Pep hands his apprentice a lesson in Artetaball

Arsenal 1 Manchester City 3   
Premier League   
Wednesday 15th February 2023 7.30pm   

Most Arsenal fans would have settled for a point from this fixture, even before news of Thomas Partey’s absence, an indicator of a realistic assessment of where Arsenal currently are. City have habitually beaten the Gunners in recent seasons, swatting them away like flies at times, and the gap between the two clubs had developed into a chasm. Things are of course a little different this season, but the recent run of a draw and two defeats (one against City in the FA Cup) in their last three outings felt like a blip that had to come at some point, and certainly lowered expectations ahead of yesterday evening’s 7.30 game.

 

It was a strange combination of circumstances that led to this match – originally scheduled for October – being played against a slightly weakened Arsenal line-up. The death of the Queen postponed the Europa League group game at home to PSV, which was then moved to the scheduled midweek of this fixture, which in turn ended up being played last night. It was due to the decision of the police that the PSV match could not be played, even though other Europa League matches took place in the UK on the same evening. One can only speculate whether the presence of Gabriel Jesus and Thomas Partey would have made a difference to this result, but one thing is beyond debate – the Gunners were in a better run of form back in the autumn. 

 

As it was, Arsenal had slightly the better of the opening 45 minutes – more chances were created. However, the two key aspects of the match were firstly City’s pressing forcing mistakes from the Arsenal defence – normally it is Arteta’s side doing this. And secondly, the home side’s lack of ability to finish two very presentable chances. On this level, unfortunately Eddie Nketiah’s limitations were exposed. He’s a tryer, no-one can doubt his effort or commitment, but he missed two headers which a better forward would have converted. 

 

City took the lead just over halfway through the first half when Kevin de Bruyne read an underhit back pass from Tomiyasu to chip Ramsdale, but parity was restored when Nketiah was clattered by Ederson as he got a wide effort in that was cleared off the line. Given the shot had been made, in honesty, this felt like PGMOL compensation for Saturday’s VAR aberration. Still, no-one in the home sections was complaining and Bukayo Saka finished it coolly. Arsenal survived the award of a penalty just before the hour, when an offside was given by VAR and shortly before City scored their second goal, Nketiah just failed to get contact on a ball across the face of goal from Tomiyasu. However, then City took over. Two goals followed – the first as a consequence of Gabriel losing the ball in his own half, the second a result of City’s clinical attacking play rather than an error. At that point, everyone knew the game was up. Trossard replaced Martinelli at 2-1 and after the third goal White and Vieira came on for Tomiyasu and Xhaka, but with less than 10 minutes remaining, the stands emptied to leave a thin crowd by the time Anthony Taylor blew the final whistle.

 

Arsenal have taken a solitary point from their previous three league matches. Yes, they were unfortunate with the VAR fracas against Brentford, but their performances in these matches are more of a sign that the second half of the season is not going to be a repeat of the first. Positives from last night were the performance of Jorginho – Partey wasn’t missed that much, and the fact that Arsenal did create decent chances. Their defence did not get away with errors due to the quality of the opposition. Arsenal are now second on goal difference to City, but at least have a game in hand. The title challenge isn’t over, but the Gunners being at the top after 38 games feels a lot less likely this morning. 

 

The focus now has to be to get back into a winning groove with a run of seven Premier League matches that are certainly all winnable. Away to Villa, Leicester and Fulham. Home to Everton, Bournemouth, Palace and Leeds. The players need to understand where things have gone wrong in recent matches and in truth, Gabriel Jesus needs to start playing again. The club took a gamble by not signing a centre forward in the January window, but the fears that Eddie might not produce the required standard consistently have proved true. He’s a good professional, but he’s unlikely to win you a title. Sometimes such players get lucky and hit a purple patch for just long enough. Christopher Wreh in 1998 comes to mind, but outside of a key four months, he was a poor forward. Arsenal needed Eddie to have such a spell and he started well. However, his team have scored two goals in their last four games, conceding six. During this time, their number 14 has had a number of chances to score, without return. 

 

Squad depth was always going to be a concern, but given where the club were at the conclusion of last season, they have done marvellously to achieve what they have since. The good work should not go to waste. It would take an unbelievable calamity not to qualify for the Champions League, but for the club’s financial good standing, in terms of UEFA income next season, the higher they can finish the better. Even if it is to be another City title, Arsenal should be playing out of their socks to finish in second place. Then they can continue to recruit quality and strengthen the squad so that the gains of this campaign do not become a one-off. Mikel Arteta’s players made a good fist of the match last night, City had to work hard, and Arsenal had almost two thirds of the possession, as well as more goal attempts. So they were far from humiliated, as has happened before against Pep Guardiola’s teams. But ultimately, a superior and more experienced group of players did what they needed to and got the required result. No surprise there, really.

 

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