Man City vs Arsenal LIVE: Result and reaction from Premier League title decider as City thump Gunners
Manchester City 4-1 Arsenal: Kevin De Bruyne scored twice in a star performance before Erling Haaland sealed the rout in a huge blow to the Gunners’ title hopes
Champions Manchester City produced a stunning performance to seize complete control of the Premier League title race with a devastating 4-1 win over leaders Arsenal.
Kevin De Bruyne struck twice with John Stones and Erling Haaland also on the scoresheet at the Etihad Stadium as City delivered a potentially decisive blow to the Gunners’ hopes of lifting the crown.
Arsenal claimed a late reply through Rob Holding but treble-chasing City had long since asserted their dominance and Haaland wrapped up the contest with his 49th goal of the season in stoppage time.
The result lifted Pep Guardiola’s men to within two points of the Londoners at the top of the table and, with two games in hand, they are now strong favourites to land their fifth title in six years.
Arsenal and their manager Mikel Arteta simply had no answer to the pace, strength and determination of the hosts, who were at their ruthless best and powered to their 12th win in their last 13 games in all competitions.
Follow all the reaction as Man City closed in on the Premier League title
Fortress Etihad
Pep Guardiola’s side have won all 11 of their home fixtures in all competitions this year, scoring 40 goals in the process. Will Arsenal be the first team to inflict a home defeat on them?
‘Arsenal were incredible at the start of season’ says Guardiola
Pep Guardiola says that Manchester City’s position of second in the Premier League table isn’t because his team were having a poor season but rather that Arsenal’s start was exceptional.
“I didn’t have [the feeling] we were making a bad bad season or we drop a lot of games. The problem was Arsenal were unstoppable,” he told the media yesterday.
“They made 50 points in one half. When this happens it’s hats off.
“I think we didn’t drop in comparison much from the previous seasons. But at the end we were consistent, kept believing, stayed there, game by game knowing what we have to do and in the end the situation is the situation.
“But tomorrow, at home where we feel comfortable with our people, I know everyone will be there and we will feel them. Hopefully our football can help to make them feel more and more. We will see. After, the players will do their best.”
Arsenal have lost their bearings and must now fight history in title race
Mikel Arteta, at the least, didn’t react in the way you would expect. He was smiling. Perhaps that is because, after so much chaos and confusion for pretty much the last two weeks and three games, there is a rare clarity. That does offer some meagre comfort.
The Arsenal manager knows if his side win all of their last six games they win the title. It’s just that, to do that, they have to start with the most difficult challenge in football right now. They have to go to perhaps the best side in Europe and win. Anything else and it’s impossible not to feel it’s Manchester City’s title again.
This maybe explained Arteta’s facade after the 3-3 draw with Southampton, since he needs to maintain positivity.
Arsenal have lost their bearings and must now fight history in title race
Heading into a showdown with Man City, Mikel Arteta’s team are searching for omens to keep their Premier League hopes on track
The biggest game of Arteta’s managerial career?
“Now? For sure.” replied Mikel Arteta when asked if this was the biggest game of his career as a manager yesterday.
“But if you ask in my career, probably a final. It’s either lift the trophy or go home in tears.
“Those situations make you a better coach, they make you understand the team better and it’s just incredible to be in the position we’re in, trying to prepare the game to win it and this is what we’re going to do.
“It’s very big. Let’s say it’s a very big game because it’s the one we have to play tomorrow.”
Manchester City vs London clubs
Manchester City’s last four home league defeats have all come against teams from London – Chelsea (2021), Crystal Palace (2021), Tottenham (2022) and Brentford (2022).
Will Arsenal add themselves to the list of victors tonight?
Swings and roundabouts
Mikel Arteta’s team have conceded two or more times in six of their last 11 top-flight games. However, Arsenal have also scored at least twice in each of the last eight Premier League fixtures.
The Gunners will need to have their scoring boots on this evening if they want to overcome the reigning Premier League champions.
Pep Guardiola inspired Mikel Arteta – then he moved another step ahead
The architect of the possession revolution surveyed a potential title decider and considered Mikel Arteta and Arsenal’s approach. Pep Guardiola concluded: “It is not going to be a game where one team has 65 or 70 per cent possession. It is not going to happen.”
Nor, perhaps, would it have been expected to in the pre-Pep era. Now a shared ethos may bring a share of the ball. But only after a shift in marquee matches. One team would play with the ball, one without. Even against the best of the rest, Guardiola’s sides were so superior at that facet of football that summit clashes became studies in contrasting tactics. “Their style,” said Arteta. “They have brought something very different to this league that hasn’t been seen before.”
And to other leagues. Jose Mourinho’s Inter famously prevailed at the Nou Camp in the 2010 Champions League semi-finals with a mere 24 per cent of possession. If it was partly because they spent the majority of the match with 10 men, across three clubs – the Nerazzurri, Real Madrid and Manchester United– Mourinho’s teams would have about one-third of possession: 33 per cent when losing a Clasico to Barcelona 5-0, 35 when winning a Manchester derby at the Etihad in 2018.
Pep Guardiola inspired Mikel Arteta – then he moved another step ahead
If tonight’s title decider is the meeting of master and apprentice at the top of the Premier League, Guardiola has reinvented the Manchester City side Arteta’s Arsenal were built on
‘The belief is still there’ says Arteta
Mikel Arteta is adamant that his players still believe they can end the season with Premier League winners medals despite a run of three draws which has allowed Manchester City to close the gap on them in the league table.
Arteta said: “Obviously, the belief is there. When I look at how they train, how they reacted after that [result against Southampton], the mood in the dressing room, the way they defended each other in each moment.
“We really want it and we’re going to show that again tomorrow night, but then you have to deliver in the right moment, the right performance and it has to be perfect because that’s what these last levels demand.
“It’s absolute perfection in every single ball.”
Can Arsenal will the Premier League title?
“One hundred per cent.” said Gunners boss Mikel Arteta in his pre-match press conference before adding,
“But we knew from the beginning that City was the team to beat, probably with Liverpool, because of what those teams have done in the last six or seven years.
“They’ve fully deserved that credit and to be at the top. We were the ones that wanted to be closing that gap as much as we possibly could, and we are toe-to-toe with them.
“We knew we had to go to the Etihad, we know that after that they are going to have another five very difficult games. That game is going to be really important - if it’s going to define the season, the answer is no.”
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