City off to a flier after Luiz howler

MAN CITY 3 ARSENAL 0

KEVIN DE BRUYNE was majestic, David Luiz a liability, Pep Guardiola a ball of animation, Mesut Ozil missing, Raheem Sterling’s name in lights.

New football, same old Manchester City and Arsenal.

With De Bruyne in the midfield director’s chair, moving colleagues and opponents around as if they were movie extras, this was familiar stuff from City.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, it was also familiar stuff from Luiz. Boss Mikel Arteta had said he would love the 33-year-old to sign a new contract at the Emirates, hailing him as a ‘key role model’.

“I like what he produces on the pitch,” said Arteta.

A day later, Luiz comes on as an early sub, produces an assist for Raheem Sterling’s opener and gives away the penalty converted by De Bruyne, getting himself sent off in the process.

Well, Luiz certainly produced but you would not bank on those Arsenal executives putting together a meaty new deal.

Had Luiz not intervened in typical fashion, City would doubtless have prevailed anyway, mainly because De Bruyne took all of a few minutes to settle back into the gold routine.

You know three months between games has taken its toll when he fails to pass from A to B, as he did on a couple of early occasions.

But that was a brief postshutdown aberration. He came closest to scoring but Bernd Leno’s save was what would you expect rather than applaud. Likewise when Sterling cut in from the left, likewise when David Silva stabbed goalwards. The odds were not so much in the goalkeeper’s favour when De Bruyne’s deliciousness teed up Riyad Mahrez and Sterling, but the former put his effort straight at Leno and the latter lifted his over the bar. Frustrated by his colleagues wasting his wares, maybe De Bruyne thought he might have more joy giving it to Luiz, on as a replacement for Pablo Mari, who had followed Granit Xhaka into the treatment room.

If so, De Bruyne was proven correct. Luiz should have dealt with the Belgian’s bending pass but allowed it to hit his thigh and balloon gently into Sterling’s path. No lob this time, just a lash past Leno.

The goal, the first in the Premier League for 100 days, was no local classic but, in the main, this was typically,

FALL GUY The Arsenal defender fouls Mahrez for the City penalty before being handed a red card by Anthony Taylor