Aston Villa vs Arsenal

ARSENAL's 1st GOAL:
Scorer: Van Persie
Assist: Walcott (Indirectly)

Mini-Analysis: Over-Zealous defending leads to a penalty kick for Van Persie, who makes no mistake.

In-Depth Analysis:
Arteta plays a quick throw into  the corner of Aston Villa's Defensive 3rd, where Walcott is being tracked by Ciaran Clark.

At first it seems Walcott has nowhere to go, with Clark and Petrov potentially combining well to pressure in a 2 v 1 situation. With Walcott's speed, you would be happy to defend him with his back to goal, so why then does Clark aggressively try to win a ball in a place where Walcott has nowhere to go?

Walcott does well to trick Clark and gives Clark two options:
1. Try and keep up with one of the fastest players in the Premier League before he cuts the ball back into the danger area for Van Persie.
2. Foul Walcott and pray Guzan pulls of a miracle.

I would have taken my chances with option 1 because, Walcott still had to put in a good ball, Van Persie had to time his run to meet the ball, shoot past not only Guzan but also past the recovering defenders. Although each of these probably would have occurred because Van Persie is just that good, Villa stood a better chance from this scenario than a Penalty Kick with Van Persie taking it.

The Penalty:
For the Goalkeepers: This is not a fool proof method, but here is a tip for you. One of the rules of the thumb for Penalty Kicks is this; left footed players shoot right, right footed players shoot left. Statistically they just prefer to go across their body. Van Persie here is almost true to this rule but like I always say, these are elite players not NCAA II. He does shoot to the right, which Guzan (a fellow NCAA graduate) dives towards, but Van Persie puts the ball in an unreachable spot.

LESSONS:
- Defenders: If up against a fast player like Walcott, you do not want to be over aggressive in your approach. Yes, you want to close them down quick enough so that they cannot turn and run at you, as they are not as much of a danger when they have their backs to goal. Clark here however, makes the mistake of trying to tackle a player who has nowhere to go. With Petrov closing in to provide a 2 v 1 situation, Arsenal really have been gifted a goal here.

ASTON VILLA's GOAL:

Scorer: Albrighton

Assist: Vermaelen...

Mini-Analysis: Albrighton capitalizes on a technical error from Thomas Vermaelen.

In-Depth Analysis:

The simple question to answer in this sequence of events is this, should Vermaelen have headed the ball square to Mertesacker in the first place?

Looking at this shot, you could easily argue that Vermaelen had every right to head the ball to his defensive partner. Mertesacker arguably has time and space to play a quick two touch once he receives the ball and Arsenal can retain possession. However, would this pass violate one of the golden rules of possession, never play square passes?



Referring to the diagram above, a square pass is simply a pass where if intercepted has no defensive protection. In Soccer, diagonal passes are encouraged because it gives either the receiver of the ball or the passer of the ball a second chance to win the ball back if intercepted. At the point of interception during a square pass, the player is already in line with the last defender; whereas at the point of interception during a diagonal pass, the player still has ground to move into before they are past the last defender.



To illustrate, if the pass is at a forward diagonal, the interception is made in front of the passer who therefore has time, if only a little to recover and win the ball back.

The opposite would be true if the ball was passed backwards. This would mean the receiver of the ball would be behind the play, which means they can recover defensively somewhat and have a second chance of winning the ball.

We are talking fractions of a second within the angle of recovery, but at this level, fractions of a second matter.

That being said, I would not put the blame on Mertesacker. Yes, he was somewhat over-aggressive to correct the mistake from Vermaelen but it was not his technical mistake that had to result in his last ditch tackle attempt.

Credit must be given to Albrighton for how quickly he reacted to the error and also for finishing with such composure against one of the best young Goalkeepers in the Premier League, Wojciech Scezney. (Heard plenty of criticism about Arsenal's Goalkeepers over the past few seasons, but Scezney comes in and plays at a consistent high level and not an ounce of praise. Such a harsh world we live in...!)

LESSONS:
- I am being a bit harsh to Vermaelen. He had every right to do what he intended and on another day he would have pulled it off. That does not mean I should not use this as a close example of why to not play square passes. Do not do them. I lost count the amount of times my ex-coach Matt Lavinder (ironically an Arsenal fan) would scream it at our team, and hopefully you can understand why now. It offers no defensive recovery time and in a soccer era where defense against penetration is paramount, there is no place for such a pass that gives total penetration to the interceptor.

NOTE: Final Arsenal Goal to Come... 

Tottenham vs Chelsea: Two Goals From Two Common Areas.

TOTTENHAM's GOAL:
Scorer: Adebayor
Assist: Bale

Mini-Analysis: A low and hard cross from Bale, a Cech mental block and Adebayor scores.

