'That was the idea' - Leandro Trossard explains Arsenal tactic used to exploit Everton
Leandro Trossard has admitted Arsenal purposely avoid sending balls into the Everton box due to the aerial prowess of Sean Dyche's side.
The Gunners were forced to remain patient at Goodison Park on Sunday afternoon, having seen a Gabriel Martinelli goal ruled out during the first half, though eventually found a winning effort in the 69th minute when Trossard brilliantly bent a shot past Jordan Pickford.
This finish arrived on the back of a corner kick that Arsenal took 26 seconds to take before playing short and eventually threading the ball through to Trossard to score. This tactic of delaying the set-piece was used on more than one occasion throughout the game and seemed to cause Everton players to switch off as they awaited the ball to be fired into the area.
By following this approach, Mikel Arteta's side also avoided having to go toe-to-toe with towering individuals such as James Tarkowski and Amadou Onana - something Arsenal had planned to avoid before a ball had even been kicked.
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Talking through his winning goal and why the north London side adopted this set-piece routine, Trossard told Sky Sports: "They have a lot of tall guys on their team and they're good in the air and at set-pieces. That’s where we wanted to exploit them if we could [by using short corners], so that was the idea behind it. We work hard on everything tactically and he [Arteta] does so well with the team and the team picks that up. We were really pleased with that."
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