Once again, Premier League champions Manchester City suffered a shameful defeat in the league as Arsenal ran a riot over the Citizens at Emirates Stadium to secure a dominating 5-1 win. It was a crucial game both for Arsenal and Manchester City, but Manchester City failed to show their hunger today at Emirates Stadium.
As It Happened
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta played his team in a 4-3-3 formation, where Kai Havertz, Gabrial Martinelli, and Leandro Trossard led the attack for the Gunners. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola set up the team formation with 4-2-3-1, using Erling Haaland in the front with Foden and Savio playing in two wings behind Haaland.
However, Arsenal took only two minutes to find the net when Martin Odegaard scored a brilliant goal with the help of Kai Havertz. Havertz had a great chance also following a few minutes, but he failed to convert in the 5th minute. The first half saw no more goals despite the repeated attempts from both sides. Therefore, Arsenal went to the break with a one-goal lead.
Coming back from the break, the Citizens seemed to be back on track and found the equalizer at the beginning of the second half. In the 55th minute, who else but Erling Haaland scored a brilliant header to level the scoreline?
But Arsenal were 100% determined to get all three points and they took only 60 minutes to get the lead again. It was Thomas Party, who scored a fantastic goal outside of the box in the 56th minute.
Lewis-Skelly, born in 2006, stunned Manchester City when he showed his skill and beat the City keeper to find the back of the net in the 62nd minute. The game was already under Arsenal’s control, but they continued to press high for more goals.
In the 74th minute, Kai Havertz made the scoreline 4-1 with the help of Gabriel Martinelli, while teenager Ethan Nwaneri hammered the last nail to City’s coffin when he scored his first-ever goal for Arsenal to seal a dominating 5-1 win over the English Champions.
City boss Pep Guardiola believes his side was good in the match except for the last few minutes. “I only regret the last 25 minutes, we forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65/70 minutes,” said Pep Guardiola after the match.
Meanwhile, Arteta said, “We were very aggressive, we played with a lot of courage. It has its risks as well because they are so talented, they understand the solutions to them. It’s risky but it paid off, we had moments as well where we had to suffer and dig deep, stay deep and be uncomfortable there, have a bit of luck in the right moments and I think they were superb. With the intentions that we played, playing forward, running, attacking spaces, taking risks with the ball and it really paid off.”
