Erling Haaland showed what elite strikers can do, outfoxing, outjumping, and overpowering William Saliba, one of the world's best central defenders, to score the equalizing goal at the Emirates ten minutes after the half. Arsenal showed what good teams can do even without an elite striker, harrying the City players into repeated giveaways, and getting goals from two midfielders, two forwards, and a defensive back. 17 year old Ethan Nwaneri capped a fabulous Gunners performance, following goals from Odegaard, Partey, 18 year old Lewis-Skelly, and Havertz. Arsenal led for all but two minutes of this game. MO tucked away a goal at 1 minute 5 seconds following a steal deep in City territory, and Partey's deflected strike came just one minute after Haaland equalized. Raya played an important role as well, making two excellent saves when it was a one goal game. The last five games between these teams have resulted in four Arsenal wins and one draw.
Earlier today, Crystal Palace was good value for their 2-0 win at Old Trafford, both goals coming from Mateta. Sadly, Spuds finally won a Premier League game.
Liverpool is playing at such a high level, and so consistently, that it's hard to see them being overhauled by Arsenal, even assuming the Gunners win at Anfield. But all that we can do is play like this every game and see what happens.
MC suddenly got old a few weeks ago - so asserts my son to explain about where the flowers in the old song went
ReplyDeleteSure, guys like DeBruyne are not is fast or strong as they used to be. Rodri's injury was a killer for them. Phil Foden's form has cooled off from last year. They have those FA charges hanging over them.
ReplyDeleteObviously, they're still a really good team, and Guardiola is still a football genius. They were hanging in there with Arsenal yesterday until the last 20 minutes or so when they fell apart. We got goals from remarkable shots from distance, one deflected, As Arteta said after the game, "fine margins." I saw one analyst had our xG at just over one, City's at just under one. But their defense was poor yesterday all game.