Arsenal Vs Manchester City: Recap, Highlights And Analysis

Arsenal travelled to the Etihad Stadium to face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Here’s the full recap, all the highlights and analysis from the 2-1 loss.

Arsenal faced a daunting task of challenging the might of Manchester City on Sunday, even a Manchester City side that has struggled of late. Arsene Wenger stated in the week that he was looking for his team to bring some defensive discipline, primarily due to the dominance that Pep Guardiola likes for his team to have.

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The first half started in frenetic fashion. Both sides were looking extremely dangerous on the ball and vulnerable in defensive areas. Manchester City, with their typical, free-flowing attacking football, playing with Raheem Sterling as a false-nine with an extremely fluid midfield headlined by Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva.

The inevitable goal came extremely early on and it came through an inadvertent Laurent Koscielny slip. Leroy Sane played a nice low ball across the penalty area, Koscielny slipped, failing to clear the ball and it ultimately found its way into the welcome arms of Petr Cech. Cech then immediately released Hector Bellerin down the Arsenal right, a lovely pass into the feet of Alexis Sanchez, a neat turn by the Chilean gave him a little space on the edge of the area. Theo Walcott was slid straight through the middle, set himself, finished calmly past Claudio Bravo.

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The early goal was the perfect start for the Gunners and it allowed the game to settle into a rhythm. Arsenal began to drop deep, allowing City to have the ball, remained resolute, disciplined and compact, preventing the balls into the feet of Silva and De Bruyne that were causing them so many problems and threatened of the counter, with the pace of attacking trio Sanchez, Walcott and Alex Iwobi spearheading a dangerous attack.

Half-time came with Arsenal one goal up and Wenger assumedly happy with his side’s performance. Guardiola, though, had defensive woes to worry about and attacking creativity to find.

The second half started in disastrous fashion for Wenger. After his side showed great innocence and naivety in losing to Everton in the week, within two minutes of the restart, Cech was picking the ball out of his own net. After a poor clearance found its way to Silva, the Spaniard looped a delightful ball over the top for the diagonal run of Leroy Sane. The German winger, much like Walcott before him, set himself, took his time and finished coolly.

The game continued with City continuing to dominate. Yaya Toure was strong and powerful in central areas, Silva and De Bruyne, who were equally magnificent throughout, pulled and probed the Arsenal defence while the pace of Raheem Sterling and Sane caused issues down the channels.

The inevitable City goal came through the left-foot of Sterling just after the 70-minute mark. After receiving a terrific, cross-field volley from De Bruyne, Sterling drifted inside, with Nacho Monreal poorly backing off all the way into his own area. Sterling then simply shifted the ball onto his left foot and fired the shot past Cech at the near post. It was an excellent goal from the Citizens but Arsenal were poor, particularly Monreal.

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Ultimately Sterling’s goal was the crucial one. It was a very disappointing performance from Arsenal, especially in the second half where they dropped off of the pace and allowed City to dictate the tempo of the game, and after two consecutive losses, they now sit nine points off of Chelsea at the top of the table heading into the Boxing day fixtures. That is a major concern for the title hopefuls.

Highlights