In-Depth Analysis:
After an outstanding tackle from Sandro, the ball falls conveniently to Bale who has only one thing in mind - get at Bosingwa 1 v 1 and get a cross in. He does so, but what is more important is the intelligent movement of Adebayor, made only possible because of Ashley Cole's tendency to play as a wing back than a left back. This is not a criticism of Cole, he has every right to do so, it is more a compliment to Adebayor's spacial awareness to open up and get on the blind side of Terry.

When Bale does get the better of Bosingwa by using his superior speed, I think it would be harsh to criticise Chelsea for the way in which they recovered defensively in transition. They out number Tottenham, have pressure on the ball and fall back just inside the 18 yard box. Terry is in a decent position on Adebayor and Ivanovic does a good job of preventing Bale from cutting inside via his positioning between Terry and Bosingwa.

The error is a Goalkeeping error. Petr Cech, a man who before his head injury was a machine. I remember my surprise every time he was beaten before that game at Reading. Now it seems, Cech has a mental block when it comes to diving at Attackers feet and quite honestly, who can blame him. Can you imagine diving at people's feet after an injury like that AND he just broke his nose?! I cannot however shift the blame from Cech because, lets face it, if De Gea was in goal for this cross the media would be all over him.

Cech was in a good position for the cross, opting to hold his central zone rather than the near post, which you shall see differently with Friedel later. He anticipated the out-swinger and was first to the ball with his hands leading (not his feet, Mr. De Gea...) The only reason I can think as to why he missed the ball goes back to his head injuries. He must have known 6''4 Adebayor was closing in and thought more about that than the ball. In doing so, he completely missed the ball, leaving Adebayor to put Tottenham 1-0 up.

LESSONS:
- For any attackers out there reading this, this is a great example of taking advantage of space given to you in a counter attack. Adebayor opens up well, which had Terry wondering where he was. You cannot fault Terry for this, he did everything right, he was just let down by his Goalkeeper.
- Goalkeepers: Bravery is one of many things that can make and break you as a Goalkeeper. Cech is brave otherwise he would not have gone to ground against Adebayor in the first place, but if you do commit, you had better win it. Cech misses and that is a Center Backs worst nightmare because, if you see your Goalkeeper coming and he calls for it, you must leave it. Terry does this and trusts his Goalkeeper but luckily for Adebeyor, Cech again fails to show his mental toughness.


CHELSEA's GOAL:
Scorer: Sturridge
Assist: Cole

Mini-Analysis: A low and hard cross from Cole meets Sturridge for an easy finish.

In Depth-Analysis:
The play begins with a quick free kick from Ivanovic to Meireles.
Mistake - Walker (RB) tries to anticipate a ball into Ramires that you can argue he was wrong to try to pressure early. So far away from goal and with numbers back, Chelsea are not a threat in this position.

Walker leaves a gap on Chelsea's left hand side that Cole is quick to take advantage of. Instead of the ball being played to Ramires, Drogba drops into the space between the lines and is able to flick the ball wide to Cole.

Despite Walker recovering so well that Gallas can stay central, he is unable to stop Cole from playing a ball into the space behind Tottenham's defensive line. What you may miss is Assou-Ekotto's complete lack of awareness for where Sturridge is.

To be fair to Sturridge, he does a great job of making a well timed blind sided run, but with so many players around Cole and Drogba, Assou-Ekotto really does have to do better. He is only responsible for one player  and if he had been switched on, maybe he would have been first to Cole's ball and Tottenham may have won the game 1-0.

The final point I shall make and this is perhaps only because I coach Goalkeepers, I have to ask questions of Brad Friedel. The reason for that is because, looking at the situation you have Ashley Cole, a left footed player about to cross the ball into the danger area, also from the left hand side. Therefore, Friedel, being the great Goalkeeper he is, maybe could have cheated a little in anticipation of an out-swinging cross. It is something that we are taught as Goalkeepers from a young age and it is something that works from my own experience. That being said, Mr. Walker might have some issues with me asking his World Class Goalkeeper to anticipate something that may actually cause a goal scoring opportunity...

None the less, here is the angle and you can make your own minds up, should Freidel have done better?

LESSONS:
- Hold your defensive shape, particularly if you're one of a back four. Walker could have won that ball well and would have been praised for doing so, had Ramires been given that ball. However, these are elite players so Cole and Drogba combined well to take advantage of the situation.
- Never switch off. Even if you have nine of your team-mates pressuring the player on the ball, all it takes is a good ball into the box for an attacker to get on the end of. Always be aware of the players around you, especially if a player like Cole is looking to cross the ball into such a dangerous area.