Arsenal were comfortable winners in the end over Southampton yesterday despite going a goal down and suffering a brief wobble.
Bukayo Saka was star of the show and he impressed Mikel Arteta, grabbing a goal and two assists to continue his fine form.
Of course, it’s not all down to Saka as to why Arsenal do keep winning games and he needed his teammates yesterday just as much as they needed him.
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Mikel Arteta has very much installed a team ethos around The Emirates and that transmits into the performances we see.
And according to Micah Richards, Arsenal are now doing something that isn’t even that obvious.
Micah Richards praises key aspect of Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal
Speaking about the way Arsenal got back into the game against Southampton before seeing them off, Richards picked up the tactical element of the Gunners’ play.
And pointing out a very specific action, Richards believes Arsenal have become brilliant at setting traps for the opposition to walk into.
”What’s so great about Arsenal is the way they press, and the way they can adapt to what opponents they are playing.
“They set traps here, they sort of play 4-4-2 at times when they press, and Jorginho and Rice were really aggressive in going high,” Richards said on BBC MOTD.
Arsenal tactics not always obvious
While we can all see how they’re lining up and the way they do press to win the ball back, this insight from Richards is a nice little touch.
Arsenal do indeed seem to work on setting these traps for the opposition to play into and then when the time is right, they pounce.
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We see it time and again how they win the ball back before then having the quality to punish teams.
Right now, Arsenal are very much on their way to winning the league and this sort of tactical set up is key.
