77 seconds into the game, Raheem Sterling gets in the middle of Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding to give City their lead at the Emirates, which became the difference between the two teams as City appeared to be headed for a dominant victory but instead settled for the one-goal win. For all their struggles of late, Arsenal fought valiantly against the league leaders, weathering the early storm to play City on fairly equal terms for most of the match. So, losing 1-0 to City can still be regarded as progress in the right direction, especially after a shaky start in the opening half of the match.
However, the result was ultimately the same: City picked up another three points as they march towards the Premier League title as they are now 10 points clear at the top of the table, while Arsenal remains stalled in 10th place with 34 points. Mikel Arteta tried his best to set-up an Arsenal side that can give a tough fight to the table-toppers Manchester City while resting some of his players for their clash against Benfica which will be on this Thursday. He rested Emile Smith Rowe, David Luiz, Gabriel Martinelli, Dani Ceballos, and Cedric Soares for this match.
ARSENAL PLAYERS’ REPORT
Starting from the Goalkeeper, Brend Leno had a decent game against the Citizens as he made a few good saves especially pulling-off a great save against Gundogan in the second half. But he still looked a little hasty while he was going long, when he should have played it out in the back. He couldn’t do much about the goal which he conceded as there were many spaces inside Arsenal’s defense line early on which was exploited by Mahrez and Stirling to score.
Hector Bellerin had a decent first half defensively but struggled in the second half when Stirling moved to the left side of the Pitch. Offensive, he had a tough day as he was too safe to play the ball forward which slowed some of Arsenal’s counter-attack opportunities, which are crucial when you are behind just one goal.
Rob Holding was good in stopping Gundogan by tracking his third man runs from behind but still couldn’t stop Sterling as he got beaten in the air which led to Arsenal conceding a goal in the early stages of the game. Starting after a long time, Kieran Tierney didn’t look match fit as he looked tired after an hour of play. Defensively, he struggled to keep a check on Mahrez but still looked a considerable threat on the offense. Pablo Mari got better as the match progressed and he communicated well with his teammates during the game.
Granit Xhaka didn’t have the best of the game as he conceded a yellow card at the 53rd minute. He played too safe in the middle and lost possession a few times in the game. Mohamed Elneny, who replaced the injured Thomas Partey for this match drew frustration in Arteta’s mind and also in some Gunners fans as, like Xhaka, he also played in a conservative way and didn’t play the ball forward to the opposition’s defensive line. Many Gunners fans were unhappy with the pairing of Xhaka and Elneny as they didn’t play in an attacking way when the team was trailing behind just one goal against a quality team that was attacking from the start of the game.
With the Midfielders playing defensively, a 19-year-old Bukayo Saka took the responsibility for Arsenal’s attack and was their best player in the match as he was the heart of their attack while moving forward and was influential in his attacking movement. Whereas, Nicolas Pepe tried his best to perform well for his team and tried to score as he made some good runs but couldn’t score as there weren’t many supplies to him during the match. Martin Odegaard had a disappointing game as he couldn’t influence the game and had some poor set-piece deliveries also, he looked a bit exhausted during the latter stages of the match. Alex Lacazette, who replaced him in the 73rd minute also couldn’t influence the game as he didn’t get much time on the pitch.
The main focus for the Gunners fans was their Main-man Pierre-Emerick Aubamaeyang, who came to this match after scoring his first hat-trick for the club but eventually disappointed them in this match as he never got into the game and was losing possession of the ball when they were looking to counter.
Other than that, David Luiz became Premier League’s First concussion substitute as he was replaced for Rob Holding who got injured during the 82nd minute of the match.
Matches to look forward
Arsenal will be visiting Leicester City on Sunday, who are currently sitting at 3rd position in the League with 49 points but before that, on Thursday they will have a job in hand that is their 2nd leg match against Benfica in the Europa League which will be played in Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium, Greece. Arteta will have to make some changes to his plans if he wants to qualify for the latter stages of the Europa League. The current Aggregate score is 1-1.
