I think some are misunderstanding what is happening regarding playing style.
What we saw in the first ten minutes and before the first goal is Hag ball, clear. To do this for most of a game is the goal, eh?
To be able to play Hag ball, pressing has to work to quickly get the ball back.
What happened is that Arsenal was able to play through the press, because our pressing wasn’t always executed right. We are still learning.
We are able to play the ball quickly through the lines, to exploit the opponent when they lose the ball in our half. That doesn’t mean we are playing a counter attacking style. It’s one of our weapons.
We are playing Hag ball, but not consistent, which is normal when playing a good opponent.
Our first goal came from Hag ball, and was a 100% chance. In contrast, Arsenal did not create a played out goal (although they deserved the one they got based on their good performance) and didn’t finish the half-chances they created.
Our first goal is what Arsenal wanted to do to us, but could not.
Reiterating, sitting back and hitting Arsenal on the break was not what we chose to do, but were forced to do by not being able to prevent Arsenal from playing through us.
Pressing the opponent and preventing them from playing their game is the goal. Hag will expect us to continue to improve in this aspect.
I expect there will be some games where we succeed, but get hit on the break. That’s another step in the process, to anticipate these breaks and kill them.