Sean Dyche believes Arsenal began to abandon their gameplan during their goalless draw against Everton on Saturday.
Mikel Arteta’s side have failed to gain ground on Premier League leaders Liverpool – who snatched a late 2-2 draw against Fulham at Anfield – as they were held to a point by Dyche’s side at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal struggled to create many clear-cut chances with Everton delivering a resilient defensive display.
And Dyche feels Arsenal began to ‘force’ crosses into the box in an attempt to find a way past his side in the second half.
‘You have to know how to work it without the ball. It’s difficult at these grounds to think you’ll have the ball therefore you have to do the other things well,’ Dyche said.
‘These [Arsenal] a fine side, we know that. They often dominate the ball, they often dominate chances, I don’t think we gave them too many. Jordan made a big save to his left.
‘The players put a big shift in. The commitment to doing the basics as I call it, pressing and recovering and staying true to it for 90 minutes. I was proud of the players.
‘They ask questions, they probe, in the end they tried to cross it to force something which shows how defensively solid we were.
‘It’s another step in the right direction, we’ve had many this season. We know we’ve got to score more goals but you’ve got to get one part of it right and we didn’t do it early in the season and we have done it over the last 10, 11, 12 games.’
When asked what he felt was the key to Everton keeping Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard quiet on Arsenal’s left side, Dyche replied: ‘The diligence of the players, we show them heatmaps, like everyone does, about different attacking units and where we have to make sure we’re working hard.
‘Douc [Doucoure] I thought was exceptional today with his work ethic for the team, I thought the three in midfield the way they worked, Manga [Mangala] as well put in a shift, obviously Gana [Gueye] with his understanding, he’s a wily old fox, he knows the script, he’s played at lots of different clubs and has real experience.
‘We didn’t just look at that area, I said it before the game, I was talking about set-pieces, they’ve still got some fantastic players and they can change at will, they can change things tactically and different ways of playing and different formats and they’ve showed that even more so this year with the strength in set-pieces.
‘I’m pleased for the players and the way we went about it but it wasn’t just one thing – there are lots of different things they can hurt you in other ways.
‘But the way we formatted it, I was really pleased with that, as a staff, but the players’ delivery was the biggest credit.’
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