The great league showdown didn’t live up to the title, only showcasing Manchester City’s immense power. Arsenal are remarkably still top of the Premier League table after a humiliation that felt much worse than 4-1 but, like so much else about this title race, it is an illusion.
This was reality, and it was a machine of a City team turning the game that the Premier League had billed as its supposed prestige fixture into a training exercise. So much of it was just attack against defence, right down to the nature of the drills. It was often two on six but, despite the outcomes, that wasn’t two defenders. The most frequent image of the game, and its most influential factor, was Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland terrorising Arsenal’s entire backline by just tearing down on goal.
