him when he drops deep to hold the ball up and help Arsenal retain possession and keep the ball moving.
The key difference between the two is the creative capacity that is lacking from Nketiah's skillset, Jesus is fourth in the Arsenal squad for chances created from open-play (1.60) whereas Nketiah ranks fourth bottom with just 0.64 chances created, according to Opta.
Nketiah is a poacher in the box and despite his improvements in possession and adjustments to his game to suit Arteta's style, he thrives on the last line of defence, occupying centre backs and darting in behind to get shots away.
His goal against West Ham was a prime example of his strengths coming together, pinning Thilo Kehrer in the box, and then completely dismantling his pressure by deceiving him with a clever shift, and slotting it past Lukasz Fabianski with composure.
Those poacher instincts helped him to another goal against Brighton in the following game, his excellent form culminating in a brace against Manchester United helping the Gunners to a 3-2 victory.
It is worth noting that during this period, goals for Martinelli were hard to come by. The Brazil international found the back of the net just twice in eight appearances from the season restart until mid-February. In that same period, Nketiah had four goals in nine appearances.
One of the key reasons for Martinelli's struggles and in turn Arsenal's struggles was the fact Nketiah simply could not provide the same level of fluidity across the front-line that Jesus provided and so, Arteta's side could not problem-solve in the way they could when someone like Jesus was on the pitch.
Without someone like Jesus to rotate with in wide areas, Martinelli struggled to get in behind in the right spaces and was often isolated as Nketiah preferred to stay central and occupy centre backs.
Trossard's arrival changed that.
Trossard time
The Belgian has earned a reputation for being hugely versatile capable in playing across every department on the pitch in his time at Brighton.
Those are qualities that Arteta and his staff have benefitted from, and he's praised Trossard for exactly that.
🗣️ “I’m really happy with him. He gives us this versatility and adaptability.”
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) March 12, 2023
Mikel Arteta on Leandro Trossard. 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/TkSFjlr9zZ
The benefits of having Trossard were almost instantly apparent, in his second start for the club against Leicester, Trossard set-up Martinelli for Arsenal's only goal to take all three points.
Not only is Trossard's movement into the channels eerily reminsicent of Jesus, him dragging the centreback Harry Souttar with him and creating space for Martinelli to burst into is exactly why Trossard is such a great fit for the Gunners.
Trossard's role as a false nine means that he moves across the final third situationally and provides support in terms of overloading areas as and when necessary. His willingness to occupy the flanks and rotate with Martinelli has resulted in an uptick of goals for the Brazilian.
It is no coincidence that Martinelli has five goals in the five games Trossard has started in the Premier league, Arsenal's attack is looking back to it's best.
He may not bring the goals that Jesus does, but he has certainly helped the rest of Arsenal's attack thrive with the 'versatility and adaptability' that Arteta eludes to.
3 - Leandro Trossard is the first player in Premier League history to make a hat-trick of assists in the first half of an away game. Trio. pic.twitter.com/kQKI0zRtA3
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 12, 2023
A hat-trick of assists against Fulham just further underlines Trossard's influence in the final third and with each passing game, this is looking like a very shrewd piece of business for Edu and the Arsenal board.
It is not often that managers need to reinvent the wheel to find the winning formula once again and despite crashing out of the Europa League, with Jesus back from injury and Trossard helping Arsenal's attack thrive again, they look well set to go all the way in their title push.
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