Arsenal Vs Manchester City: Confirming what we already knew

Arsenal fell to a brilliant Manchester City on Sunday. While disappointing, it was not surprising, and is a result that went some way to confirming what we already know about this squad.

Arsenal suffered a 3-1 defeat to champions Manchester City Sunday afternoon, a result that few people would have been surprised by. While the loss is a setback and an indication of the gap between the two sides, it did go some way to confirming what we already know about this squad.

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Reflecting on the game itself, to concede the first two goals as they did will be very disappointing for Unai Emery. For the first, Alex Iwobi looks to take too long on the ball inside his own area just 45 seconds into the match, is subsequently dispossessed by Aymeric Laporte, and Sergio Aguero is suddenly all alone in the middle. For the second, Stephan Lichtsteiner just forgets about the existence of Raheem Sterling on the right side of the box, who then carefully plays a volleyed pass across goal for Aguero to gratefully accept.

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Both goals are immensely frustrating and almost make the good defensive work the rest of the team did pointless. The second goal, in particular, was a real sucker punch, coming moments before half-time, and it seemed to destroy any chance Arsenal had of getting something out of the game.

When you look at the performance as a whole, though, it did not shed light on new issues, but rather showed, in the most definite of terms, what we already knew was wrong with this squad. Firstly, Lichtsteiner is clearly not good enough to play at this level anymore and he needs to be replaced this summer by a player that can more accurately emulate Hector Bellerin’s skillset.

Nacho Monreal’s age is also starting to show and I don’t think he now has the required athleticism to continue at left-back. He probably just about remains a good back-up option at centre-back, especially in a back three, but again, the club needs to invest in a player that can challenge Sead Kolasinac for the starting left-back berth.

Shkodran Mustafi too has surely run out of chances. With Sokratis and Laurent Koscielny forming a relatively solid partnership, Rob Holding impressing, Dinos Mavrapanos emerging and surely a new centre-back arriving, he has to be on his way out. Again at City, he was rash, his passing was poor and he always looked like he could commit a foul or leave the defence open because of his poor positioning.

These defensive issues then affect the way the team plays further forward. Against City, especially in the second half, Arsenal looked afraid to over commit on the break, for the fear of what Sterling and Aguero could do against Lichtsteiner and Mustafi. They were tentative in their passing, invited City to press them, and lacked any semblance of spark or creativity.

Most damningly, however, these are not new problems. They are issues that the club could have addressed in January, had Stan Kroenke been willing to part with some cash. In the meantime, Emery needs to give Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Mavrapanos the chance to stake a claim, move Kolasinac back to left-back and hope that no more injuries come to defensive players, because, if he is going to solve a constantly reoccurring problem, he cannot do it using the players that are largely responsible.

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But this result changes little in terms of Arsenal’s top-four chances. Chelsea and Manchester United still need to play both City and Liverpool, while Arsenal’s run-in looks slightly simpler. It remains a tough ask, but this game told us little about how prepared Arsenal are to succeed in their pursuit of it. It merely but emphatically confirmed the vulnerabilities that we had all already identified.

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