The apprentice fails to outdo the master once again
Going into this game Mikel Arteta's record against his former mentor Pep Guardiola was nothing short of abysmal. Save for an FA Cup semi final upset in 2020, Arteta had never beaten the man he once worked under at Manchester City and across eight games his Arsenal sides had only scored twice.
Arteta though might quite rightly argue, he had never faced Guardiola with a squad as good as the one he has now. It has taken some time for Arsenal to get to a position where they go into games against sides like City feeling confident of the win, but as the Premier League's two best sides faced off at the Emirates, it was tough to place a cigarette paper between them before kick off.
That closeness continued into the game as tightly fought first half ended level. Come the second period though, there was only one side in it.
READ MORE: Every word Mikel Arteta said on Tomiyasu error, Gabriel mistake, Partey injury and Man City loss
City simply went up a gear as their master tactician found rearranged his jigsaw pieces to find the solution to the puzzle Arsenal posed. "In the 2nd half we made a step forward," Guardiola said of his side's display after the game. "We were aggressive, we got closer to Odegaard and they couldn’t have an extra player in the middle which allowed us to get extra balls higher up the pitch."
The man moved up to close down Martin Odegaard was Ruben Dias as Guardiola stopped Arsenal's biggest threat at source. With the Gunners' Norwegian nullified, City then set about utilising their own Scandinavian star, pumping balls directly up to Erling Haaland to cause problems from the back line.
Perhaps this ultimately came down to the fact that City simply had more strength in depth on their bench to change things. The introduction of Manuel Akanji certainly allowed Dias to be even more aggressive, and Arsenal couldn't cope as they went up a gear. By comparison the Gunners first change was Leandro Trossard, and although the Belgian is versatile, he was unable to change the way Arsenal were playing enough to stem the tide of City dominance.
This is the reality of the opponent the Gunners find themselves up against in this title race. They have a manager and a squad capable of finding solutions to almost every problem that is thrown at them. Now it is over to Arsenal to try and solve some problems of their own.
Individual errors haunt again
For all the tactical chess playing on the touchline, it's very hard to account for the individual errors that took place on the pitch. In the first half Arsenal were, at the very least, matching Manchester City before Takehiro Tomiyasu's erroneous backpass allowed Kevin De Bruyne in to make it 1-0. Then in the second, Gabriel's misplaced ball in his own half immediately set the visitors on a quick counter that they finished with quality.
In a game where they probably would have taken a draw, suffering not one, but two self-inflicted setbacks proved too difficult for Arsenal to overcome. After the game a rueful Mikel Arteta could not help but wonder what might have happened if his side hadn't made such avoidable mistakes.
"It’s exceptionally difficult to play at the level they require you to play to have a chance to win," the Spaniard began in his pre-match press conference. "I thought in many moments we did and we had them, but if you give three goals the way we did and don’t put away the big chances that we had the margin for error is almost zero. It’s a shame because we really had them."
It was almost a throwback to the early days of Arteta's reign where individual errors cost his side valuable points. The stakes though are much higher this time, and it could be something that Arsenal look back on with regret come the end of the season.
The Gunners have been unlucky this week, and had VAR calls not gone against them, they could well still be top of the Premier League. But unlike Saturday they have no one really to blame but themselves for this potentially devastating defeat.
Partey injury concern
As the news emerged throughout the day that Thomas Partey wasn't going to be available, a familiar sense of dread swept through the Arsenal fanbase. The Ghanaian has been key to their success this season, and they have now suffered two thirds of their Premier League defeats this season without him.
Previously in his absence though, Arsenal have had to rely on one of Mohamed Elneny and Albert Sambi Lokonga. The former is now likely to miss the rest of the season following a knee injury, while the latter has departed on loan to Crystal Palace for the remainder of the season. In their absence the Gunners have brought in Jorginho from Chelsea, and as full debuts go they don't come too much more difficult than probably the biggest game in the history of the Emirates Stadium.
Jorginho stood up well for the most part though. In the first half in particular he showed real promise and was able to evade the City high press with relative ease, while also providing a defensive presence that set Arsenal on the counter regularly. One interception from Kevin De Bruyne before releasing Eddie Nketiah with a superb through ball was definitely a highlight.
In the second half though, with Dias pushing up into midfield we saw the limitations the Italian has and how much Arsenal do struggle to dominate midfield when Partey isn't there. Mikel Arteta's post-match update on the Ghanaian's fitness will have done little to lift the hopes of anyone hoping for his speedy return.
"We don’t know," was his simple response when asked for the severity of his injury. It is understood that the news of his back problem came in very late to the Arsenal camp, and you would assume that they'll assess him over the next few days before making a decision ahead of Aston Villa. While Jorginho showed the Gunners can just about get by without him, there's certainly evidence to suggest that Arsenal need Partey back fully fit as soon as possible
Bouncing back again
It seems like we say this every week, but Saturday's game with Aston Villa could now well be Arsenal's biggest game of the season. Of course a trip to a mid-table side does not have the grandeur of Wednesday's clash with City, but if the Gunners don't come away with victory it will be no win in five, the kind of run that you need to avoid if you want to win a Premier League title.
Of course it would have been ridiculous for anyone to suggest that a run like this would not have been on the cards at some point. No team - even one as good as Manchester City - goes through a whole season playing as well as Arsenal have been this year without any dips. The question now is how do they avoid this bump turning into a potentially fatal slump.
"Psychologically there is a marathon still out there," Mikel Arteta said when posed that exact query after the game. "So psychologically it’s very far. I said it three months ago and I said it today, it’s about tomorrow. The most important thing is how we are tomorrow and focus on that because the rest of the things, we don’t know what is going to happen."
This approach is probably the best bet Arsenal do have to getting back on track. They do still have the game in hand over City, and a win against their former boss on Saturday lunchtime could help pile the pressure on Guardiola's side once more. Unai Emery will not exactly be generous to his former employers, but Arsenal have already shown they can bounce back from setbacks this season. It's time for them to do so yet again.
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