ETIHAD STADIUM – Arsenal are top of the Premier League but out of the title race.
If that sounds like a reductive assessment of Mikel Arteta’s remodelled Gunners, it shouldn’t. Pep Guardiola’s irresistible Manchester City set a gold-plated standard that required Arteta’s work-in-progress to occupy rarefied air for the duration of this marathon 296-day campaign.
The brutal reality is that they couldn’t do it, Arsenal’s title credentials collapsing the moment City began to gain ominous momentum.
That Arsenal are still at the peak of the Premier League mountain feels a bit like a cruel joke. Their two-point advantage is a mirage and while Guardiola will counsel against complacency in the coming weeks, only those blinded by unalloyed devotion to the Arsenal cause will believe Manchester City capable of surrendering both of their games in hand. In this kind of swaggering, confident mood they might not drop another point.
They dismantled Arteta’s Arsenal, undressing their title pretensions in bruising fashion on a night that will prompt plenty of soul searching at the Emirates. Pitted against his mentor Arteta got it all wrong, guilty of over-estimating the ability of his players to escape City’s ruthless press with pressure of their own.
How much criticism should he absorb, though? City can do this to the best of teams, as Bayern Munich can testify. Perhaps the one-sided nature of the loss is actually mitigation for Arteta. There’s no system you can deploy to bridge the gap that currently exists between these two teams.
When Liverpool crossed the M62 in April last year they really stretched City. Jurgen Klopp’s side were more seasoned than Arsenal, the manager prepared to momentarily shelve his gegenpress to nullify the worst of City’s threat. They didn’t win but a 2-2 draw served notice that the Premier League title race would go to the wire.
Arsenal tried to replicate that but never looked remotely comfortable doing it.
Credit to Arteta, he stayed true to his principles and sent his team out to go toe to toe with City, asking Rob Holding to press Erling Haaland and Thomas Partey to sit deep and squeeze the space for Kevin De Bruyne and company. But that plan was blown apart in the first ten minutes when Haaland rolled Holding with ease before teeing up De Bruyne for a scintillating run that was matched by a spectacular low drive that eluded Aaron Ramsdale.
From then on the pressure was relentless and while the usual suspects will accuse Arsenal of lacking bottle at the business end of the season they were not devoid of character here. Caught up in a sky blue blizzard they at least dug in to keep it competitive.
Their best chance was probably that doubt crept in as City continued to miss chances and as the half wore on there was some encouragement to be found. Guardiola seethed on the touchline as opportunities were missed.
But that hope did not make it to half-time. Seconds before the interval De Bruyne – who else? – floated a cross which Stones nodded beyond Ramsdale. VAR intervened after Michael Oliver had initially ruled it out and the contest was over, even before De Bruyne’s officially killed it off early in the second half.
When the gloom clears, there should be perspective. Last season Arsenal disintegrated with a Champions League place at their mercy and looked like a team in need of substantial surgery to make them competitive in the title race.
They have arrived at that destination quicker than anyone expected them to, playing with intelligence, endeavour and heart. Players that had been written off last season, like Granit Xhaka, have got better. But it required every cog in the engine to continue to pump at maximum capacity for them to maintain this title challenge.
That was always unrealistic. The drop in level from the desperately missed William Saliba to the unfortunate Holding has been substantial and the consequences at the Etihad proved catastrophic. That Guardiola was able to replace the injured Nathan Ake with Kyle Walker, one of the best Premier League defenders of his generation, will not have been lost on anyone.
Arteta needs funds and faith if Arsenal are to go again. They need at least three elite additions and an infusion of belief if they’re going to overhaul this generational City side but they are making progress.
No-one was celebrating in the away end, but Brighton’s defeat at Forest means they’re assured of a top-four place. Back in August, that would have felt like something worth celebrating.
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