Unai Emery has it all to do if he is to win the Europa League for a fourth time with Arsenal trailing Rennes 3-1 ahead of their last-16 second leg at the Emirates.
Arsenal’s manager arrived last summer with a reputation as something of a Europa League specialist having won it in 2014, 2015 and 2016 with Sevilla prior to moving on up into the Champions League by taking on the PSG job.
Having successfully steered the Gunners through a group containing opponents of varying levels of quality, Emery has ecountered some difficulty in the knockout rounds with Arsenal losing and having a man sent off in each of their two away games to BATE and Rennes.
Arsenal had enjoyed the perfect start in France a week ago by going in front through Alex Iwobi after three minutes but a red card for Sokratis Papastathopolous followed by goals for Benjamin Bourigeaud, an own goal from Nacho Monreal and Ismaila Sarr capped a dismal evening.
Emery will have been pleased with the response his players gave to that setback on Sunday as they became the first team to beat an Ole Gunnar Solskjaer led Manchester United side in the Premier League courtesy of a Granit Xhaka thunderbolt and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang penalty.
During his debut season in English football, Emery has emerged as the Premier League’s number one tactical tinkerer and that was certainly in evidence at the Emirates on Sunday as he went for the jugular with an uncharacteristically gung-ho line-up.
With Arsenal chasing down a 3-1 deficit against Rennes, could he do likewise once more? Here are the main tactical conundrums that Emery faces ahead of the second leg.
All his eggs in one basket
Generally speaking, Emery has tended to select one of Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil in his starting XI rather than starting them both. Earlier on in the campaign, the same could also have been said of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal fans were sent into a state of shock on Sunday, therefore, when the starting line-up against United confirmed that all four of Ramsey, Ozil, Aubameyang and Lacazette were in the side. It was a bold move from Emery but one which paid off handsomely.
Having succeeded with that attacking configuration against United, who had just dumped PSG – a team 34 points and seven places higher than Rennes in Ligue 1 – out of the Champions League in their own back yard, the temptation to do likewise against Rennes must be high.
Rennes’ record of 35 goals conceded is the joint-highest total in the top half of the Ligue 1 table and they struggled to contain Arsenal’s attack in the opening stages of the first leg with Czech goalkeeper Tomas Koubek saving well from Lucas Torreira before Sokratis’ sending off altered the flow of the game.
An unexpected bonus for Emery ahead of the game, meanwhile, came in the form of Lacazette’s UEFA’s reprieve, trimming down his three-game suspension to just two which makes him eligible to play in the second leg.
Lacazette has a surprisingly poor record against Rennes, scoring just twice in ten games against them while playing for Lyon, but his partnership with Aubameyang up front is showing fruitful signs with the pair linking extremely well against United.
Furthermore, if ever there were a game in which Ozil was required you’d think it would be this one considering Arsenal must score at least two goals unanswered to progress to the next stage. In a game in which Arsenal are expected to dominate from the front, his vision will be required to break down an inevitable deep-blocked defensive unit.
Torreira to come back in?
Another interesting quirk of Emery’s team selection on Sunday was that neither Lucas Torreira nor Matteo Guendouzi started the game – a first in the Premier League this season.
Torreira’s absence was enforced with the Uruguayan serving a three-game domestic suspension for a foul on Danny Rose in the north London derby, while Guendouzi was left on the bench as the in-form Granit Xhaka and Ramsey started in a double pivot in midfield.
With the Uruguayan ruled out of Arsenal’s next two league games, Emery may decide to field him from the start against Rennes to keep his fitness levels up. Torreira’s tenacity and energy could prove invaluable in helping Arsenal gain a foothold in the game early on.
Should Torreira be given the nod, one of the attacking players would likely have to make way to accommodate him considering Xhaka has made himself undroppable recently. That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as it would give Emery strong options to turn too should an early blitz of Rennes fail to result in the goals required.
It would be a surprise to see either Aubameyang or Lacazette drop out given the scoreline and should they both start, Ozil’s case for playing is strengthened. In that case, Ramsey is perhaps most at risk of losing his starting spot. The Welshman is a more than useful option off the bench, though, as is Henrikh Mkhitaryan, should he pass a late fitness test.
Defensive reshuffle
Emery will be forced into making changes at the back with Sokratis unavailable following his red card in the first leg. That will force the Arsenal boss into a reshuffle and it will be interesting to see whether he reverts to the 4-2-3-1 system from the first leg or sticks with a 3-4-1-2 from Sunday’s game.
Considering the emphasis will be on Arsenal to attack, it would make sense to continue with a 3-4-1-2 that not only accommodates the club’s three best offensive players – Aubameyang, Lacazette and Ozil – in their favoured positions but also creates space for Sead Kolasinac to play as a wing-back.
Only Ozil has created more chances per game for Arsenal this season than the Bosnian who has added an extra dimension to their attack in recent months with his regular forays into the final third of the pitch.
Against United, Nacho Monreal slotted in at left centre-back and having played in that role on numerous occasions under Arsene Wenger he is perfectly capable of doing it against Rennes. Laurent Koscielny will anchor the defensive unit and in Sokratis’ place, Shkodran Mustafi is primed to come in on the right-hand side.
Mustafi continues to frustrate Arsenal fans with his lapses in concentration but there is a growing sense that his long-term position could be a right-back where he will be less exposed than he is when playing centrally. A shift to the right side of a back three should in theory, at least, make him less vulnerable.
In goal, Emery must decide whether to stick with his cup ‘keeper (and one-time Rennes shot-stopper) Petr Cech or bring in Bernd Leno with the German growing in stature with each passing week. Leno was arguably Arsenal’s man-of-the-match against United, but it would be something of a surprise if Emery ditched Cech regardless of the stakes on the night.
