Man City took on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in which may be a pivotal game in the context of this season, Pep Guardiola's side came up short but what held City back today? Read below to find out today's key events, stats and my opinion.
City hoped to get back to winning ways after a disasterous performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers leaving the Champions in dire need of a win to get back on track before the international break. Arsenal were without their tricky winger Bukayo Saka brought his 87 game streak of Premier League starts to an end after suffering an Ankle injury against RC Lens in the Champions League. The Blues began the game in control retaining possession throughout the opening five minutes and pressing Arsenals back four well and causing problems, the first big chance came after just four minutes when a teasing ball towards the back-post connected with new City signing Josko Gvardiol but was cleared off the line by some sharp defending by William Saliba, it then rebounded back out to Dutchman Nathan Ake who narrowly missed the target from five yards out.
Another big chance came around the seventeen minute mark as Arsenal Goalkeeper David Raya lost out to a critical city press and Alvarez just misses the target and puts the ball into the side netting.
It got progressively more cagey as time went on as just as time hit the half an hour mark, Mateo Kovacic who was already on a yellow, lunges a brutal slide tackle into the England international Declan Rice, this left a stop to play as the Emirates was subject to a lengthy VAR check but found no serious foul play which left Kovacic relieved after effectively getting away with Murder.
The final chance of the first half came once again courtesy of Croatian; Josko Gvardiol who played an inch perfect cross into the path of Erling Haaland who failed to convert the chance.
City finished the first half with a total of 3 shots and just 55% possession, leaving many scratching their heads to how they hadn't finished their chances and what the issue was.
Arsenal made an early change in the second half bringing on Gabriel Martinelli who only just came back from an injury at Everton two weeks prior, Pep Guardiola elected to keep Mateo Kovacic on the pitch despite his numerous yellow card worthy tackles in the first half of proceedings.The first real chance the Citizens created was in the fifty fifth minute when Rico Lewis ran right through the Gunners defence and slotted home a cool finish however Michael Oliver brought it back for a foul on the Man City midfielder leaving the away supporters in uproar.
Hope was resurged back into the fans at the hour mark as Matheus Nunes, Jeremy Doku and once injured John Stones entered the frame offering a more direct approach.
However it turns out not even the wonders of the Brilliant Belgian Jeremy Doku could register a shot in the second half leaving City looking depleted and ready to hold out for a draw.
City were eventually caught out however as Takehiro made a darting run into the City penalty area knocking it to Kai Havertz who played it into Gabriel Martinelli who slot it home after a deflection of Nathan Ake.
Bernardo Silva: “It’s a setback. It’s still the beginning. We’re far away from the end of the Premier League season. It was not the result we wanted. Against a tough opponent it is never easy to play. We felt the game was tough for both teams. Both are tough and organised and tense” We had a few chances in the beginning. The end it was a deflection. In my opinion we gave them too much time to think. We have to be more intense in the pressing. It is what it is. It’s part of football and we move onto the next one…”
The Blues sit 3rd in the Premier League with Spurs at the top of the table and Arsenal sat just in front of City in 2nd.
We were let down by the lack of service given to Erling Haaland today, he has been on his longest goal drought since joining the club due to a lack of creativity going forward, we cannot rely on Kevin De Bruyne to be our main source of chance creation as he is very injury prone and likely to lose his legs in the next 2-3 years. I personally think it was a very tight affair today and we cannot hold our heads in shame for losing 1-0 away to Arsenal. The good news is Rodri returns from suspension after the international break and with the return of John Stones from injury we can improve on this result when we are back.
We are still Treble champions and still Premier League winners, we will be back soon and better than ever: lets not let a purple patch of losses let us forget the players that we have and what we are capable of achieving for the rest of the season.
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