Perhaps the decisive battle for the title.
It’s strange to imagine that the main match in the middle of the week was not the battle in the Champions League round, but the match of the national championship. The duel between Arsenal and Manchester City was perhaps more popular in the world than that between Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea, and even more so between Club Brugge and Benfica. And the match at the Emirates lived up to expectations.
The student has surpassed the teacher. Half time
The first half of the match was for Arsenal. For fun. But not counted. Even in the starting lineup, the Gunners surprised the desire to control the ball, which is usually inherent in Guardiola’s teams, and his rivals are not particularly opposed, looking elsewhere for their chance. Arteta decided to show his teacher what he had collected. And it was the control of the ball and the pressure, at the same time quite effective, that led to the aggravation.
But things did not go beyond this aggravation. Here another thesis was embodied, stating that ball control in itself does not guarantee anything. In this regard, one of the main unfortunate heroes of the meeting was Nketia, who spoiled three goals in the first half alone. In a duel of this level, with such an opponent, this is an unforgivable luxury.
If desired, such a characteristic can be attracted by an assessment of Arsenal’s maturity and readiness to fight truly champion fights, and not just accumulate points and move on. Sometimes it is necessary to break a strong opponent on character. Arsenal and Nketia himself had a chance. They didn’t use it. And the first half ended in a draw. With a score of 1:1. Arsenal left a favorable impression and were brilliant. Only a yellow card to Ederson already in the first half for having dragged the time says a lot. However, just half is not enough to defeat City.
Controversial penalty
Under other circumstances, one of the main arguments after the game would have been a penalty converted late in the first half by Bukayo Saka to level Arsenal at half-time. A penalty kick was earned by Nketia, who entered the net from the left edge of the box and collided with Ederson. The collision itself was nothing special. The goalkeeper made no obvious movement towards the player and did not bring him down.
But even this is not the main thing. And such joints become grounds for sanctions. It is significant that at the moment of the collision, Nketia had delivered his blow. That is, Ederson, with his action, did not prevent this from happening. And usually, if after the joint the game continues and comes to a hit, then it’s not a violation. Immediately the referee looked at Nketia’s kick, which did not become a goal thanks to Ake, who secured the goalkeeper, and then awarded a penalty.
By the way, if he had already decided on this, then, probably, he could have shown Ederson the yellow one. And she would become his second. The referee didn’t have the courage to do it. Then the fine, of course, will still be discussed. But not with the intensity one might expect, as City still won. Yes, and Arsenal’s goal after the results of a great first half seemed logical. Let him come not from the logic of a series of dangerous moments, but from such rigor.
Pressure decides everything
When control of the ball is taken away from Guardiola, he takes his other trump card out of his sleeve and beats his opponent with it. This is what happened with Arsenal. The key role here went not to long shuffles, not to protracted combinations, not even to the ability to use moments, but to the speed of reaction and organized pressure.
Let’s remember how City’s first goal happened, which didn’t seem very logical at the time. Pressure in Arsenal’s half against Tomiyasu resulted in the defender rolling the ball into the center at De Bruyne, who had already scored. The biggest mistake. Which it wouldn’t be without strong, high pressure.
In the second half, Guardiola showed Arteta another ability to rebuild the formation for no apparent reason. The exit of Akanji instead of Mahrez did not seem logical and justified. The Citizens scheme has become more classic and closer to 4-3-3. And this has changed the structure and nature of City’s pressing a bit. Silva and Gundogan began to play a more active role in it.
As a result, it was this pairing that contributed to Arsenal’s creation of scoring chances on goal, clogging up the space for Arsenal to break out of defence. So Silva covered Gabriel in the case of the second goal, and Gundogan in that combination gave an assist to Grealish, who can finally boast of the utility expressed in goals. In the event of a third goal, Gundogan has already covered and developed the attack himself, giving a pre-goal pass to De Bruyne.
Arsenal did not have such cold-blooded fluidity and variability. It relies even more on emotion than on the organization of the game. And this once again reveals his immaturity to win the title. And that doesn’t mean he won’t get the title eventually. Anything can happen in football. However, this game showed why City were regarded as favorites going into the tournament, even eight points behind.
Numbers
Shots on goal (on goal): 10 (1) – 9 (6)
There weren’t many strikes. For the English league the total figure of 19 strokes is nil. But the tension in the match did not decrease from this. As a result, both sides were almost equally broken. At the same time, the visitors were much more accurate, with six out of nine attempts to hit the target. Arsenal only have one. And Nketia became the hitter with four imprecise hits. In second place is Haaland with three tries.
Ball possession (passing accuracy): 63.6% (83%) – 36.4% (73%)
Very atypical numbers for a match involving Manchester City. Usually the “citizens” have much more control of the ball. But this time they aimed for more vertical passages and didn’t fidget for long, trying to sharpen it right away. Hence the not very high accuracy of the passes. But Guardiola’s team has shown that they are capable of convincing victories in this mode as well.
