Arsenal – Manchester City: De Bruyne Demolishes Despondent Arsenal In Guardiola’s Adjusted System (0-3)

Kevin de Bruyne was the star of the show as City approached the game at the Emirates with slightly more of a focus on counterattacking than one would expect from a Pep Guardiola team. This led to the sides having a more-or-less equal share of the ball until later on in the game, but Arsenal were mostly uninspiring and unable to use the ball very well against City’s 4-4-2 defensive block.
Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

Prior to this game, Arsenal were having a decent week by recent standards, although the bar is fairly low in that respect. They came back from 1-0 down away at West Ham on Monday to win the game 3-1, which was their first win in nine games. Then on Thursday they came back from 2-0 down in Belgium to secure their Europa League knockout round qualification against Standard Liège. 

Meanwhile Manchester City responded to last week’s disappointing Manchester Derby defeat with a 4-1 away win at Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday, qualifying them from their Champions League group undefeated. 

For this trip to the Emirates, Pep Guardiola went with a slightly different lineup to what one might expect. David Silva was left out of the squad, and Bernardo Silva was on the bench. They started in a 4-2-3-1 formation, as İlkay Gündoğan played in central . . .