EMIRATES STADIUM — We were already reaching saturation point. How much more can any take of Manchester City’s maddening excellence?
What happened to the gathering chaos of autumn? Sport is predicated on the idea of a contest. Drain the fuel from the duel and we are left with grim predictability. Though that might nourish City, it leaves the rest of switching to Gogglebox or First Dates for our sugar rush.
Arsenal are Pep Guardiola’s pet love, coached as they are by a disciple who shares his craving for intensity and technical precision. Right down to his white-soled shoes and exaggerated touchline engagement Mikel Arteta’s appreciation of the Guardiola playbook is absolute. The pre-match salutations were more genuflection than politeness on Arteta’s part, a little over eager perhaps to recognise the connectivity to Barcelona and the Etihad.
The sense of deference extended to the pitch, where Arsenal came over all “after you, Claude” in falling behind to a header, yes header, from Raheem Sterling. The shortest man on the pitch outjumped Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin to put City ahead inside 90 seconds from a cross by Riyad Mahrez. The wonder is the match would end this way.
Guardiola has stolen a march on opponents with his mercurial configuration. Forget the false nine. City’s back line is an amalgam of false centre-backs and bogus full-backs. Joao Cancelo spends more time in midfield than he does at right-back. John Stones is deployed as a hybrid covering the right, mirroring Oleksandr Zinchenko on the left, wide receivers as much as defenders.
When City are required to defend Cancelo drops back, Stones slips inside alongside Ruben Dias, the central axis around whom the whole defensive unit revolves, and Fernandinho gets busy. Not that City are required to defend that much. This allows Guardiola to dispense with convention. No point having two central defenders screened by two defensive midfielders. One of each with do. Thus do City flood the midfield and torment.
Arsenal responded by dropping deep, relying on the speed of Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe to discomfit City on the break. This placed a heavy premium on the speed and accuracy of pass, not easy when confronted by the sky blue wall, or in this case third-kit white, of arguably football’s most-connected organism. The whole thing expands and contracts as necessary with impressive elasticity. Fracture, it seems, is coached out of the picture.
Guardiola’s flattering assessment that Arsenal are always the better team in any match regardless of outcome had little application in the opening half hour. Credit was due, however, for improved defensive organisation thereafter that for a spell at least blunted the City attack and created a hint of promise at the other end.
The electrolytes in City’s half-time tea sent them out re-energised. Zinchenko blasted high and wide, Kevin de Bruyne saw a neat chip drift narrowly wide and Ilkay Gundogan rinsed Holding in the box, only to forget to take the ball with him. Gundogan then had Bernd Leno at full stretch. All this before 10 minutes had elapsed.
Arsenal’s attacking options shrank to finding Saka in any kind of space. With Saka running at them on the left City momentarily blinked. The problem with this orientation was the commensurate diminution of output on the right, where Pepe is nowhere near as effective. Still, at one-nil Arsenal retained a degree of traction in the game.
Guardiola withdrew De Bruyne for Gabriel Jesus in the 63rd minute, the false nine making way for the real thing – not necessarily to sharpen the attacking blade but to protect our Kev from too much exertion so early into his comeback.
Arteta responded by removing Pepe for Emile Smith Rowe and the muted Martin Odegaard for Alex Lacazette. The change saw Saka shift to the right whilst Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang became anchored to the left, which must have had Pepe scratching his head. For all Pepe’s contribution, and he has form on the right, or rather he doesn’t, Arteta might have started with Smith Rowe, the player who has so lifted spirits at Arsenal since his introduction in December.
Though Cancelo and Jesus wasted chances to add a second for City, Arsenal reprised their first half finale in the final 10 minutes, committing men forward regardless. It is only by taking this kind of risk that any team has a chance of disturbing City’s iron-clad equilibrium. Arsenal came to this realisation too late. City banked the points to respond to Leicester’s win at Aston Villa, assuming there is any jeopardy left in their pursuit of a seventh league title.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3sdBugd
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