Pressure is piled on Wenger by City rout
Pep’s maestros follow up Cup slaughter with Emirates demolition
MANCHESTER CITY dished out even more humiliation to Arsenal and their beleaguered boss Arsene Wenger with a comfortable Premier League win at the Emirates last night that sent them 16 points clear at the top. Four days after brushing aside the Gunners by the same scoreline in the Carabao Cup final, City scored three times in a devastating first-half display through Bernardo Silva, David Silva and the outstanding Leroy Sane. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had a penalty saved by Ederson early in the second half, but Wenger’s side were once again thoroughly outplayed, with the home fans making their displeasure felt through a cacophony of catcalls again directed towards the Frenchman.
To put this into perspective, Arsenal are now five points nearer to West Bromwich Albion than they are to Manchester City: and last night, at times, it looked like it.
City took them apart in the space of 18 minutes. Scored three goals and then toyed with them for the remainder, conserving energy for the game with Chelsea on Sunday.
They were so clinical, so stylish in the way they finished Arsenal off, it is hard to believe it was not part of a wider plan. They knew they had the beating of them, and once that lead was established, they knew they could keep them at arm’s length, too.
Arsenal had their moments, even missed a penalty, but City were just so much more effective. They do everything that Arsenal do, just five times better. In their dreams, Arsenal play like City — but that is all they can do for now. Dream.
For Pep Guardiola and his players, the title draws closer. They are 16 points clear now and the title will be won before the middle of April at this rate, even if Manchester United win all their games.
There’s a permutation that the title could be won against Manchester United on April 7. What an occasion that would be. More uplifting than this, certainly, with blasts of snow chilling a half-empty stadium, barely populated by Arsenal fans putting the irate in Emirates.
It is hard to imagine too many halves of football so utterly humbling for Arsene Wenger and Arsenal. So abject was Arsenal’s resistance to City that the third goal of the night was greeted by a united chorus of boos from the home crowd, so widespread it almost drowned out the celebrations from the City corner. Almost.
That is what should worry the Arsenal executives — the City fans could get here. There were no spaces in the away end, no one who had looked at the forecast and thought: not tonight.
And if they could get here from Manchester, what about the locals? The will, the devotion has been sucked from them. This would not have happened to Wenger teams of decades past. Their fans would not have deserted them whatever the weather. The cold was an excuse. Last night’s gate was a cry for help.
The irony being that Arsenal started relatively brightly. In the opening seven minutes, PierreEmerick Aubameyang had two half-chances when City goalkeeper Ederson was called into action. on the first occasion he sprinted to the edge of his area and headed clear, on the next he threw himself at the striker’s feet.
Soon after Henrikh Mkhitaryan played in Aaron Ramsey, whose cross ricocheted off Vincent Kompany in the middle, hastily snapped up by Ederson again, with Aubameyang hovering. This was more like it. The sparse crowd seemed encouraged.
Good hustling by Danny Welbeck and Ramsey saw the ball fed to Mesut ozil, who passed it on to Mkhitaryan, but his shot was saved. And that was it. By the time Arsenal next enjoyed a sustained period of pressure at the City end, they were 3-0 down.
City took them apart, as they do any team that is not switched on defensively. And when was the last time we could say that of Arsenal? Chelsea in the EFL Cup this season? The home game against Tottenham? Fingers of one hand really. City were too fast, too sharp, too smart for them. They were everything Arsenal aspire to be, and everything they are not.
Every goal was its own little work of art. Fluid, inventive, purposeful. City know what they are about, marshalled by a coach whose devotion to beauty finds no room for compromise. Wenger was like that once, too. Not any more.
And if he thinks City’s success is solely down to money, he is very mistaken. There is a philosophy at work every bit as strong as his own. Stronger, these days. City had been second-best early on, but suddenly exploded in a manner that exposed Arsenal’s busy little spell as really rather empty.
Here was a team that knew where the goal was, and how to get there by the shortest route possible. Not long ball, but direct pace, furious accurate passing exchanges and exquisite finishing. At least those who turned up can say they saw the best team in the country; arguably one of the greatest teams this country has ever witnessed.
Right, the goals. What marvels they were. For the first, after 15 minutes, Leroy Sane picked up the ball wide on the left and cut inside, beating four players as he went.
The first was Hector Bellerin, the last Shkodran Mustafi, Granit Xhaka dived in between them, with standard effectiveness. Reaching the edge of the area, red shirts strewn like litter in his wake, he squared the ball across the area to Bernardo Silva on the right. He cut inside and unleashed a shot that defeated Petr Cech and hit the net as if guided by technology. The Emirates went quiet. As if anticipating The Beast From The East, they knew what was coming.
Furiously, it arrived. Sane took Mustafi apart down the left and passed inside to Sergio Aguero. He played it first time into the path of David Silva, who took the ball on one foot, switched it to the other and buried it past Cech.
The third was a classic City counter-attack. Aguero broke down the right, found Kevin De Bruyne inside and received a perfectly weighted return. He crossed and Sane as good as ran it into the net.
‘Easy, easy,’ chanted the visiting fans, and it was. Even when Arsenal were awarded a penalty for Nicolas otamendi’s 53rd-minute foul on Mkhitaryan, they could not make it count.
Aubameyang went righ, and was kept out by Ederson: both hands to the ball, too. It summed up the difference between the teams: City more beautiful, more determined, more resilient. Arsenal a shadow of what they were; an idea whose time has come, and gone.