Arsenal 1 Man City 0
Mikel Arteta welcomed his old friend Pep Guardiola to The Emirates as his side took on the team that pipped them to the title last season. Arsenal needed to prove that they could compete in these big games for anyone to believe they have realistic title ambitions.
With Bukayo Saka out injured for The Gunners and Rodri still suspended for Man City, both sides were missing key players. Over the last six seasons, Arsenal had failed to take a single point against Guardiola’s side with them having won all twelve encounters.
It was a scrappy start to the game with David Raya’s kicking being as questionable as ever. As a City corner came in Gvardiol beat the keeper, but fortunately for Arsenal, Declan Rice was on the line to head clear. Ake had a brilliant chance moments later but blasted it over the bar.
Alvarez almost embarrassed Raya as he charged down an attempted kick with the ball narrowly missing the host’s goal. Arteta’s side went straight up the other end and Nketiah had their first glimpse of goal but his shot was not troubling Ederson.
Credit: @Arsenal
Kovacic was then penalised for a heavy challenge on Odegaard and was shown a yellow card. VAR reviewed the incident for some time and decided the card shown was enough. The replay showed that it wasn’t much different to Curtis Jones’ challenge that saw him shown a red card against Tottenham.
This is the problem with VAR, inconsistency. The decisions are still down to the mindset of the individual in the review studio and as we know all too well, the minds of these officials are warped at best and would give Sigmund Freud a field day.
Kovacic then put another studs up challenge in on Rice and this one went unpunished other than a free kick. Michael Oliver, the referee for the game, was part of the clown troop at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week and his judgement seems to have not improved whatsoever.
Arsenal started to pile on the pressure in the second half, registering a shot on target for the first time in the game. The Gunners were in control as Havertz knocked the ball down to Martinelli who looked to shoot and his effort deflected off Ake, wrong-footing Ederson as it flew into the net.
The goal came in the 86th minute and seemed to have decided the outcome as Man City had failed to test David Raya at all in the second half. All The Gunners had to do for the remainder of the game was to defend their lead.
Guardiola will be concerned how little his side offered in the attacking third, not that Arsenal offered much more, but they got the all-important goal to take all three points. Psychologically, the victory will be big for Arsenal but it is now three domestic defeats in a row for Man City.
Credit: @Arsenal
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