Champions League performance insights: How Arsenal's overloads beat Sporting CP

For Mikel Arteta, it was the best away performance in Europe of his five years as Arsenal manager. To score five goals away to a Sporting side who had gone 13 months unbeaten at home was no small feat. But how did the Gunners do it?

According to UEFA's technical analysis unit, Arsenal's game plan in Lisbon on Tuesday was to force Sporting back into a flat back five and exploit space either side of the midfield two – Hidemasa Morita and Morten Hjulmand – within the hosts' 5-2-3 defensive shape. On the right flank, in particular, Arsenal looked for overloads and combinations and, as shown below, it was from that side that their two early goals originated.

Here we begin by seeing Arsenal's positional structure against Sporting's defensive shape, first in a mid block. The positioning of wingers Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli was pivotal: they stayed high and wide, making darting runs in order to keep the Sporting wing-backs, Geovany Quenda and Maximiliano Araújo, pushed back. This left Morita and Hjulmand without support – with Sporting's defenders wary of stepping too far up – and so created corridors to exploit on either side.

This second graphic highlights once more those spaces either side of the Sporting midfielders. For Arsenal, the benefits of forcing the hosts into a back five included the distance the home wing-backs had then to travel to support any transitions. Moreover, look at how isolated Viktor Gyökeres, Sporting's centre-forward, is at the top of the pitch.

As already mentioned, Arsenal had particular success with their attacking progressions down their right and this is illustrated by this map of their players' average positions when on the ball. The visitors concentrated players in the area on the right of Morita, looking to achieve a numerical superiority and create gaps, with their passing and movement, to penetrate the home defence.

The video above features examples of Arsenal's attacking work – first against a mid block and then a low block. The first clip shows how well Player of the Match Martin Ødegaard – of whom more later – drifted across the pitch, supporting team-mates and progressing the ball. Also apparent, both here and in the second clip, are the space outside the Sporting midfield two, and the height and width of Arsenal's wingers.

Another detail to note in clip two is how Ødegaard's dropping deeper is carefully synchronised with Declan Rice's movement between the lines on the right. The sight of Rice coming over to the right emphasises the game plan once again.

For UEFA's analysts, an additional factor in Arsenal's success in Lisbon was the way they held on to the ball, keeping Sporting pinned back while biding their time for the right moment to penetrate. As showcased by this graphic, Arteta's team had an average of five passes per possession sequence – more than in their matches against Atalanta, Inter and Paris Saint-Germain.

A central figure in Arsenal keeping the ball, particularly in tight areas, was Ødegaard, with his passing precision and clever movement into space – particularly on the right, as reflected by this map of the Norwegian's ball receptions between the lines in opposition territory.

The role of Saka warrants a mention too as according to the UEFA technical observer group, "there was lots of mobility in the Arsenal attack with late runs into spaces" and he did this as well as anyone in a red shirt on Tuesday.

Saka's contribution included an assist for the second Arsenal goal and this can be seen in this second video, which contains so many of the other positive elements packed into their outstanding team performance.

In clip one we see how their attack builds down the right, with a structured push toward the defensive line with five players. Rice moves into the right channel, drawing out Sporting's left-sided centre-back, Gonçalo Inácio, and his movement opens space for Saka, who capitalises with a well-timed run and cross for Kai Havertz to convert.

The video concludes with the first goal and again the build-up is loaded with details – from technical skill to tactical awareness via excellent synchronisation – starting with the 5v4 overload that Arsenal create on the right.

Look then at how Rice creates space by deliberately avoiding movement toward the ball, instead positioning himself to exploit gaps. Then you have the precision of Ødegaard’s pass, played to Rice's right foot to ensure he needs only one touch before delivering the through ball, timed perfectly for Jurriën Timber's run behind. And finally, there is the movement of Martinelli, cutting across from the back post to attack the five-metre box and get his goal.