Arsenal’s best performances under Renee Slegers tend to be marked by fluidity- constant interchanging of positions with players free to drift and interpret within the overall structure. The problem is that when confidence is low, the team can look inhibited or a little stiff in their movements.
The performance against Twente was very good, even if the 1-0 scoreline did little to reflect their overall dominance. In this game, injury to Frida Maanum and the return to fitness of Kim Little saw Arsenal play Mariona a little higher as a 10 ahead of Little and Cooney-Cross. Little and Cooney-Cross swapped and combined well at the base of the midfield, which meant Mariona had the freedom to drift in dangerous areas.
It is important to acknowledge that, even in the slightly deeper role, Mariona’s creative statistics are very strong. Only Beth Mead averages more XAG per 90 in the Arsenal squad, the Spaniard is streets ahead of anyone in the squad for progressive passes and passes into the final third, only Chloe Kelly averages more passes into the penalty area and she leads the squad for shot creating actions.
Her creativity from deeper positions is incredibly good. However, I think the trio of Little, Cooney-Cross and Mariona made for even greater fluidity and allowed Caldentey to access dangerous areas regularly. Mariona averages 3.8 touches in the penalty area per 90 this season and 38.9 in the attacking third, 41.3 in the middle third and 10.1 in her own defensive third.
On Saturday, she had 55 touches in the final third and nine in the penalty area. She had only four touches in the defensive third (and with one of those, she gave the ball away for Everton’s equaliser). Let’s have a look at how she caused Everton problems with her movement on Saturday.
Arsenal often caused Everton problems by pulling Mead right in from the touchline as a right 10 while Mariona veered to the left. Both players were often able to find pockets of space behind the Everton sixes.
Mariona drifted to both flanks during the game. Here we see her float to the left to create a triangle with Foord and McCabe.
Foord and Mariona exchange passes here and you can see how her movement manipulates Everton out of position and Foord gets the ball in the penalty area.
We see her drift over to the left again to support McCabe here with Foord positioned in the area.
Arsenal consistently found overloads behind Everton’s 6s during the game and as Mariona knifes in from the left here, we can see that Kim Little has drifted behind Hayashi.
Mariona snaps an angled pass into Little’s feet and for the second time in a minute, she has given the ball to an Arsenal player in the Everton penalty area. Again, notice Beth Mead’s very central position here and her and Little attempt a 1-2.
Mariona was not confined to the left, however. As the ball is played to Russo in the right channel here, Mariona can see the situation unfolding and looks for the cutback.
She is quicker and hungrier than Vignola here, her shot is cleared off the line but Katie McCabe takes care of the loose ball to make it 1-0.
Mariona started the move that led to Beth Mead’s winning goal against Twente in midweek by forcing a high turnover and she does the same here as Kitagawa makes a short pass here.
Mariona burgles the ball and plays Russo into space in the area. It should end in a shot but Russo loses the chance by trying to switch the ball back onto her right foot.
Here we see Mariona and Mead as dual 10s once more. Cooney-Cross would often drop between the centre-halves and allow them to fan out. As Catley surveys her options, Mariona is trying to make a run into a dangerous area. It doesn’t arrive on this occasion but with Little and Cooney-Cross providing a solid base, Mariona could focus all her attention on causing problems higher up the pitch.
Mariona picks up a good space here again and Little finds her.
She then plays a beautiful disguised pass through the legs of Vignola into Mead and Arsenal are eventually able to work a cross into Russo who heads into the side netting. Mariona’s ability to find space and then pass the ball into dangerous areas was apparent all afternoon.
As McCabe receives the ball from Catley here, Mariona is immediately alive to the situation and running off the back of Hayashi.
Mariona receives the pass and slips a slide rule pass in behind for Caitlin Foord, yet another pass that gets Arsenal into Everton’s penalty area. Mariona had three key passes in this game (joint most with McCabe), nine passes into the final third (joint most with Wubben-Moy) and four passes into the penalty area (only McCabe managed more with five).
Arsenal restart play with a quick free-kick here and Mariona is slowly assessing her options. It’s quite a ‘dead’ situation with Everton well set and not a lot of options.
But she suddenly picks the pace up and catches Everton off-guard with a swift drop of the shoulder and a pass over to the left side. It takes a deflection before it gets to Foord but Mariona is rewarded for trying to do something enterprising. This sequence ends with Russo stabbing McCabe’s low cross towards goal. Mariona’s inventiveness and quick thinking brought life to a dead moment.
We see her quick thinking here again as Arsenal take a short corner. As soon as the ball comes to Mead, Mariona can see Rosa van Gool, who has just come on, is not aware of Mariona’s presence.
Her attempt at a left-footed cross is blocked but when the ricochet falls to her, she hits a first time shot which is well saved by Brosnan. Once again, Mariona is often just thinking a little more quickly than her opponents and she sees spaces as a result.
Kim Little comes off on 62 minutes and Mariona drops into a deeper role but it doesn’t stifle her creativity. Again, she has peeled off to the left here and Wubben-Moy sees her.
Once again, she looks for the penetrative and difficult pass between the lines but finds Foord on the edge of the area. It turns a moderate opportunity attack into a high opportunity attack with one pass.
In truth, Arsenal lost their way a little at this point and did not sustain attacks as well. They did not force the keeper into action between the 65th and 87th minutes. I think this was partly about losing the control Kim Little exerts over the temperature of the game, partly because when Russo moves into the 10, Arsenal lose her hold up play and her ability to attract defenders.