How Arsenal’s Trossard and Martinelli pulled Fulham apart without touching the ball

Knowing what’s coming in the exam doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to pass it.

By now, every team in the Premier League has an idea of what Arsenal might do on the ball, but stopping Mikel Arteta’s side is an entirely separate problem.

You know Oleksandr Zinchenko will probably invert, Martin Odegaard will be in the right half-space ready to combine with Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka on the other side and the centre-forward ready to drop when needed.

But the thing about football is that it’s not played in a static vacuum where each team can react before the opponent can make their next move. It’s dynamic. The timing of the movement is as important as the move itself. That’s what Fulham learnt on their Arsenal exam on Sunday afternoon.

Going into the game, Fulham’s shape without the ball swayed away from a rigid 4-4-2 to a more lopsided one, with Bobby De Cordova-Reid moving inside to form a three-man midfield. The idea was that with a trio in midfield, Sasa Lukic could freely mark Odegaard on one side as De Cordova-Reid kept tabs on Xhaka on the other.

This would allow Harrison Reed to move up and press Zinchenko in his inverted position.

But the moment Reed moved up towards Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard dropped into midfield to create an overload.

After only one minute, Trossard’s movement off the ball shackled Fulham’s pressing scheme. Reed could no longer move up towards Zinchenko, and this four-versus-three in midfield allowed Arsenal to play through Fulham’s line.

If Reed decided to move up towards Zinchenko, Trossard was free to receive the ball with Lukic and De Cordova-Reid focusing on Odegaard and Xhaka. Here, William Saliba plays the ball into Gabriel, and with the passing lane to Trossard open…

… Reed shifts towards the Belgian, leaving Zinchenko unmarked. This allows Gabriel to find the Ukrainian defender who immediately plays the pass to Xhaka with De Cordova-Reid moving up to press Gabriel.

Xhaka is free because Kenny Tete is pinned by Gabriel Martinelli higher up the pitch.

In another example, it’s the same issue for Fulham with Trossard dropping deeper.

Reed can’t commit forward because of the Belgian’s positioning, which forces De Cordova-Reid to go inside and mark Zinchenko. The consequence is that Xhaka becomes free…

… and the Swiss midfielder starts to drop into a left-back position as Arsenal’s back line circulates the ball towards him.

Once Xhaka drops into that space, Fulham have two options: allow Xhaka to progress the ball from that side with Martinelli pinning Tete or pushing the Dutch right-back towards the Arsenal midfielder. When the latter happens, Gabriel immediately plays the ball behind Tete…

… and into the path of Martinelli. However, Fulham centre-back Tosin Adarabioyo recovers in time.

Without touching the ball, Trossard heavily influenced the game before he assisted all three of Arsenal’s goals. His movement towards the centre of the pitch made Reed think twice before moving.

In the build-up to Arsenal’s disallowed goal, the Belgian drops once again next to Reed, as Saliba plays the ball into Zinchenko.

With Reed reacting late, and because De Cordova-Reid now has to move up towards Zinchenko, Tosin is the one who picks up Xhaka.

The Ukrainian plays the ball wide to Martinelli, and Reed is still catching up…

… which allows Xhaka to position himself between the lines. Martinelli finds him…

… and Tosin follows Xhaka, creating a gap in the Fulham defence where the Arsenal midfielder plays the return pass into Martinelli. From there, Martinelli’s shot is saved by Bernd Leno before going into the net off Antonee Robinson but the goal is disallowed for offside.

It wasn’t only about Trossard. When Martinelli switched positions with the Belgian, he played the same role. Here, Martinelli’s movement attracts Lukic, whose role is to mark Odegaard. Meanwhile, the Norwegian’s forward run forces Robinson inside and clears the passing lane into Saka out wide. Zinchenko switches the play…

… and as Saka and Odegaard combine on the far side, Trossard makes a darting run inside the pitch.

Saka then plays the ball to Martinelli, who backheels to Trossard…

… but the Belgian misses the target.

Perhaps the best example is Arsenal’s beautiful 23-pass goal. In the build-up, Fulham’s second line is making sure Odegaard, Zinchenko and Xhaka aren’t accessible, and the reason Reed (white No 6) is pushing this high…

… is because Tosin (white No 4) is picking up the dropping Martinelli — however, this creates another problem later on. With Arsenal combining down their right side, Reed shifts across to press Thomas Partey…

… so De Cordova-Reid shifts to mark Zinchenko, leaving Xhaka completely free — which is fine considering where the ball is. But Arsenal then move the ball backwards…

… and the problem appears. Martinelli’s deeper positioning and Tosin’s earlier marking on him distances the Fulham centre-back from Tete, who is pinned by Trossard’s high positioning. Fulham’s right-back can’t move up towards Xhaka because Tosin is too far away to pick up Trossard, and this allows Xhaka to comfortably receive Saliba’s pass.

The Arsenal midfielder then finds Trossard after carrying the ball forward…

… and the Belgian hangs the ball over the Fulham defence for Martinelli to score Arsenal’s second.

In Arteta’s 100th win as Arsenal manager, Trossard and Martinelli’s movement off the ball was the catalyst. Sometimes you don’t need to touch the ball to contribute to the attack.