Arsenal vs Man City: Match Report
Last year if Arsenal won just one of their matchups against City, they would have won the Premier League, showcasing the potential importance of this game. It is a fixture Man City have dominated, winning 12 on the bounce with Arsenal's last win coming in 2015. With their opponents missing two of their most pivotal players in Rodri and De Bruyne, there was no better time for Arsenal to try and defeat their bogey team.
Inside the first two minutes, Man City had an opportunity from a corner, where Foden launched the ball to the back post with Gvardiol meeting it and scuffing his shot past Raya, but Rice bailed him out and headed it off the line. This was City’s only shot on target in the whole game. In the same phase of play, Alvarez heads it back in and Haaland flicks it on for Ake to sky the shot and let Arsenal off the hook.
Shortly after, Raya receives a pass and lets it come across his body whilst Alvarez closes him down and when the ball is kicked it deflects off the attacker to fire into the side netting of Raya’s goal. He had a shaky first-half performance where passes were missing their targets, and he was failing to get near the ball from crosses.
It seems that Man City had a strategy of playing with a lack of width, condensing the pitch and making it as small as possible. This made it quite challenging for the opposing team to pass through them, and break down their midfield, and their press. This allowed Arsenal to have some success with long balls over to Jesus who was playing on the right wing replacing the injured Saka. Up against a tall and physical defender in Gvardiol, he managed to win a lot of the aerial duels and take the ball under his control earning Arsenal some space up the pitch. It was a game where there was very little action and made for dull viewing. The defences were well on top. Haaland failed to register a single shot in a game for the first time in his premier league career, Saliba stuck to him like glue and without the presence of Kevin De Bruyne, Man City lacked that killer final pass to unlock the Arsenal defence. When Arsenal were in possession the goalkeeper, defenders and defensive-minded midfielders saw most of the ball. Odegaard had very little impact and the City high press kept Arsenal boxed into their defensive third.
The Gunners did fashion a chance through Nketiah as Dias missed the ball from Zinchenko allowing the number 14 to take the ball into the outskirts of the 18-yard box, cut in and shoot across the goal. It went well wide in the end, and he has been void of clinical finishing this year, scoring just 2 goals in 7 starts and one substitute appearance.
There was a moment of controversy as Kovacic caught Arsenal’s captain late on the ankle with his studs showing. A yellow was shown to the Croatian and VAR checked for a possible red card, but the yellow stood in the end. For me, it was not a red card, however, we have seen Malo Gusto be shown a red for the same offence, bringing us back to the inconsistency of VAR. It was a nasty tackle and caused Odegaard a lot of pain, I can understand how some see it as a red where others don’t. What I failed to understand was how he continued to be on the pitch after his poorly timed challenge on Rice. He goes to press the English midfielder, gets his timing all wrong and catches him on the ankle after the ball is played. Michael Oliver instantly gestures that he will not be issuing a card for the challenge when in almost everybody else’s mind he should have been shown a second yellow and walking down the tunnel prematurely. It was poor officiating and if the result was different, he would have taken much more criticism.
In the second half, Trossard was replaced by Martinelli who injected some pace into the game. Early in the second half Rice slipped him through and he had a shot, but it was straight at the midriff of Ederson who easily caught the effort. He showed a directness that we hadn’t seen from either team as he wasn’t afraid to take on Kyle Walker and shoot.
Despite Arsenal starting the second half looking the more dangerous of the two teams, from the 60th minute onwards it was City who had control of the ball. They were poking it into midfield areas with Silva as the 6 and Kovacic off him, looking to get Foden and Alvarez into the game and unleash Haaland. Guardiola made a triple change with Doku coming on for Alvarez. He started on the right, but Zinchenko held strong, and he was then instructed to swap to the left. He has a raw pace unlike any other on the pitch and is a very direct player who loves to dribble at defenders, and I was worried when he came on. Yet he had no impact, he was neutralised by Ben White who stood his ground in another impressive display.
Arteta made changes of his own with Partey, Tomiyasu and Havertz entering the fray to provide some more physicality and height to challenge the likes of Stones, who came in for Lewis, and Haaland in addition to City’s towering backline. Towards the end of the 90 minutes, Man City had taken all sting out of the game, and it was proving to be a difficult watch at points. Yet Arteta was not playing for just a draw. Partey received the ball deep and lifted a ball into Tomiyasu who was playing in an advanced role just off of the centre forward and he cushioned a header into Havertz inside the box. The German international found the space, controlled the ball, and laid it off Martinelli who looked to curl his shot to the far post, but a deflection off Ake took the ball past a hopeless Ederson. All the substitutes combined to bring Arsenal their lead. After that, they managed to see out the game and end their 12-game losing streak to Man City in the Premier League.
The Arsenal central defenders both had great games and didn’t put a foot wrong between them, managing to hold off Foden, Alvarez and Haaland. Rice in front of them offered so much protection, racking up the most interceptions in the game had 90% pass accuracy too. On the wings Jesus played well and offered Arsenal an out, having the highest average position of any player in red. Martinelli came on and changed the game, threatening to score a goal and finding himself in little pockets of space.
It was a game where defences were on top, Haaland was kept quiet and so was Nketiah. The Man City defence played well and were good in and out of possession but one ball from Partey cut them open as three players were dragged towards Tomiyasu leaving just Ake to apply pressure to Havertz who cooly laid the ball off for the goal. It’s clear Man City were missing Rodri and De Bruyne as they lacked creativity and a cutting edge making it a boring watch, but Arsenal fans won’t have minded that with the result at the death.
