Before every Arsenal fixture, we’ll bring you a Scouting Report on the Gunners’ next opponents.
Arsène Wenger's side host Leicester City in the Premier League on Sunday. To find out more, we asked tactical expert Michael Cox.
Michael Cox
Leicester City’s remarkable campaign means the club are now five points clear at the top, and the bookmakers’ favourite to lift the title.
Arsenal are one of only two sides to defeat them this season, winning 5-2 at the King Power in September - but Claudio Ranieri’s side have improved significantly since then.
"Leicester’s main challenge in the remaining weeks of the campaign is how they cope now opponents consider them a genuine top side, and guard against their counter-attacking gameplan"
Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy will lead the line and as he demonstrated with two goals in the reverse fixture, he’s excellent at receiving long passes into the channels, and his movement to collect the ball on the outside of opposition centre-backs is superb. Increasingly shooting from tight angles and distance, he’s extremely difficult to contain.
The hard-working Shinji Okazaki plays the support role just behind, and a crucial feature of Leicester’s gameplan is the strikers’ tendency to drop off and effectively become extra central midfielders when the opposition have the ball. This means the midfielders can sit deep and concentrate on denying space between the lines, therefore the centre backs don’t have to move forward from the edge of their own box – Leicester are highly compact, the defending starts from the front.
Riyad Mahrez has also been in sensational form this season. The right winger is brilliant on the counter-attack, a prolific goalscorer and has developed his game too – defenders have sussed out his tendency to move onto his favoured left foot, but in the 3-1 win at Man City he smashed in a brilliant goal with his right.
N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater have proved an excellent midfield combination. The former initially impressed with his ball-winning skills but has started to become more penetrative with his distribution too, while Drinkwater is naturally a midfield scrapper but can charge forward on the counter-attack. Rarely pulled out of position when the opposition have the ball for long periods, they’ve screened the defence excellently.
That’s crucial because Wes Morgan and Robert Huth are somewhat immobile, and dislike quick forwards or having to shut down players between the lines. However, with the midfield deep, plus Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson playing narrow, they don’t have to cover a particularly large zone, and are both very strong when dealing with crosses.
Leicester’s main challenge in the remaining weeks of the campaign is how they cope now opponents consider them a genuine top side, and guard against their counter-attacking gameplan.
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