Manchester City – Arsenal: Same Old Arsenal, Always Freezing (4-1)

Pep Guardiola is the grandmaster. He has been so bored of mere domination that he trusted his apprentice to reveal the true depths of his genius. The pretenders are honing the art of checkers, but the reigning champions are kings of chess— and set to chart a historic step in their project.


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The deal breaker has arrived: a clash between the top two to settle who would prevail in the title race.

At one point, Manchester City’s campaign was on the verge of falling apart at the seams. Allegations of over 100 rule breaches had smeared the club off the field while cases were stacking up on the pitch to establish not all was well in the camp of the reigning champions. But the club has rallied around a stiff defense, responding defiantly. Dispatching of Bayern Munich and Sheffield United in their last two outings, a 16 match unbeaten streak since the start of February has placed a treble on the cards.

Only one trophy remains for their visitors to claim. It would be a remarkable feat. Arsenal still sit at the top of the table, virtually assured of Champions League qualification for the first time in seven years, and have already picked up six more points than their total haul last season. No one, however, wins anything for entertaining the masses. Three draws in a row with Liverpool, West Ham United, and Southampton have shaken the foundations of their assault on the summit at the worst moment.

The three pronged attack on silverware has forced Pep Guardiola to rotate. He dropped five men after the 3-0 win in the FA Cup semi-final. Riyad Mahrez’s hat-trick on the weekend did secure his starting spot. Kevin de Bruyne and Bernardo Silva formed the tandem on the right, and Rodri sat at the base of midfield. Nathan Aké was missing with a hamstring injury, and Kyle Walker remained in the defense.

Mikel Arteta has yearned for the return of William Saliba with a back injury, but the central defender is still far from fitness. Rob Holding stayed next to Gabriel Magalhães at the heart of the back four. However, Granit Xhaka was free from illness, and the Arsenal manager could select his usual trident in the middle of the park. Gabriel Jesus spearheaded the offense, facing his old club for the first time.


Dynamic duo torment in transition

Both in the 1-0 win in the FA Cup and the 3-1 victory in the league, City used a 3-2-4-1 structure on the ball. It is a shape they have formed in many ways with the inversion of a fullback, the movement of a central defender into the double pivot, and the advancement of a fullback on one of the flanks. Pep stated after the match that he wanted to adapt the buildup to work around the player marking that provoked long balls in the first two clashes between these outfits. So it proved in the first half hour.

That the initiative was soon in the hands of the hosts, within seven minutes, assisted their cause. John Stones noticed pressure from Martin Ødegaard, bolting a long ball toward Erling Haaland. The striker muscled off Holding, flicking a pass into the path of de Bruyne. His teammate quickened his stride to break out of the blindside of Thomas Partey and marauded through the center circle. Gabriel could not block him, and a sweeping strike along the floor at the edge of the box flew beyond Aaron Ramsdale.

City calmed down the contest, stitching together patient buildup sequences. They leaned into the width at the base of their setup from both Walker and Manuel Akanji, but the same strengths from the last few weeks were what wreaked havoc. The mobility of de Bruyne between the lines, his synergy with Haaland, and the tilting of the double pivot all generated dilemmas for the guests’ defense.

Jesus loitered to his left, forcing most of City’s passing networks to start with Dias. Xhaka would move forward to shield Rodri and Ilkay Gündogan before the captain pressed Dias. At this stage, covers became more complex to execute. Haaland excelled at binding multiple opponents, and once de Bruyne could contact the ball, the two men were a devastating threat in transitional moments.


9th minute: offensive sequence from City. Dias baits pressure from Ødegaard. Xhaka marks Rodri and Partey is locked inside towards Gündogan, whom Rodri can use as lateral support. De Bruyne patiently waits between the lines, so Gabriel cannot easily jump to press him. Haaland moves to the right and pins the defense, while de Bruyne frees himself behind Partey and Dias breaks the lines.


Arsenal out of access to the danger zones

Arsenal actually had more of the ball in the first quarter of an hour, keeping 66% of the possession. However, the closest they came to scoring before the break was with a speculative shot from Partey outside the box. The away team attempted to settle into their usual rhythms on either side of the field. Xhaka and Ødegaard rarely retained connections to pick up the ball between the lines, while Walker and Akanji shackled the wingers. Most of the circulation was on the outskirts of City’s 4-4-2 block.


A picture paints a thousand words.


On the other hand, City continued to menace and doubled their advantage from a free kick. De Bruyne clipped an outswinging delivery into the penalty area to target the room behind Arsenal’s offside line. John Stones met the ball in the air, placing a headed effort into the back of the net. The linesman adjudged that the defender had been offside, chalking off the goal. VAR intervened— and by the smallest of margins, the decision reversed in favor of the home team on the stroke of half time.

A better opening to the second half soon meant very little. Ødegaard dropped into a pocket next to Grealish, but his messy layoff pass fell at the feet of de Bruyne. City’s playmaker found Haaland, setting off another transitional raid. The striker drew the attention of the two central defenders; de Bruyne was available to the right of Holding and slotted the ball through the legs of his opposite man into the net. His brace, and a third goal for the hosts on the night, had wrapped up the three points.


Arteta’s adjustments are inconsequential

That better start had followed several corrections to Arsenal’s work off the ball. Before the second goal, their pressing was more player-oriented. Ødegaard and Partey moved forward onto Dias and Gündogan. Yet, City kept playing through. So, an asymmetric scheme in which Bukayo Saka pressed Dias from the outside figured its place. Ben White slid forward to pick up the spare man, and man orientations remained in the center of the pitch. A three goal deficit was still much too far to climb.


51st minute: pressing sequence from Arsenal. Saka and Martinelli’s movements remove the central defenders as simple passing options for Ederson. Xhaka and Ødegaard mark the double pivot and Martinelli’s encroachment into the penalty area provokes a long ball that Partey intercepts aerially.


Arteta began to rotate from the hour mark. In the end, he used all five substitutions. Jorginho was next to Partey in the double pivot, sitting behind a front four of Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, and Leandro Trossard. Three of these men combined to produce the only stain on the display for City. In the 86th minute, Nelson and Jorginho worked the ball from the second phase of a corner to Trossard. Dias knocked the forward off his stride, but Holding picked up the pieces and scored.

Thanks to the consolation goal, Ederson would have to wait for his eleventh clean sheet of the league campaign. However, City would have the final say in this fixture, and the talisman at the other end of the pitch added another accolade to his collection. Zinchenko sent the ball forward from a throw-in routine in the dying embers of injury time. Stones towered over Trossard, Foden picked up the second ball, and Haaland finally beat Ramsdale: 4-1. A 33rd strike in the league broke the individual record of goals for a 38 match Premier League season: a fitting marker of the heights City wished to scale.



Takeaways

Arsenal have now slumped to a winless streak of four Premier League games for the first time this season. The lead at the top of the table is still theirs but could be in the hands of City if they beat Fulham on Sunday— and might not return in light of the two extra fixtures they have played than their title chasing rivals. Under a year and a half of significant progress under Arteta has taken the club within view of the summit, but the path to that peak will require more finetuning in the summer.

Manchester City cannot rest on their laurels in their bid for the threepeat, but this performance was symbolic. A seventh victory on the spin in the league marked their longest run of straight wins since the start of 2022: they have settled into pristine condition at the perfect moment. It was another clash where directness and dynamism mixed with probing possession to enforce dominance. This evolution reflects the ‘pretty pragmatism’ of Pep’s football that continues to set the standard on English shores.



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Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere (22) is an ardent Arsenal fan. He now writes as a journalist for several sites but his first love will always be BTP. [ View all posts ]

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