Watched a few games this week and a pattern keeps showing up that I wanted to throw at the sub.
Three different matches, three different teams, but a similar shape coming through:
Forest beat Sunderland 5-0 on Friday. Sunderland had way more of the ball (478 passes to 302) but Forest's wide players, Hutchinson on the right and Aina overlapping from left-back, were the actual threat. Gibbs-White operating as the bridge between Anderson in midfield and Hutchinson out wide. Every time they went forward through the channels, they looked dangerous.
Then today Newcastle had 54.6% possession against Arsenal, more shots, more passes, higher xG, and lost 1-0. Their wide players (Murphy, Barnes, Elanga) were basically on their own out there, didn't really link with the Tonali/Guimarães/Willock midfield. Arsenal stretched the pitch with Hincapié pushed up super high on the left and Madueke holding width on the right, with Odegaard sitting in that pocket between Madueke and White doing the linking job.
Going back two weeks, City beat Arsenal 2-1 with the same kind of structure. Guéhi, O'Reilly and Doku all stacked on the left flank, with Rodri feeding it from central. Three players in the wide channel, midfielder bridging it. Arsenal couldn't really cope with the overload.
The thing I keep noticing is that width on its own doesn't really do anything, the wide player just gets isolated. It needs a proper bridge from the center, whether that's Anderson-Gibbs-White-Hutchinson, Rodri-O'Reilly-Doku, or Odegaard-Madueke-White.
Compactness still wins games sometimes. Newcastle had more shots than Arsenal today. But it feels like over the last few weeks the teams stretching the pitch with proper midfield connections out wide are looking more dangerous than the teams keeping it tight and trying to play through.
I am just curious what others are seeing. Is the league actually shifting toward width and verticality, or am I just picking three games that happen to fit a pattern?