Champions League Performance Insights: How Arsenal passed their San Siro test
Friday, January 23, 2026
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UEFA's game insights unit shines a light on Arsenal's all-round excellence and Inter's front-two threat.
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"A very complete performance" is how Mikel Arteta summed up his Arsenal side's victory at Inter this week. Mature, ambitious and controlled were three other adjectives he used when describing a display that earned a 3-1 success in the UEFA Champions League and maintained the only 100% record in this season's league phase.
Arsenal's performance offered all of the above and more against opponents who tested them to the full, notably through the front two of Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram, as is explored in the following analysis from UEFA's game insights unit.
'Duels and 50-50s'
"They are really good and they make it so hard for you because they stretch you so much – in two passes you're open." Arsenal coach Arteta's comment about the challenge posed by Inter is illustrated by the clips in video one above.
This was a very open contest with a notable number of duels as players disputed second balls around the pitch. Inter won 52% of the duels recorded, which emphasises the challenge from the home side, yet Arsenal were up to the task. As UEFA Technical Observer Jan Peder Jalland says, "We really saw their competitiveness in terms of duels and winning 50-50s."
Inter forwards pose a different question
A key question for Arsenal on Tuesday night was how to deal with Inter's front two. Given that fewer teams operate with two centre-forwards than in previous eras, Arteta's defenders faced a challenge they do not encounter regularly.
Inter typically look to get the ball quickly to their front two and then build attacks from there. The graphic above reflects the importance of the work their forwards do, showing the number of times they received line-breaking passes against Arsenal – 11 times in the case of Martínez and Thuram, and seven for substitute Pio Esposito. That was more than in their previous league phase fixture against Liverpool.
Arsenal responded to the challenge by having their centre-backs, William Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera, go man to man. It was a different approach than we saw from Liverpool on Matchday 6, when Arne Slot's centre-backs had Ryan Gravenberch in support in a +1 at the back. According to Jalland, Arsenal's approach "means the central defenders have to be able to defend one on one in bigger spaces. There is no back-up."
As the clips above show, Martínez would look to drop deep, which then posed another question: how far should they follow him? Jalland adds: "You see in the clip where Martínez played Thuram through, Saliba at some point feels he's too deep and so he lets him go. This was one of the games within the game: Martínez trying to get away from Saliba and then Thuram ready with his back against the goal or turning and being on the run in behind."
Later in the match, after midfielder Declan Rice's 64th-minute introduction in place of Eberechi Eze, Arsenal's centre-backs now had more support. "Rice brought defensive cover and also his ability in duels so it helped Arsenal be more balanced as a team," Jalland observes.
"There is a level of efficiency when you come to these places that you need to have and we certainly had that tonight. The team looked mature, very ambitious and emotionally very controlled as well."
Arsenal managing the game
To return to Arteta's words at the top about Arsenal's display, Inter coach Cristian Chivu had his own comment to add on the strengths of the Premier League leaders. "They have quality, pace, intensity, individual players," he said.
This final video provides a showcase of the many virtues of this Arsenal side. Indeed, clip one offers strong evidence of why Jalland describes them as a "complete team" as it features the Gunners in various phases of play: from a high press to mid and low blocks, from counterpressing and counterattacking to building play with patience and intelligence.
"They can defend and counter and they can dominate games," says Jalland. "And whether they're attacking or defending, they always play with intensity, which is helped by always having players within a close distance of each other."
They can score goals in all manner of ways too, as showed by clips two and three: first through Gabriel Jesus opening the scoring following their own free-kick, and then with Viktor Gyökeres' match-clinching strike after they broke away when defending a set play.
Coaching reflections: Defending against a big striker
Jan Peder Jalland reflects on lessons for coaches from the strategies analysed above.
For Jan Peder Jalland, the UEFA Technical Observer and Norway Under-21 coach, the trend for smaller strikers has given way to the return of big No9s. How can coaches prepare young centre-backs to deal with this challenge? He offers the following guidance.
"With the trend for one-v-one defending, we're seeing more physical No9s and, in youth football, it means we have to work on defending balls up to a bigger centre-forward with his back to goal. The challenge for central defenders is they have to be able to handle a No9 both in the air and on the ground, when he's on the move in bigger spaces.
"To develop a player to be able to defend in an elite team, they have to learn to man-mark without any cover in a high press. When I coached players at U15, U16 and U17 levels, I told them, 'Normally, you have a +1 at the back but you have to do it one on one because if you want to go far in your career, you have to be able to handle this.'
"Another important point concerns your midfielders, as when the ball goes up to a big No9, the midfielders must be good at recovery runs. With man-marking, if the ball goes over you and your team don't win the second ball, you need your midfielders to produce the recovery runs as the full-backs might be high up the pitch.
"In terms of exercises on the training ground, I'd suggest a session – anything from six-a-side to 11 versus 11 – where your players are all man to man on a pitch with two goals and plenty of space. The goalkeeper can start by kicking long and you want the central defenders to work on defending one v one and your midfielders to work on winning second balls and making recovery runs. It is crucial the space is large enough as you're also working with your attackers at the same time on taking advantage of those bigger spaces."
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