Manchester City and Arsenal played out a rather dull 0-0 draw, to put Liverpool back in the driver's seat for the Premier League crown with now nine games to go in the season.
Both City and Arsenal cancelled each other out, somewhat on Sunday, with few goalscoring opportunities to speak of. A highly anticipated match went by like adamp squib. Here, football.london 's Kaya Kaynak delves into the main talking points from the match...
Arsenal make progress
Football is a game of opinions, but at the end of Arsenal vs Manchester City there was only one thought on people’s minds - ‘thank God that’s over’. Billed as a top of the table thrill ride, this was a match that we can all agree was very dull.
Well, actually, not all of us. “It was a really thrilling game,” Mikel Arteta said after the match. No, you didn’t read that wrong. Arteta genuinely thought this was thrilling.
Let’s step back from our astonishment and try to see where he’s coming from for a second. Having lost his previous five visits to the Etihad Stadium by an aggregate score of 14-1, there was probably was a bit of a thrill for Arteta in seeing his side hold City to a tense 0-0. That may sound fasetious, but it’s a genuine sign of how far they’ve come.
This was exactly the kind of result Arsenal needed when the teams met at this stage last season, but it’s one they simply weren’t capable of getting. There are a few obvious reasons why. William Saliba coming in for Rob Holding is an obvious upgrade between the fixture that took place 11 months ago and the one that took place on Sunday. Arsenal were able, once again, to silence Erling Haaland. Where the Norwegian managed three against them last season, he has failed even muster a shot on target in three encounters this time around. But the step up Arsenal have made is so much more than just one individual battle.
The Gunners are now capable of matching City in almost every aspect of the game. No wonder Arteta is thrilled.
“Yeah huge,” the Spaniard said when asked about his side’s ability to close the gap to a team that looked out of sight just a few months ago. “It’s extremely difficult to do that. It shows you the commitment of every player, the discipline they showed and how they compete. One thing is to play a football match and another one is to compete in it. Today we did that really well.
“I think the context and the way we arrived here 11 months ago was different, but the difficulty remains the same. They are the best team in the world, in my opinion, by far. They have the best manager in the world by far.”
The obvious downside of Arsenal now being on a par with City is that, when the two teams face each other they tend to cancel each other out. That leads to pretty dull matches, and the hope will be that we’re not subjeted to two more of them in the Champions League semi finals later this season.
But having been on the end of so many hammerings at the Etihad in years gone by, the ability to make one of the most entertaining teams in Premier League history look really boring is a huge step. The next one is overcoming them in a title race.
Title race takes a turn. Well, not really
Arsenal’s chances of doing just that depended on their chances of getting a result at City. The Gunners are most people’s third favourites for the title and that is largely because they have so many tough trips like the one to the Etihad Stadium left on their schedule.
Their likelihood of coming out on top in this thrilling title race looked even slimmer when Liverpool came from behind to claim victory over Brighton in the day’s early game. With three teams involved in the hunt for this season’s Premier League, any dropped point is catastrophic. Any defeat could be fatal.
Arsenal began the game like a side who were painfully aware of that fact. They sat deep, camped in their own defensive third, with every player putting their hands on the pump in order to preserve the clean sheet.
They did have chances to win the game, but this was ultimately a match where it felt like Mikel Arteta was playing not to lose. It may not have made for the most thrilling watching, but for Arsenal’s title hopes, it was the sensible thing to do.
They are still in a position where they need to keep winning to continue to pile the pressure on Liverpool. Crucially though, the fact that City have dropped four points in their last two matches and have an inferior goal difference mean that they have opened a sizeable gap of Pep Guardiola’s side with just nine games to play.
You could make a strong case now that Arsenal are in fact second favourites for the title this season. With Liverpool still leading the way though, not much has really changed. The Gunners need to keep winning matches if they want a first league title in 20 years.
Saka soldiers on
Another game, another injury concern for Bukayo Saka. The 22-year-old was a doubt heading into this game after missing England duty with a hamstring injury, and had to hobble off once again.
“As you know he’s been out for a few weeks now with a little problem,” Mikel Arteta said after the game. “He was feeling that fatigue. Right now he hasn’t trained. He trained just one day before the match. He made a big contribution, but 90 minutes was a lot today.”
Seeing Saka go off is not exactly a new sight. What feels different from times gone by though, is that this is not an impact injury that the Hale Ender can simply shake off. A muscle problem requires rest.
Unfortunately for him, the fixture list does not allow that. Arsenal are back in action against Luton Town on Wednesday night. Arteta though, may have to take matters into his own hands.
While Luton are no walkovers - they are the only team to score more than two against Arsenal this season in the league - this is realistically Arteta’s last chance to rest Saka for a month. The England international will be needed for the weekend’s trip to Brighton and for the Champions League clashes with Bayern Munich after that.
Saka is not the only one who could do with a night off on Wednesday. Declan Rice is irreplacable and could give way to lend Thomas Partey the chance to build up his fitness, while Arteta could utilise his renewed strength in depth at full back to rotate Ben White and Jakub Kiwior. Emile Smith Rowe may also be worthy of a start to prove what he has to offer in the run in.
Typically though, Arteta hasn’t done this. The Spaniard is a manager who preferes one or two changes rather than five or six. With such a brutal run in on the horizon though, it might be time for him to exhibit the same streetsmarts that he did at the Etihad.
0 Comments