Arsenal dominated the Premier League champions at the Emirates Stadium, beating Manchester City 5-1 to keep pressure on Liverpool at the top of the table.
Mikel Arteta’s side took the lead within two minutes through Martin Odegaard before Erling Haaland equalised with a thumping header early in the second half. City were only level for a minute or so, though, before Thomas Partey restored Arsenal’s advantage.
From then, Arsenal were in total control. Impressive 18-year-old full-back Myles Lewis-Skelly and forward Kai Havertz added more goals, before an outstanding curling strike from 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri, on as a substitute, added the gloss in stoppage time.
Arsenal are six points behind league leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand, while the defeat leaves City in fourth spot, 15 points off the pace and ahead of fifth-placed Newcastle United on goals scored.
James McNicholas, Sam Lee and Thom Harris analyse the key talking points…
This was Lewis-Skelly’s day
In September, Arteta gave Lewis-Skelly his senior debut when these two teams met at the Etihad Stadium. It was a huge statement of the manager’s faith in Lewis-Skelly, then 17 — especially as he had already been booked for urging David Raya to go down injured from behind the Spaniard’s goal.
Since then, Lewis-Skelly has gone from strength to strength. For this game, Arteta selected him ahead of £42million ($52m at current rates) summer signing Riccardo Calafiori. After scoring Arsenal’s third goal, cutting inside before bending the ball in with his weaker right foot, he will be difficult to displace. The Emirates has a new hero.
He further endeared himself to the fans by replicating Haaland’s meditative celebration — a callback to a brief flashpoint between the Norwegian striker and Lewis-Skelly in that 2-2 at the Etihad.
The emergence of Lewis-Skelly and fellow academy product Nwaneri has been one of the positives of Arsenal’s season. Nwaneri even found time to put the icing on the cake with his second gorgeous goal of the week.
James McNicholas
City’s uninspiring build-up play
With Stefan Ortega’s perilous pass into Mateo Kovacic midway through the first half presenting Havertz with a gilt-edged chance, City reached a bleak landmark in north London. It was their 23rd error leading to an opposition shot in the Premier League — even with 14 games to spare, it’s more than they have committed in each of their last 10 full seasons. They made it 24, with a wayward Phil Foden pass cut out by Partey, later in the second half, which the Arsenal midfielder scored from to make it 2-1 to the hosts.
The sequence was nothing we haven’t seen before — a carbon copy of what The Athletic described as the most dangerous pass in football in December — but Ortega fell straight into the trap. His ball out was short and Kovacic, not for the first time in a dreary first half, was crowded out.
Aside from the obvious risks, City’s approach to build-up throughout the game was rarely inventive enough to break through Arsenal’s defensive shape. Matheus Nunes pushing up into a full-back role meant City formed a back three on the ball, with Kovacic often the sole option to progress the ball through the middle. That forced them to go wide, but passes out to Nunes usually came straight back. On the opposite side, Savinho struggled for space.
It helped when City’s attacking midfielders dropped deeper, but Omar Marmoush was loose in possession with his back to goal. When they could zip the ball up to Foden, they struggled to pick up the pace and move with him into the attacking third, usually meaning he had to come back.
With City still so fragile in their defensive third, errors in possession are the last thing they need. But an inability to consistently find their way through the first two lines of pressure is just as damaging to their struggles to control such big games.
Thom Harris
Havertz summed up Arsenal’s striker conundrum
In some respects, this Havertz performance demonstrated the complexity of Arsenal’s striker situation.
The biggest talking point of the first half, aside from Arsenal’s early goal, was the chance to make it 2-0 that Havertz spurned.
Arsenal could have a more clinical No 9. It’s remarkable that, in Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal have ended up with two centre-forwards who share a common and crucial weakness: finishing.
With Jesus now sidelined, Arsenal have spent much of January chasing a new centre-forward. Their attempt to sign Ollie Watkins has seemingly failed, they now have just 24 hours to try and fill that vacancy.
The curious thing is that, even if Arsenal do manage to land a striker, they will have difficulty dislodging Havertz. For all the attention on that miss, out of possession, he continues to tick all the boxes Arteta wants from a forward. His pressing and physicality contribute to the team’s structure.
And yet in the second half, when a more difficult chance came his way, he finished with aplomb. His finishing is inconsistent, but many other aspects of his play are reliable.
Everyone agrees Arsenal need a striker. But can Arteta find one this month he’ll value more than Havertz? That’s more difficult to say.
James McNicholas
City’s individual errors and why they are where they are
There were the bones of a good City performance in there, considering the issues they have had this season, but the errors that Thom has mentioned above derailed any hopes of getting something out of this.
The Foden pass straight to Partey was the real killer for City — conceding a goal so soon and so cheaply after getting back into the game at 1-1, with Foden playing his part in it, really took the wind out of their sails. It is hard to look at errors like that without recognising the broader context of their patchy form since November: during this run, which has improved somewhat of late, they have contrived to make things worse for themselves even while things are going well.
The most famous example was Feyenoord, when they were 3-0 up with 15 minutes to go but drew 3-3, something that destroyed confidence. Even as results have picked up recently, they threw away a 2-0 lead at Brentford to draw 2-2 and a 2-0 lead at Paris Saint-Germain to lose 4-2. They are conceding goals like never before under Guardiola (illustrated below).
The City players continue to fight and continue to try to play the type of football that would get them back to the top, but this habit of individual errors (and conceding goals in quick succession) is thwarting any chance of progress.
Today, they just kept digging holes for themselves.
Sam Lee
How did Haaland get on after his ‘stay humble’ comments last time?
After his “stay humble” comments following the 2-2 draw in September, Haaland bore the brunt of the Arsenal fans’ hubris on Sunday.
Given what unfolded during the game, in terms of the celebrations and chants, the Norwegian’s point was probably proven quite well — but when you make a comment like that, you have to hope your own form is in order.
For a couple of months at the end of the year, with Haaland struggling to score as City’s form nosedived, the backlash was hard to complain about. Here, though, he more or less did what he could. Sure, Arsenal’s centre-backs did pick his pocket a couple of times, but his goal gave City hope, only for those behind him to undo his positive contribution again.
Haaland generally lives and dies by the service he gets and often that is lacking. Today he did the business and could only watch on as mistakes from others squandered his good work.
Still, the Arsenal fans will enjoy his and City’s downfall on the day, and possibly beyond.
Sam Lee
What does this result mean for Arsenal’s season?
It turned into a cathartic night for Arsenal as the cries of “ole” rang around the Emirates with their three-goal lead intact. And then they added another.
Aside from needle surrounding Haaland, Gabriel and Arteta, this was the first time Arsenal have scored five against Manchester City since February 2003, and a fourth league game unbeaten against Pep Guardiola’s side, after 12 consecutive defeats in the top flight.
The result effectively ends any hope of City winning the title but keeps Arsenal’s chances simmering. The confidence this win will give them cannot be understated and, with two games against sides in the bottom six to come (Leicester City away and West Ham United at home), they have the chance to extend their unbeaten run in the league to 16 games. All they can do is what City have done to them in previous seasons — stay in touch of the leaders.
Thom Harris
What did Mikel Arteta say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at his post-match press conference.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at his post-match press conference.
What next for Arsenal?
Wednesday, February 5: Newcastle United (A), Carabao Cup semi-final (second leg), 8pm UK time, 3pm ET
What next for City?
Saturday, February 8: Leyton Orient (A), FA Cup fourth round, 12.15pm UK time, 7.15am ET
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(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
