GAME OVER AFTER 79 SECONDS
City settle for casual dominance as Sterling’s early header is enough to see off Gunners
The charitable hector Bellerin plants 3,000 trees every time Arsenal win. This means that since January 26 he has planted, er, 3,000 trees.
had he been Manchester City’s full-back he would own a veritable forest by now: 54,000 trees across the last 18 games. Manchester City have won them all.
This wasn’t their finest display, but it was another step towards wresting the title away from Anfield.
City are 10 points clear now and while titles have been lost from similarly commanding positions, absolutely nothing about the way Pep Guardiola’s team are playing at the moment suggests this will happen. The defensive frailty is gone and City now work as well without a goalscorer as with one. They scored after 79 seconds, yet there was no panic in the way they then shepherded this match carefully to conclusion.
Arsenal had a go, not least through Kieran Tierney’s overlaps, but never really threatened goalkeeper ederson. If this was an away leg in europe, they might even have considered this a decent result, contemplated getting them back at our place.
It shows the extent to which Arsenal’s status has slipped, then, that a home defeat by City feels almost a positive outcome because it was only by a single goal. Yet Arsenal had 88 minutes and 40 seconds, plus two sets of injury time, to score at the emirates, and didn’t look like doing it.
Whatever the improvements Mikel Areta has made there is an ocean between these teams right now. Arsenal took Guardiola’s No 2 and thought he would bring some stardust with him, but it’s not as simple as that.
City are where they are because the manager has been backed by significant investment. Guardiola (below) on Arteta’s budget wouldn’t produce title contenders. On days like this, the moribund nature of Stan Kroenke’s project shows. Once City took the lead they never seemed likely to relinquish it. They had some decent chances — Joao Cancelo’s lovely curled shot after 79 minutes being one —but in the main they were happy to keep Arsenal in check. The Gunners’ players didn’t look greatly unhappy, all smiles much like the winners as they strolled to the tunnel sharing jokes. Arsenal looked like one of those plucky cup teams who don’t mind losing as long as they aren’t made to appear foolish. And at least they weren’t 3-0 down at half-time yesterday. They quite often are.
The game opened in familiar fashion. Within the first 10 minutes it looked like City might run away with it, race to a substantial lead before half-time and then play out a glorified training-ground exercise.
Let’s face it, we’ve seen this when these teams have met before. City have led by a three-goal, 45-minute margin in three of their previous five meetings. Yesterday they gave Arsenal a little reprieve. They started hot, then settled for casual dominance.
Not at first, mind. At first, it looked as if this could be embarrassing. City scored after 79 seconds. That was bad enough. Worse was that the goal came from a Raheem Sterling header in an area dotted with big Arsenal men. Sterling isn’t a bad header of the ball. Certainly better than his height would suggest. even so, this was laughable from a defensive point of view. Rob holding should have brought a camera and got a nice picture of it. That would have been more worthwhile than anything he did to prevent it happening. At least then he would have had a memento of the day he almost met Raheem Sterling.
The cross came from Riyad Mahrez, who initially seemed to have the run of the right flank. he could have scored after eight minutes, switching feet left to right before his shot was deflected just wide. In between, Kevin De Bruyne picked out Sterling in a fabulous position, but he couldn’t get the ball under control. It seemed as if it was a matter of time before the lead widened.
Yet, as the game wore on, Tierney began exerting his influence and City settled for game management. Martin Odegaard should have done better with Tierney’s cross after 36 minutes, but his touch was poor.
Oleksandr Zinchenko, still the weakest link in City’s defence, was caught out by Nicolas Pepe just before half-time but shot into the side-netting.
City can never be left unguarded for a second, however, and from the first attack of the new half, De Bruyne came close to scoring one of the goals of the season. he attempted an exquisite, delicate chip having spotted Bernd Leno off his line, but it travelled just wide of the far post. Then, in 57 minutes, Leno tipped round a shot from Ilkay Gundogan.
By contrast, ederson was barely worked and a full-back, Cancelo, was often City’s most obvious threat. They played without a conventional striker, again, and when Gabriel Jesus came on it was apparent why this isn’t such a hindrance. One shot was scooped comically high into the stand.
‘Arsenal can hurt you with the players they have, but I thought we were comfortable,’ said Sterling. he’s right. That’s exactly what City were, and are. Not dazzling, not bewitching, not brilliant: comfortable. They’re comfortable in the league now, too.
ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Leno 6; Bellerin 5, Holding 6 (Luiz 82), Mari 7, Tierney 7; Elneny 6 (Ceballos 86), Xhaka 6; Pepe 5 (SmithRowe 73), Odegaard 5 (Lacazette 73), Saka 7; Aubameyang 6. Subs not used: Ryan, Soares, Gabriel, Willian, Martinelli.
Booked: Xhaka, Bellerin. MANCHESTER CITY (4-1-5): Ederson 6; Cancelo 6, Stones 7, Dias 7, Zinchenko 7; Fernandinho 8; Mahrez 7, Silva 6, De Bruyne 6 (Jesus 63), Gundogan 6, Sterling 7. Subs not used: Steffen, Walker, Aguero, Laporte, Rodri, Torres, Mendy, Foden. Booked: Silva, Cancelo. Man of the match: Fernandinho. Referee: Jon Moss.