Arsenal Vs Manchester City: Being brave is the key

Only one team has beaten Manchester City in the Premier League this season. Arsenal and Arsene Wenger must replicate their bravery, boldness, and almost recklessness to achieve victory in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.

Pep Guardiola’s iteration of Manchester City might be the best team in Premier League history. That is quite a statement, especially from an Arsenal fan given the illustrious nature of The Invincibles, but it is also likely true. There are very few records that they are not, at this point in the season, not on course to break.

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In this remarkably consistent season, Guardiola’s side have lost just one league game, a 4-3 thriller against Jurgen Klopp’s blistering Liverpool. It was an astonishing match, one in which Liverpool accelerated to a 4-1 lead and clung onto in the latter stages. It is also the perfect lesson for Arsene Wenger in how to accentuate and exploit the very flaws that this City team presents ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.

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It is extremely difficult to not allow City to dictate the game. The double-axis of Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva possess a wonderful wizardry of the ball, commanding the match through their mastery in possession. With width provided by the searing Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, City stretch the pitch extremely wide, providing de Bruyne and Silva ample space to work in. That space is ultimately the death of the opposition.

It opens up passing channels to feed Sergio Aguero, it demands great energy and athleticism from the opposing midfield to screen the defence, and it provides the joint ingenious creativity of Silva and de Bruyne with the time that they need to unpick the rather rusty locks that lay before them. Once City get into such positions, it is very difficult to stop them. So, the best way to prevent their creative talents from flourishing is to not give them the service in the first place.

That requires a brave and aggressive pressing strategy. City will not punt the ball long. Guardiola has drilled that much into them. Therefore, if they can be pressed intelligently, in a timely and aware fashion, then there are opportunities to win the ball high up the pitch and be in a position to immediately exploit a stretched and vulnerable defence.

Not only that, but it will force errant passes into the midfield, suffocating the front three of accurate, quality service with which they can hurt the defence. If you give them enough chances, such is their ability, that, even with the most disciplined, regimented, connected, cohesive defensive unit, probability wise, they will score. A more aggressive approach must be taken: to starve.

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Arsenal certainly have the players to be able to do that. And Wenger does have a precedent of undertaking this tactic in cup finals before. Whether he is brave enough to do it again, against the best team in the country, though, is another question altogether.