The game wasn't televised here. I saw a few highlights and listened to it live. I'm not sure why Arteta made so many changes to his first team, but he almost got away with it. City was just too good again, but not by much this time. Nathan Ake had a fabulous game for them, throttling Saka and scoring the winner. Trossard was very good for us. Holding was, as everyone feared, not a match for Haaland (who is?) but he did his job before being hauled off at the half, having earned a yellow card. Matt Turner was excellent. All in all, there's hope for a good result when the Citizens come to our place on the 15th. But they served notice that there's still a gap in quality and it's up to us to close it.
Games will be coming thick and fast after this week. We could use another good midfielder, but so could everyone else, and some of those clubs have more money to spend. We bid for Caicedo (Brighton), who would be a good fit, but I don't expect that to come through. You never know, though--Partey picked up an injury and Caicedo could play his position almost as well. Arteta may be pleading for Stan to cough up another couple million before midnight Tuesday. Most clubs (like us) don't have a superstar-packed bench and their seasons could be derailed by a couple key injuries, as ours was last year. We're in a better spot now, but as we saw, Lokonga is nowhere near Partey in defensive awareness and strength. Smith-Rowe didn't even make the bench; he may be our new Diaby, always on the training table, never the pitch.
The bright side of this is that Arsenal can now devote all of its efforts to winning the premier league. They have already a commanding lead.
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