How Unai Emery adapted Arsenal's gameplan to deal with high-pressing Burnley

Burnley have a reputation of being tough to beat. Sean Dyche's 4-4-2 is difficult to break down and very well organised, while the strength and size of players in the starting XI means they are always dangerous from set pieces.

Dyche is happy for his players to launch the ball long to strikers running the channels since, as we have seen over several seasons, it works.

It was interesting therefore to hear Unai Emery explain that his Arsenal side had to "adapt the gameplan" at the Emirates on Saturday. Didn't he know what to expect?

How Burnley caught Arsenal by surprise

Burnley, in the past, have sat off the ball and defended in a low block, looking to take advantage of set-piece situations and batter direct passes towards the opposition centre-backs. On Saturday they pushed so high up the pitch that the last man was a often few yards inside the Arsenal half.

"Our pressing was good, it’s hard to dominate here," said Dyche after the game. "Our pressing lines were great."

This aggressive high press caused real problems for an Arsenal side determined to play out from the back. As soon as Bernd Leno played the ball to a centre-back Burnley sprung to action, closing the wide pass, the man on the ball, and the opposite side centre-back.

This forces a pass across the six yard box, which triggers a midfielder to get tight to the Arsenal holding midfield player, who in this case is Joe Willock.

Willock has to to play an early pass to avoid being caught in possession and finds Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right-back. Burnley have seven players in Arsenal's half as part of this press.

Left-back Erik Pieters follows Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as he drops deep to receive a pass, wins his tackle and Burnley have possession. By defending aggressively high up the pitch, Burnley forced Arsenal into making risky passes and kept the ball away from their own box. This proved so successful that home supporters cheered when Leno eventually opted to send goal kicks long up the park.

Willock and Maitland-Niles stayed close together to protect the right wing behind Aubameyang, concerned about the threat of Dwight McNeil on the Burnley left and the channel runs made by Ashley Barnes. Erik Pieters

Burnley's high pressure approach

Despite Burnley's front-foot defending, Arsenal had 68.6 per cent possession. Whether through necessity or tactical instruction, Emery's midfielders and wingers dropped ever deeper to support building out from the back.

Dyche's team looked to have control of the game off-the-ball but Arsenal's quality showed, and Dani Ceballos got ever more involved, having more touches and making more passes than any other player on the pitch, bamboozling defenders with deft touches and skillful turns. On 42 minutes he was given a standing ovation for simply winning a throw-in but it was his constant movement, linking everything together, which prevented Burnley from successfully squeezing the game in Arsenal's half.

"A lot of moment (sic) we couldn’t implement our game plan because they push," Emery explained. "We needed to adapt the game plan (to deal with their) long balls and high pressure."

Heatmaps show how much of the play was restricted to Arsenal's half.

Emery needed a way to catch Burnley in transition and utilise the pace in his forward line but with deep playmakers unable to find time on the ball to make forward passes, this proved difficult.

It is already clear why Emery moved so quickly to sign David Luiz. As Arsenal players dropped deeper to keep possession, Burnley pushed higher to keep them there. This left space behind for a runner and so whenever Luiz had a bit of time on the ball in defence, Aubameyang looked to break forward on the right wing in anticipation of a pass played over the top.

Having a playmaker in defence like Luiz means Arsenal can go from defence to attack in an instant. This combined with a forward three of Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette and Aubameyang will make many teams think twice about trying to tackle Arsenal high up the pitch purely because it leaves space behind their own defence.

Nicolas Pepe's excellent cameo

Although a 4-4-2 when defending, Burnley's shape in possession was more of a back three, with Matt Lowton's advanced starting position keeping Reiss Nelson out of the game. Lowton was effectively a right wing-back, which allowed Johann Berg Gudmundsson to move inside the pitch onto his left foot and meant Nelson had to track back to ensure Nacho Monreal wasn't double-teamed on the flank.

Emery replaced Reiss Nelson with Nicolas Pepe at halftime, with the youngster making only 10 passes in a largely anonymous performance, and this change allowed Arsenal to gain control of the play higher up the pitch.

With Pepe at right wing, Aubameyang moved out to the left, dragging Lowton with him, which freed up Monreal to get forward. Suddenly Arsenal could get at Burnley. Pepe's movement, roaming inside the pitch from wide right, also allowed Maitland-Niles to get involved higher up the pitch too.

All of this combined to help create Arsenal's second goal. The front three stayed wide to stretch the Burnley defence, Monreal got forward to help with the press, Ceballos joined in from the 10 position Emery originally wanted him to play.

Ceballos closes down Gudmundsson, wins a tackle and nudges the ball through to Aubameyang, who turns to run at goal.

After a drop of the shoulder, Aubameyang drills his finish into the bottom corner to give Arsenal the lead.

This goal owed much to the single mistake made by Gudmundsson but it is also a result of Emery's positive decision making. Plenty of managers would have given Nelson most of the second half to improve on a disappointing first 45 minutes - Emery didn't.

By thinking pro-actively and throwing Pepe straight in, Arsenal grabbed the winning goal. On another day Dyche's approach would have yielded at least a point, but for all the good we saw from Burnley on Saturday, they have still never won a Premier League game at the Emirates.

Dyche got his setup right but Emery's tactical tweaks helped Arsenal win the match. In reality, great players made the difference.