Winners
Manchester City
The title race has wholly swung in Pep Guardiola and his side’s favour. It was a dominant performance which was, in brutal honesty, akin to that of a side that have already won the Premier League.
Every mistake from Arsenal resulted in a high-quality chance with the resulting 4-1 scoreline somewhat flattering Arsenal. It is another lesson for a side still trying to establish themselves back at the top.
Reiss Nelson
From a player perspective, there are of course few winners from the display in Arsenal’s side. However, I was impressed by Reiss Nelson’s cameo toward the end of the game.
READ MORE: Arsenal press conference LIVE: Mikel Arteta on Man City defeat, title race and missed chances
I’ve continued to be impressed by his contributions and it looks like he’s really fighting for that new deal. In comparison to a rare showing from Emile Smith Rowe who was simply not as good; this may seem lacking in analysis but there was very little to break down which is in itself telling from the No.10's perspective.
Champions League
The bright side? Well, Brighton’s 3-1 defeat means that Arsenal will definitely play Champions League football next season. It won’t feel like a positive right now but thinking about the music playing at the Emirates Stadium in several months’ time is a warm thought after a very bitter night.
Aaron Ramsdale
Outside of this, Ramsdale kept Arsenal in the game. Saves from Haaland and Silva were key but unfortunately his teammates couldn’t take advantage of the opportunity.
Losers
Rob Holding
Naivety. That’s the word I’d use to sum up Rob Holding’s performance.
The centre-half had not seemingly learned from the rashness in prior performances where he got away with it. Man City used this to cut open the Gunners’ defence.
A simple tactic where the forward came short, a pass in dragged out Holding and Haaland was able to release De Bruyne. This led to the first goal and several other missed City chances and they just goaded the Arsenal defender into mistake after mistake.
Thomas Partey
In these games, Arsenal have wanted to see the player Thomas Partey can be and has shown he can be. Today, and for the past couple of games he has not been the same player and the frustrations showed in his performance and was arguably lucky to stay on the field.
Rather than going into heavy detail on his game, I’d rather focus on the solution: Jorginho. The Italian looked composed when he came on and could be the player to come in for the next game against Chelsea as Arsenal look to find a first win in five games.
Martin Odegaard
When your game is hanging by a thread the last thing you need is to give away a cheap goal. Every time I’ve praised the club captain to the highest degree, I have to be honest when the opposite is true and tonight I wanted more.
Avoiding the mistake is of course key, however, there was a sense that Odegaard could have been more ruthless going forwards and tried to force the balls into the spaces in behind. He’s been brilliant, but in games where chances are few and far between he can be, as he was today, a little bit absent.
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