Arteta's Arsenal / Won PL & FA Cup (Goals 94-23)

Hello guys, welcome to my new tactic emulation.

This time I tried to emulate what I believe could be Arteta's new Arsenal tactic for this season, according to the new players who came to Arsenal in this summer transfer session: a 4-1-4-1, very attacking, with 2 advanced playmakers just behind the striker and 2 wingers.

The tactic has a positive mentality.

This is a screenshot of how my tactic looks like



In possession, we have fairly wide attacking width, play out of defense, much shorter passing directness and lower tempo instead of slightly shorter passing and slightly lower tempo, to play patiently, minimize mistakes and risks of letting the opponent counterattack with long balls that could easily find spaces since our midfielders are very high.

Work the ball into the box to play patiently too, dribble less and play for set pieces always with the aim to break the opponent's play and control the game.

Finally, with Arsenal great players, be more expressive is a good instruction to let them give free rein to their skills when they feel it's the right moment to do so.

Of course, if you play this tactic with a lower tier team with not so good players, you'd better choose "be more disciplined" so your players stick to the plan to avoid mistakes.

This is a screenshot of how my tactic looks in possession



In transition, we have counter-press but hold shape, not counter, to let our players start buying the play patiently once they gained the ball.

Our midfielders are very high and so they can press and gain the ball very high, but if once they gained the ball they make a mistake and pass the ball to the opponent, there isn't anyone except Rice behind who can cover.

As for goalkeeper's instructions, take short kicks and distribute to center backs.

Finally, when the opponent is in possession, we want our players to press high, so the line of engagement will be high press, and our defensive line will be higher too. Trigger press: more often and prevent GK short distribution are other two instructions we can use.

This is a screenshot of how my tactic looks out of possession



For the roles, the goalkeeper is a Sweeper Keeper on attack, the right defender is a Wing-back on attack while the left one (Zinchenko) is an Inverted Wing-back on support because Zinchenko often moves to the center and helps the midfielders building the play, he learnt to do that under Guardiola at Manchester City and he played very well in his first season at Arsenal too.

The two central defenders are two BPD (defense), who have the task to build from the back.

For Declan Rice, I chose an Half-Back on defense because I want him to drop down and help the defense and in the highlights on my video you will see him doing so.

The 4 midfielders behind the striker Gabriel Jesus are Saka, an inverted winger on support on the right flank, he is free to cut inside with the ball, cross (aiming the far post) and when he cuts inside, he will open space for the wing-back (Timber or White) who will overlap and bring more pressure to the opponent's left wing-back and left central defender too.

Besides, since I set him on support, Saka will also dropo down and link the play with Rice or with Timber and Kai Havertz too.

On the left side, we have an inside forward on attack, this is Martinelli's role, since we have already Zinchenko who has support duties, I decided to give the young Brazilian wonderkid an attacking role and let him free to cut inside with the ball or also stay wider if he wants to exploit spaces.

As for the two advanced midfielders, Havertz and Odeegard, I set the first one as an advanced playmaker on attack and let him play on the right, close to Saka, he will move forward when Gabriel Jesus drops down exploiting the space left by the Brazilian striker.

Odeegard is an advanced playmaker on support, so he will move less forward than Havertz and will move left when Martinelli cut inside to cover the space. He links the play with Gabriel Jesus too when he drops down leaving spaces for Havertz and Saka.

Finally, Gabriel Jesus, I set him as a deep-lying forward on support with the instruction to shoot less often too. Why? Because I want him to drop down and help the 4 midfielders behind him to build the play, leaving space for them instead of focusing only on scoring.


That's all for my 4-1-4-1 tactic explanation. But this is not the only tactic I tried to emulate.

Arteta still used a 4-3-3 formation both in the Community Shield Final against Manchester City and in the first Premier League match against Notthingham Forest This is the same formation he used in last season, 2022-23.

I previously emulated that tactic too and tested with HSV Hamburg in Zweite Bundesliga (German 2nd division) and finished 2nd, 1 point behind Schalke 04 and got promoted to Bundesliga.

I am playing Bundesliga 2023-24 with Hamburg too and inside my video you can find the highlights of first match against Stuttgart won 1-0 and stats of last season 2022-23 in 2. Bundesliga.

With Arsenal, I tested this tactic too, especially in the second part of the season, I tested it in some away matches or also in the second half of some matches while in the first part of the season and in home matches of the second part of the season I used the more attacking 4-1-4-1.

The 4-3-3 worked very well both with Hamburg and Arsenal. In the video you can see also an emulation of Arteta's 4-2-3-1, a tactic he used in season 2021-22 and sometimes also last season and probably he will use it in this season too. His 4-3-3 actually becomes a 4-2-3-1 in possession too.

For my Arsenal season, I used a database already updated wiith transfers up last week, so Rice, Havertz, Timber are already there and I also used a customised date file to start the season on June 12th 2023.

For my Hsv Hamburg season, I used the default Football Manager 23.4 database.

This is all for now, I hope you enjoy my tactic and have success with it too.
A hug from your Arrigo Sacchi.