How Arsenal exploited the space left by Spurs in front of their retreating defence

Four points from four matches makes for a disappointing start to the 2024-25 Premier League campaign for Tottenham Hotspur, especially considering how impressive they started last season.

By now, two major flaws in Ange Postecoglou's approach have been well established. Spurs have a problem with their high defensive line and their inability to defend set pieces. Yesterday's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal was inevitably blamed on the second issue, with Christian Romero beating Arsenal's Gabriel to score the winner. But the first problem should not be underestimated.

The problem with a high defensive line is often considered in basic terms: if your defense is high up the pitch, they leave space behind that can be exploited. The team was missing Yves Bissuma against Arsenal but that was clearly a problem for his crucial goal in Tottenham's 2-1 defeat to Newcastle in the previous game.

But in Mickey van de Ven, Tottenham have the fastest defender in the league and he is usually able to cover that space. So, the problem is often not the space at the back of the defence: it's the space up front after the back four retreat.

Here's an example of 30 seconds of the second half from Sunday. Tottenham are looking to up the ante, with right-back Pedro Porro holding on to midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur before joining four attacking midfielders and centre-forward Dominic Solanke in the opposition half. Jurien Timber plays the ball over his head and Arsenal go on the attack.

And that's the result — a strange situation where suddenly four Arsenal attackers are against four Spurs players and everyone else is completely out of the game. So, the problem is not that Arsenal can suddenly drop back, but more that they can work the ball backwards and create space in front of the defence.

Eventually, the move ended in this situation, with Gabriel Martinelli firing the ball towards Bucayo Saka, although Guglielmo Vicario intercepted and the flag was for offside anyway. Tottenham's players are back in their right-back zone, but look at the vast amount of space on the edge of the penalty box…

That foreshadowed a next step.

It came from a situation when Tottenham put too many men forward into the opposition box, but Arsenal cleared and saw Kai Havertz running back. Well, no problem for Tottenham — the defender here is Van de Ven and he won't be outdone.

But, if anything (Clive), Van de Ven actually very Fast — because Havertz knows there's no way he'll be beaten. So he made the wise decision to drop back, which you suspect he hasn't done against any other Premier League defender.

He then plays a backward pass to Martinelli and that's Spurs' real problem: space in front of a retreating defensive line.

Martinelli's side had room to play the ball — and again, even with Martinelli on the floor, Arsenal had four attackers against four Spurs defenders. The spurs cover the rear area well, but it's the front area that's a concern.

Arsenal could have done better in this situation. Eventually, Spurs got men back and Arsenal were forced to settle for a corner. But that corner brought the only goal.

This seems to be a constant problem. Here's the first chance for Newcastle's 2-1 win over Tottenham.

It comes from a simple Nick Pope kick downfield, which Anthony Gordon can control. Again, any other Premier League centre-back would be worried by Alexander Isak's pace here, but Van de Ven has it covered.

Yet again the problem is the space ahead. Although Tottenham were using two holding midfielders in the first half of this game, Gordon has the space and freedom to play inside Harvey Barnes, who also has space to do his usual thing: cut inside and curl into the far top corner. . This effort just whistled wide.

For a good example of the speed and determination that Spurs need from their attackers, they can look to Martinelli.

Ten minutes after the goal, when Solanke won the ball from Leandro Trossard, Martinelli was wide-left, seemingly out of the game, and could reasonably be expected to throw his arms in the air because of this needless turnover.

Instead, Martinelli returned to close down Dejan Kulusevski in the center circle, fouling him in the process…

But Kulusevski offloaded the ball and referee Jared Gillett played the advantage. Although Martinelli was on the floor, he got up, sprinted again and then made a crucial challenge in the left-back position…

He immediately got up and tried in vain to keep the ball inside.

Spurs' problem isn't entirely about work-rate. It is also about organization; If the forwards press, get bypassed and are out of play, they will struggle to regain their position.

But such determination to move back closer to the back four is often lacking from Spurs' attacking players, with the possible exception of Kulusevski.

It's all well and good with van de Van's recovery speed – but if the others aren't able to recover their position, the opponent's chances are only delayed rather than prevented.