Inter vs. Arsenal: Gunners’ emphasis on crosses doesn’t work as Mikel Arteta’s men fail to score again

Bukayo Saka cuts onto his left foot, spots his man at the back post and bends it quite excellently. You couldn’t ask for much more from an open-play cross but it flies just beyond its target. No wonder. Even when you have one of the most reliable delivery methods in the game, a cross, whether from a dead or live ball, tends not to be the most effective method to goal.

Particularly when they were the sort that Arsenal delivered tonight. They weren’t charging to the byline, teeing up their center forwards and attacking midfielders for cutbacks. The Gunners were hanging the ball up high, telling their big guys to go up there and get it. And they did it quite well. They should have scored from at least one or two of the 46. They even had a smattering of open-play creation too. This was not too dissimilar from Inter’s meeting with Manchester City earlier in this league phase. You never quite sensed that Simone Inzaghi’s side — a heavily rotated version of them at that — were buckling under the weight of attacking pressure but a couple of better headers and the Italian champions would have been well beaten.

The biggest difference this time was a penalty that one might reasonably term officious. It is the sort that gets given in UEFA competitions but raises the question whether defenders have considered just not having arms. That might have been the only way Mikel Merino could have ensured that Mehdi Taremi’s flick didn’t hit him. Hakan Calhanoglu was nerveless from the spot. A fine first half was undone. A fine second half would not be enough.

After a nervy start, Arsenal had asserted themselves in this contest. It is rare for a team to rock up to the San Siro and end the first half with more possession, more territory and more shots. Mikel Arteta’s men looked to have the measure of Inter, a side who are not used to being pressed with the intensity with which Kai Havertz led the charge.

As is so often the case, the set pieces caused all sorts of difficulties for Arsenal’s opponents. Twice in the first 48 minutes, William Saliba found himself in position to do better with a header, soon after Denzel Dumfries had to boot to safety off the line when, for the first time, Yann Sommer had misjudged one of Bukayo Saka’s unerring deliveries from the right.

In open play too, Arsenal were intent to live and die by the ability of their wide men to drop a delivery on a dime. They really can. Saka was fizzing every corner into the corridor of uncertainty while Gabriel Martinelli responded to the double teams Inter threw his way by working himself an angle to deliver. When he got it right Sommer ended up punching an awful lot more of Mikel Merino’s head than the ball.

It was not a particularly fortuitous night for the Spaniard, who might wonder why an unfortunate deflection into his own hand at one end is so much more worthy of sanction than him being cleared out by the goalkeeper at the other. Merino is still finding his feet in a midfield role that looks all the more complicated in Arteta’s 4-2-4, one which contrives to have so many more players behind the ball than you would imagine. It was, then, no great surprise to see the Spaniard withdrawn at the interval, Gabriel Jesus’ introduction allowing Arsenal to drift towards a more familiar 4-3-3.

Even in a better setup, it took time for Arsenal to get going. Not for an hour was Sommer truly tested from open play. Havertz found space on the right corner of the box, whipping the ball at the top left. Even their best shots were cross-ish, their best open play chance coming from something akin to a miscued Leandro Trossard cross that landed favorably for Havertz to volley. Yann Aurel Bisseck hurled himself towards the ball in the nick of time.

That was to be the best chance of a second half in which Arsenal played like the best version of themselves they could be. Without Martin Odegaard, fit enough only for the final three minutes, it seems all they can do is cycle the ball to the flanks and see if Saka or Martinelli can do something against a double team. Ben White and Jurrien Timber might have done more overlapping. They appear to be the embodiment of Arteta’s conservatism, a coach who so far this season seems more obsessed with mitigating risk than creating it for the opposition.

Not to say that Inter’s goal wasn’t at risk tonight. With so many crosses flying across their bows, it was always going to be a hairy finish. If, however, Arsenal had had more means of prising the defense apart, their dominance may have been reflected on the scoresheet.