Manchester City’s coordinated pressing destroyed Arsenal in Carabao Cup final

How Manchester City’s coordinated pressing destroyed Arsenal in the 2018 Carabao Cup final.

A moment during stoppage time of the 2018 Carabao Cup final perfectly summed up how the trophy was won. It involved Arsenal, on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline, trying to play out from the back against a high Manchester City forward line.

What should have been a simple exercise saw Gunners goalkeeper David Ospina pass to his side to right-back Hector Bellerin. The Spaniard turned forward, but quickly turned back, before returning the pass to Ospina.

Again, the Arsenal stopper saw no free player directly in front of him and didn’t have the time to kick long. So he turned and passed sideways to Bellerin again, who looked far from grateful about having the ball given back to him so soon.

The identikit passage of play wasn’t a sporting twilight zone. Nor was the ball a hot potato neither Ospina nor Bellerin wanted.

Instead, this labored replication was one more example of how City’s coordinated and high pressing destroyed Arsenal. The Citizens pressed relentlessly from the start, hunting in packs to swarm around the man in possession.

Those packs were pushed as high up the pitch as possible. Playing at such an altitude challenged the Gunners to play quickly, decisively and over the top.

None of those things have been hallmarks of Arsenal’s game recently. Beleaguered manager Arsene Wenger still likes his team to build steadily through midfield, recycling short passes between triangles of creative types.

There was no room for such an approach on Sunday, as City’s clusters of hunter-gatherers moved up the Wembley pitch.

City only started with one natural center-forward, Sergio Aguero, scorer of the final’s first goal. Yet the prolific No. 10 wasn’t left alone to press from the front. Aguero always had a player or two for company, usually Leroy Sane and David Silva.

The latter was often at the tip of a midfield trio constantly rotating to put pressure on the ball. It was Silva and substitute Gabriel Jesus who pressed Ospina and Bellerin into their comedy of errors late on.

City’s ceaseless pressure on possession denied Arsenal’s platoon of playmakers time on the ball. The effect of the pressure is best illustrated by how often Jack Wilshere was robbed in midfield, per Squawka Football:

Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Granit Xhaka and Mesut Ozil were set upon by City’s terriers for 90 minutes. Their inability to beat the press meant the Gunners never got their familiar passing game going.

It also meant City regularly pinched the ball in dangerous areas, allowing them to get at Arsenal’s suspect defense in the blink of an eye. The swift turnovers let City attack in waves and left the Gunners with no time to recover and compose themselves.

The clearest proof of how the Citizens regained possession high up the pitch comes from how often an attacking midfielder like Silva played the role of tackling machine:

This final wasn’t defined solely by the seek-and-destroy tendencies of City’s midfielders, though. The Premier League leaders also defended high, virtually pushing their back four up to the tip of their own half.

Curiously, the Citizens seemed unconcerned about the threat of Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. His pace should have gotten him in behind such a high line, but the swarming City defense and marauding midfield made sure the Gunners were rarely afforded the time to thread passes through for Aubameyang’s runs.

Admittedly, the striker should have put Arsenal in front after just 10 minutes, but twice fluffed his lines from close range. It was the only time Aubameyang got free, though.

His pace never stretched City to breaking point because returning skipper Vincent Kompany didn’t let it. One of the standout moments of the final came when the brittle 31-year-old center-back matched Aubameyang stride for stride before a well-timed tackle thwarted the attacker just as he was about to get free.

Kompany led by example all day, with his all-action performance helping City’s plan to defend high reap rewards. The Belgian’s defensive actions made for impressive reading, per Sky Sports Statto:

Much has been made in the aftermath of the final of how City out-hustled Arsenal. Pundits such as Sky Sports’ Gary Neville were quick to launch scathing attacks on the Gunners, using words like “disgrace,” “spineless” and “pathetic” with surprising vitriol.

Yet the truth is Arsenal’s apparent lack of application is rooted in a more languid style of player. While Wenger has been content to build around strollers such as Ozil and Wilshere, City boss Pep Guardiola has benefited from inheriting natural worker bees such as Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.

The latter has always been a busy type of midfielder, while Silva used to scuttle, harry and probe relentlessly during his time in La Liga with Valencia.

What Guardiola has done is give players such as De Bruyne and Silva a definite direction. They now forage in a pattern and with purpose.

It’s precision, coordinated planning in stark contrast to Wenger’s free-form thinking. On Sunday, it was enough for City to destroy Arsenal and earn Guardiola a first major trophy in England.