Arsenal 5-1 Man City: Gunners stay humble to dismantle the champions

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

I love it when I wake up and don’t quite know where to start with a blog. Should it be the early goal? The brilliant performance from Myles Lewis-Skelly? Ethan Nwaneri coming off the bench to ice yesterday’s delicious cake with a superb (trademark) goal? Gabriel telling Erling Haaland to go get his boot? Man City taking a long overdue pasting at our hands having inflicted similar results on us in the past?

So many options. Maybe, before we get into the nuts and bolts of it all, we should just take stock and acknowledge that even if we want more – and today is transfer deadline day – we have a fantastic team that we should be proud of. One that rolled with the punches a bit yesterday, but ended up dismantling the champions on our own turf. Worth thinking about, I reckon.

It started so well. City were careless at the back, we pounced, and although there was an opportunity for Kai Havertz to shoot, he squared it for Martin Odegaard who put us 1-0 up inside the opening two minutes. Just the start we needed, just what Gabriel fancied too after Haaland’s antics in the previous game this season, and he let the Norwegian know all about it when the ball hit the back of the net.

The first half was cagey for large periods. We had something to protect, and we did that – perhaps a little too much. We let them have the ball, although they weren’t particularly dangerous. It was a Gvardiol header from a corner that drew David Raya into action, the keeper producing an outstanding reflex save to deny the City man. At the other end, Declan Rice forced another error, and Havertz should have made it 2-0 but dragged his shot wide. It was hard not to worry that might come back to haunt us.

Raya made another good stop towards the end of the half, as we allowed City too much of the ball. It was almost asking for trouble, and when that pattern continued into the second period, we got punished. I suppose you have to give credit to Savinho for the run and the excellent first touch in our box which saw him deliver a perfect cross for Haaland to head home, but that equaliser felt like it had been coming.

But maybe too it was what we needed. It woke us up. You never want to concede but it felt like it shook us out of our passivity, and we reacted straight away. Thomas Partey intercepted a Phil Foden pass in midfield, took it on, and his shot deflected off the back of John Stones and flew into the net. City had been level for barely 30 seconds, and we were ahead again. And from there, we just didn’t look back.

I thought Rice was having a storming game without being on the ball as much as you might like, but that changed with the lead and he was involved in the third goal. Feeding Myles Lewis-Skelly from the left, he then looked on as the 18 year old drove into the box and fired home with his right foot. What a moment for him. A goal his overall performance deserved, because he played with such bravery and quality.

There was a moment not long before this when he intercepted and drove forward, but ended up recycling possession. This time he had nothing else in his mind but causing City pain and he executed it perfectly. And what about that celebration? You could see him staying humble as he sat on the ground with his teammates gazing down upon him like a bunch of proud dads – like all of us, understanding they are witness to the emergence of a superb talent.

Guardiola tried to change it with subs, but they made no difference. Arsenal were completely energised, and got forward with speed when City’s attacks broke down. Rice fed Martinelli for a chance which the keeper saved well, then another break started by a fine Partey pass saw the Brazilian feed Havertz. After his first half miss, you wondered how it was going to go – Gary Neville had been bleating on about how he had no confidence – but the German cut inside and rifled a shot into the far corner. No question though that was a goal he needed to exorcise the ghosts of that moment earlier in the game. He comes across as an emotional guy because he cares, and I was pleased for him. The last thing we need is for our only striker (as it stands) to suffer in any way.

As for the final goal, what a way to rub some salt in their wounds. I thought Nwaneri might start this one, but boy oh boy did he finish it. Via Opta, the build-up to the goal saw us play ’36 uninterrupted passes in a move that lasted one minute & 54 seconds and involved every Arsenal outfield player’. Rice’s first time switch to Nwaneri on the far-side was inch-perfect, and I spoke in midweek about how this 17 year old already has a trademark goal, and we were treated to another yesterday. He cut inside, trusted a left foot which is going to delight Arsenal fans for years to come, and left the keeper flat-footed as the ball nestled into the far corner.

After everything City have inflicted on us down the years, when we’ve been terrible and when we’ve been good, this felt like a long overdue result and performance. It wasn’t just a win, it was a demolition. It wasn’t just three points, it was the dismantling of a team who still have a lot of quality but whose legs have aged out. As Sky and the pundits went on and on about how Haaland barely touched the ball, not enough credit was given to our team and our tactics for playing a huge part in that.

Football is a weird game as we often say. Fine margins can be the difference and when City equalised I did worry. I can’t lie about that. We’d been a bit too passive, but as soon as we weren’t, we made them pay. I don’t want to say there’s a lesson for Arteta there, he knows more about football than I ever will, but there’s a lot of quality in this team and sometimes I’d just like to see us harness that a bit more because the rewards are obvious. Maybe another day you get punished for pushing as high as we did, but in a big game we responded perfectly, and it was a lot of fun to see us do to them what they have too often done to us down the years.

Afterwards, Arteta said:

To beat them in the manner that we’ve done, a lot of things have to go your way. We were very aggressive, we played with a lot of courage with and without the ball, and with the high press, the limits are really, really thin. We scored a goal, should have scored another one clearly, and after even if you want it they are that good that sometimes you have to stay deep and defend deep, and suffer, and enjoy those moments as well. We had a bit of luck in certain moments and then we had the opportunity – our intentions, our aggression with the ball, how we wanted to hurt them. The way we finished the actions, exceptional.

And on the fact we had an 18 year old and a 17 year old from Hale End on the scoresheet:

I believe in them, we believe in them. When I put them next to the boys, they feel that with them, they are as good or better, you know, and that’s really, really important and that they play with a lot of purpose, and they played really, to contribute and to make things happen. That’s what I like about both of them.

As we ponder what might happen on deadline day, let’s take a moment to consider we’ve unearthed £100m of talent from our own Academy and as the season has progressed, they’ve become more and more involved. Lewis-Skelly’s performance was outstanding from start to finish – against some of the best players in the Premier League, and it’s now 7 goals for Nwaneri from far fewer minutes. He could easily hit double figures before the end of the season, and for a young man of his age, that’s a level of end-product that augurs very, very well for the future.

Top to bottom though, front to back, every single player out there yesterday deserves huge credit for the performance and the result. Maybe this is part of why there’s such a desire to augment the squad before 11pm tonight, because we know how good they are and want them to get the help an addition of quality can bring. But let’s not overlook what they produced yesterday on their own merits, and let’s take a moment this morning to deliver them the praise they have earned.

Now you, blond lad with the terrible hairstyle, go get my f*cking boot seeing as you have nothing else to be doing.

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For more on yesterday, in what is sure to be a fun episode, we’ll have Arsecast Extra for you in a little while too. We’ve put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod should be out around noon. For now, have a good one.

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