Arsenal’s two minutes of chaos give Man City a huge advantage in the race to the Premier League title
LONDON – Good news for Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reckons a match that many feel will be a landslide, a home clash with Premier League champion City of Manchester, was effectively decided in two minutes. The bad news is that it’s an error-generating spell that emphasizes that for all the collective progress being made, individual error remains an undesirable trait on his part.
To be fair, some mistakes in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Man City not even theirs. This is a match that will spark a debate about how to correctly use VAR (video assistant referee), specifically why referee Stuart Attwell was asked to review Granite Xhakachallenge of the second half on Bernardo Silva at the touch screen and not Edersonresolved sooner Martin Odegaard. Both were not streamed by Attwell, but he was only asked to check back a second time. Both were fined.
– ESPN+ guide: LaLiga, Bundesliga, MLS, FA Cup, more (US)
– Daily ESPN FC live stream on ESPN+ (US only)
– No ESPN? Instant access
Arsenal played excellently until the 57th minute. Bukayo Saka gave them a well-deserved lead after just half an hour by completing a sweeping move involving Thomas Partey, Xhaka and Odegaard before Kieran Tierney pass for England international went home left-footed from 14 yards.
Man City looked tired, pushing past their familiar possession limits as Arsenal impressed themselves. The distance between the two sides rarely looks smaller. However, Pep Guardiola’s side have now won 10 consecutive Premier League games against Arsenal by a total score of 26-3.
As such, the Gunners often appear resigned to their fate, accepting defeat before the game even begins in a way that shows the self-doubt that pervades the group. Arteta, who is currently self-isolating at home after testing positive for COVID-19, is making significant strides in this area, and in that context, the opening hour is arguably the most encouraging of all. his two-year term.
But then two minutes. There is little doubt that Bernardo made the most of the collision with Xhaka, but the midfielder did not need to pull his shirt after the knee collision. The same, similar, Gabriel received an unnecessary yellow card for continuing to oppose Attwell after Riyad Mahrez scored from the penalty spot, which the Arsenal defender had been negligent before.
Arsenal, to their credit, were unchecked in their intentions and efforts, but almost immediately from the start, Nathan Ake clean up the city defender Aymeric Laportethe title of the line goes straight to Gabriel Martinelli. At 8 meters and when Ederson was stuck, Martinelli hit the post. Replays showed Attwell briefly obscured his vision but were not enough to explain a monstrous miss.
From the kick-in, Gabriel had a shot out. Gabriel Jesus With a kind of force that was so strong, no defender should have used a yellow card, and the Brazilian was sent off. So, in the space of 123 seconds, Arsenal made 4 individual errors that turned the game in Man City’s favor.
“[Gabriel] mentioned to me that [the comment was] about the first penalty moment, about Odegaard and what happened there. “It’s a time when young players still have to learn and we have a lot of young players, that’s part of the process.”
However, Man City could hardly resist with the advantage of numbers and relied on an unfortunate goal in injury time of Rodri for their 11th straight win at the tournament and 11 points away at the top of the table. Guardiola cited the extra time Arsenal had to prepare for after their game against Wolves was postponed on December 28.
“They have six or seven days from Norwich; we have two and a half days from Brentford back to Manchester and back,” he told BT Sport. And we have no energy. That’s why we try to put one more player in midfield to control.
“We tried in the second half to change it. Football we try to analyze many things – sometimes it’s the money, sometimes it’s down towards you, sometimes it’s the other way around. That’s reality. We know how much it means to win at the Emirates against Arsenal for the time being.”
The city seems to be running on smoke, but there are still many positives for Arsenal here, not least the stark contrast from 5-0 loss in Augustt at the Etihad Stadium as the team, admittedly exhausted, looked utterly disarrayed.
“If you compare it to the beginning of the season, where did we come from and where we are now, playing against one of the best teams in the world, we had a lot of chances, preventing them from having a good time. chance, that’s what we added Stuivenberg.
Arteta is getting a lot of things right and he could be back in action for Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final against Liverpool (live at 2:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ in the US). Captain in exile Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was not missed. But to complete the position they currently sit in, in the top four, two-minute deviations like the one against Man City must be eliminated.
