The comeback to start hauling Arsenal back? The top of the table does look that much better for Manchester City, because Pep Guardiola’s side looked like champions again. This was one of those vintage responses that repeat title winners produce, and was so common on the other side of Manchester for so long, to prevent a vintage and common Tottenham Hotspur victory in this fixture.
The fact this rousing 4-2 win actually fell into its usual pattern, with Antonio Conte exploiting Guardiola’s weaknesses for his team to go 2-0 up, this time only served to draw out City’s strengths. The Spurs manager might reasonably point to how he can’t keep doing this indefinitely, especially as this Abu Dhabi project could afford to keep Kevin De Bruyne on the bench. City didn’t even need him as they responded to Tottenham’s one-two just before half-time with a one-two-three just after it. Whatever Guardiola said at half-time, it meant his team won this game just as quickly as they’d lost it. It was quite the show of power, right down to Erling Haaland of course scoring again.
