Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge running out of steam as Man City show their superiority
Looking back, Arsenal may feel this game was lost at the Emirates Stadium last week. The reaction to the 3-3 draw with Southampton was one of devastation. Watching their players collapse to the turf, it felt like more than two points dropped.
They knew what was coming. In fact, they have known it for weeks. As their form stuttered, first against Liverpool and West Ham, then against Southampton, Manchester City just kept winning, the gap closing ominously as the trip to the Etihad Stadium drew nearer.
The worry was that an already daunting task had become impossible in the wake of the latest setback and so it proved. Manchester City smelled blood. From the outset, a game billed as a title showdown instead looked a complete mismatch.
The title is not decided yet. Not with Arsenal still sitting top by two points. But the feeling of inevitability is irresistible now. Manchester City have won seven Premier League games in a row, scoring 21 goals in the process. This one looked as easy as any.
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It is a measure of the standards City have set that Arsenal’s challenge might just have been ended by their first Premier League defeat since mid-February, when they were beaten by the same side at the Emirates. But Mikel Arteta said it himself: “It has to be perfection.”
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They fell a long way short of that at the Etihad. Arsenal’s run of draws, two of which saw them surrender two-goal leads, had eroded the aura they had built up in the preceding six months and their nervousness was apparent from the start.
Ben White, usually so dependable on the ball in the right-back position, could be seen passing straight to Ilkay Gundogan deep in his own half in the second minute. Soon, his team-mates, discombobulated by City’s pressing, were doing the same.
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Players Arteta has relied upon all season looked shorn of self-belief. The move for City’s third goal started with the usually unflappable Martin Odegaard giving the ball straight to Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian, not for the first time, exacted brutal punishment.
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Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola and Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta reflect on City’s 4-1 win in the Premier League
Arsenal will rue their injuries at this crucial point of the season, the loss of William Saliba, their most important defender, compounded by that of right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu, whose availability would have allowed Arteta to move White into the centre.
Without them, he has turned instead to Rob Holding. The 27-year-old’s limitations, already apparent in Arsenal’s previous games, were glaringly obvious up against Erling Haaland.
In truth, though, Arsenal were showing signs of frayed edges even before Holding came into the team.
This is the eighth Premier League game out of 19 since the World Cup in which they have conceded two or more goals – something which only happened twice in the 14 games before the World Cup.
Arsenal, so defensively sound earlier in the season, have been giving up more shots and better chances, their opponents able to find space where they couldn’t previously.
Image: Arsenal's defensive performances have worsened since the World Cup
Their last-minute winners against Manchester United, Aston Villa and Bournemouth on the one hand demonstrated strength of character, but on the other hinted at a side only just clinging on to their momentum.
Those wins undoubtedly took an emotional toll too, and when games began to get away from them, starting at Anfield earlier this month and continuing against West Ham and Southampton, the steeliness that typified their rise to the Premier League summit made way for panic and, eventually, resignation.
Their pressure has clearly affected Arteta’s young side and there is physical as well as mental fatigue.
Lacking the depth available to Guardiola, whose rotation has kept City fresh for precisely this point of the season, Arteta has relied upon a core of players who are now showing the strain.
Indeed, while City have made the fifth-most line-up changes in the Premier League this season, Arsenal have made the fewest. They have seven players with over 2,400 minutes played in the competition this season compared to City’s one.
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Soccer Special pundit Paul Merson says he has not seen Man City play like they did in a 4-1 thrashing of Arsenal, believing they ‘went to another level’ on Wednesday evening
Arteta’s Arsenal project is a long way behind Guardiola’s in that sense. He has shaped the squad in his image over the course of his tenure but it only takes a comparison between the two benches on Wednesday night to see the work still required if they are to reach City’s level.
It is hardly surprising they are not there yet but that is little consolation to Arsenal supporters who were dreaming of a Premier League title this season, and the challenge for the side now, knowing that their target may have slipped from their grasp, is to get back on track in what is left of the campaign.
Arsenal have shown their powers of recovery already this season. Not just in individual games but in the way they responded to their last defeat to Manchester City, winning seven consecutive Premier League games after the 3-1 reverse at the Etihad Stadium.
Whether they can produce something similar now, though, is another question. The destiny of the Premier League title may have shifted, but Arsenal must find a way to press on.
Arsenal’s remaining fixtures
May 2: Chelsea (H) – Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 7: Newcastle (A) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 13: Brighton (H) – Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 20: Nottingham Forest (A) – Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
May 28: Wolves (H) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm
Man City’s remaining fixtures
April 30: Fulham (A) – Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports
May 3: West Ham (H) – Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
May 6: Leeds United (H) – Premier League, kick-off 3pm, live on Sky Sports
May 9: Real Madrid (A) – Champions League
May 13: Everton (A) – Premier League, kick-off 3pm
May 17: Real Madrid (H) – Champions League
May 21: Chelsea (H) – Premier League, kick-off 4pm
May 24: Brighton (A) – Premier League, kick-off 8pm, live on Sky Sports
May 28: Brentford (A) – Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm
June 3: Man Utd (N) – FA Cup, kick-off 3pm
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