Here are the 16 Conclusions on that Manchester City show against Arsenal, from twoht.
This wasn’t the titanic title tussle that we were promised. Manchester City are too strong for any of that nonsense, as Arsenal found to their cost.
3. It has felt over the last few weeks as though Manchester City have been playing as though they have a point to prove. There was a period this season in which they won only seven and lost four games from twelve. Pretty much everything they’ve done since beingwith multiple counts of breaking financial fair play rules in the first week of February has felt like a raised middle finger to the entire rest of football. Interpret that as you wish.
5. Even by the time that the first goal went in it was already very clear that this was going to be a very difficult evening for Arsenal, who looked nervy when they were in possession and misshapen when they weren’t. When De Bruyne ran through for the first goal he looked like Belgian Moses, the red defences parting before him and giving him an amount of space to assess his options that you simply cannot give a player of that calibre. This turned out to be a recurring theme of the evening.
8. Manchester City have adapted their style to fit Haaland, and have become more direct in doing so. Sure enough, they’ll exert pressure like a vice from the very first second, but the slow steady rhythms of Guardiola’s earlier teams has been superceded by something a little more rapier-like. Their three goals in this game came from a long ball, a set-piece and a break down the middle, and all three were perfectly executed.
12. Credit where it’s due, Arsenal did improve as the match progressed and Mikel Arteta’s substitutions did make a difference. Jorginho was introduced on the hour – it rather felt as though he was the sort of steadying, experienced head that they could have done with on the pitch all evening – and he plugged the biggest gaps in the midfield, while the late introduction of Leandro Trossard gave them a little more punch when they did get into attacking positions.
To illustrate this, the Manchester City substitutes bench this evening was made up of Kalvin Phillips, Aymeric Laporte, Stefan Ortega, Julian Alvarez, Sergio Gomez, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Rico Lewis, while Arsenal’s was Kieran Tierney, Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah, Jakub Kiwior, Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, Fabio Vieira, Reiss Nelson and Matt Turner. The lack of depth in Arsenal’s first team squad should be near the top of their priority come the end of the season.
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