Women's Champions League tactical analysis: Arsenal's speed and structure
Thursday, February 12, 2026
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UEFA Technical Observer Tanya Oxtoby analyses Arsenal's attacking display as the title holders secured a 4-0 victory at OH Leuven in Belgium in the first leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League knockout phase play-offs.
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Arsenal's attacking performance demonstrated a high level of fluidity and cohesion, particularly in the wide and inside channels, where their combination play consistently disrupted OH Leuven's defensive structure.
Central to their attacking success was the speed of their ball circulation, intelligent positional rotations and the technical quality with which they executed short passing combinations. "We have to dictate the tempo, dictate what happens on the pitch, and that's not always easy, but the players did that really well," enthused Arsenal coach Renée Slegers after the match.
"We have to dictate the tempo, dictate what happens on the pitch, and that's not always easy, but the players did that really well."
Tanya Oxtoby explained that their approach centred around creating overloads and exploiting positional relationships across the width of the pitch: Arsenal focused on "wide triangles between the full-back, attacking midfielder and winger, with one player providing maximum width, an inner-corridor player occupying the half space, and a third looking to exploit spaces created, looking to get in behind the inner corridors and deliver into the cut-back spaces." This structure stretched OHL's defensive line horizontally and vertically.
Arsenal's commitment to maintaining maximum width proved particularly effective in destabilising OHL's back four. By positioning wide players high and wide, they forced OHL's full-backs into isolated defensive situations, weakening the connection with their centre-backs. "By having maximum width they were able to disconnect the full-back from the centre-backs and create those spaces for their wide triangles to exploit. Midfielders operating between the lines meant that they were able to affect OHL's shape and create overloads. Driving to the deeper spaces in 1v1 situations also meant that the box defending for OHL got deep and allowed the cut-back space to open up," said Oxtoby.
Coaching observation: Rehearsing positional relationships
From a coaching perspective, Arsenal’s success highlights the importance of rehearsing positional relationships and coordinated rotations. Oxtoby described this process as involving "working on the positional structures as a starting point, possibly in an unopposed micro-passing pattern". As a coach, "work on the structure of where you want the players, what the rotations are, the timings of those rotations and the balance that is needed depending on who is occupying those areas. Then allow the players to work those patterns, building into an opposed version, where the defenders are underloaded or outnumbered."
Tanya Oxtoby is an Australian-born former defender with stints in both Australia and England. She was recently appointed as manager of Newcastle United Women, and is also the founder of a coaching and mentoring business for female footballers and coaches.
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