Arsenal 1-0 Man City: 3 talking points as Gunners down the champions

Arsenal secured a superb 1-0 win over fellow title rivals Manchester City as Gabriel Martinelli’s deflected strike was enough to grab a vital three points.

As far as aesthetically pleasing Arsenal games, this won’t live long in the memory, but the result surely will.

Off the back of an outstanding defensive effort from Arsenal and William Saliba who is now without doubt the best central defender in the league (more on that later), the Gunners restricted Manchester City to just four shots for the game while having 14 themselves.

Both teams struggled to find any attacking rhythm in the first half as Mateo Kovacic’s ability to somehow escape two potential red card offences will continue to be a talking point.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1711124557422358980

But as the second half came to its conclusion, Gabriel Martinelli, who was struggling to be fit for the game, came on as a substitute and won the game in dramatic fashion as his shot deflected off Nathan Ake and into the net after Kai Havertz’s neat layoff.

The win sees Arsenal move to joint top of the league with Tottenham.

Arsenal 1-0 Man City: 3 talking points as Gunners down the champions

The game provided plenty of talking points; here they are.

1. Mateo Kovacic’s red card avoidance…twice

The City midfielder should be going out to buy a lottery ticket tonight. How he managed to stay on the pitch after not one, but two potential red card challenges is mystifying and Arsenal should have been playing against ten men for the last hour.

https://twitter.com/sportbible/status/1711051979026522582

Kovacic’s two tackles from behind on Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard were certainly worthy of a potential red card, but the City midfielder somehow managed to escape with a yellow for Odegaard’s tackle and then he got nothing for his tackle on Rice.

Buy a lottery ticket, Mateo.

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