CAN ANYONE CATCH CITY I

Champs find a way to escape to victory

THERE’S a scene in the film The Dark Knight Rises where musclebound supervillain Bane shrugs off a flurry of punches from Batman before launching a brutal display of his own power.

“You fight like a younger man,” says Bane, “Nothing held back.”

Mikel Arteta’s youthful, impressive Arsenal side similarly gave as good as they got on Saturday.

Never mind their 14 wins from their previous 19 games, this was their best performance of the season by a mile. You have to view them now as serious contenders for the top four.

Yet even that couldn’t match the endless reserves of character to back up Manchester City’s quality.

Champions find a way to win, grind you down, escape to victory.

They force you into succumbing to your weakness.

For Arsenal it was the petulance Gabriel showed by scuffing the penalty spot ahead of Riyad Mahrez’s penalty, before being booked for dissent, then clattering Gabriel Jesus in front of ref Stuart Attwell. Both were yellow cards. Gabriel had to go and the fans who were convinced Attwell had robbed them were wrong. Arsenal had shot themselves in the foot.

It should rank as a harsh lesson for the Gunners, but keeper Aaron Ramsdale insisted they can take confidence from the performance.

“A huge amount of positives,” said Ramsdale (below). “Not too many teams have dominated Man City like that more in the first half than we did it.

“We played really well in the second half and we need to try and get over the line in one of these big games, but at the start of the season when it’s 4-0, 5-0 against Liverpool and City, this is a massive step in the right direction.

“Ultimately we know we’re not challenging these guys. But on this basis, if we can put that in week in, week out, we can be.”

City have now won 11 games on the bounce, with 21 goals scored in their last six Premier League games.

Of course, they could still lose it – but it would take a collapse of Devon Loch proportions for a team establishing themselves as one of the Premier League greats.

But this game could well have made their task that bit harder had it not been for the interventions

of Gabriel and Attwell. Black officials, frustrated at lack of promotion and opportunities, must look on at performances like this and wonder why they are denied such career advancement chances.

Attwell looked out of his depth. He should have looked at his monitor when Ederson’s outstretched leg connected with Martin Odegaard in the first half, but didn’t.

Had he done so, there’d have been fewer complaints over him checking the screen to rule Granit Xhaka had pulled Rodri’s shirt for the second-half spot-kick.

Video Assistant Jarred Gillett must also shoulder some blame for deciding one potentially game-changing incident was worth a second look but not another.

But Arsenal can list the performances of Ramsdale, Ben White, Xhaka (yes, really), Gabriel Martinelli, Kieran Tierney and Bukayo Saka among reasons to be cheerful.

A special mention should go to Takehiro Tomiyasu. Spurs must be kicking themselves for passing over the Japan right-back.

Mikel Arteta, selfisolating after testing positive for Covid, will be heartened at the promise of this performance.

West Ham, Spurs and Manchester United might be moving within range but if the Gunners can build on this they could start firing again.