As the Premier League takes a break to make way for the World Cup, defending champions Manchester City sit five points below Mikel Arteta’s table-topping Arsenal.
Prior to the most recent weekend of Premier League action, the Gunners sat two points above Pep Guardiola’s City. The gap has widened following City’s shock home defeat to Brentford, whereas Arsenal won away from home at basement boys Wolves.
It is worth noting that Arsenal and City haven’t faced each other yet this season. Their two clashes could be absolutely vital in determining who will lift the Premier League trophy in May. Last time the sides faced each other, it was a close ran affair on New Year's Day as Rodri bagged a 93rd-minute winner for City.
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City have played some scintillating football at times this season with Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland looking a seemingly unstoppable combination at times.
However, Arsenal have also been thoroughly impressive and they haven’t lost a league game since they were defeated by Manchester United on September 4. Arteta, who served as Guardiola’s assistant at City, has got the Gunners playing excellent football at times.
Notable performances include the 3-1 victory over arch-rivals Tottenham and the impressive 3-0 away win against Brentford. Perhaps equally impressive is Arsenal’s ability to grind out results when necessary - this is a quality Arteta has instilled in the side.
Examples of it include the Gunners’ one-goal wins over Leeds and Fulham. One of Arsenal’s most influential figures this season has been new signing Gabriel Jesus who they, of course, acquired from City. Although City don’t 'need' Jesus these days due to the additions of Haaland and Julian Alvarez, maybe they shouldn’t have offloaded the Brazilian to a fellow ‘big 6’ side.
It could be that City didn’t see Arsenal as a title threat. Jesus has been top-class this campaign, and 10 goal contributions in 14 Premier League matches has earned the former City man a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad.
Elsewhere on the pitch, the Blues also allowed former second-choice left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko to join Arteta and Jesus at Arsenal. Similarly to Jesus, Zinchenko isn’t a massive loss for City because in Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo, Guardiola has two of the finest full-backs in world football.
Even during Walker’s recent absence, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake all did a mostly solid job filling in. But Zinchenko has certainly been Arsenal’s gain.
Although the Ukrainian has been reduced to just seven league appearances courtesy of injury, he has looked thoroughly impressive when available. In addition to this, the main difference between City and the rest of the league is City’s enormous strength in depth across all positions.
But with the addition of Zinchenko, Arsenal now arguably have greater strength in depth at full-back than City. Across both full-back positions, Arsenal have Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kieran Tierney, Cedric Soares and Zinchenko to choose from. The latter can also play in midfield so the argument could be made that City have inadvertently done their main title rivals a massive favour by offloading the Ukraine international.
If City end up as champions of England once again come the end of the season, then the argument that they shouldn’t have let Jesus or Zinchenko go to Arsenal could be easily quashed.
But if the title race is decided by Arsenal and City's two meetings this season and the pair have a say in handing Arsenal some crucial points, City will look somewhat foolish for letting go of two players who have now become great assets to their new club.
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