Arsenal lost further ground in the Premier League title race on Wednesday night as they lost 3-1 against reigning champions Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners fell behind early on before Bukayo Saka equalised from the penalty spot.
Goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland saw Pep Guardiola's side replace the north Londoners are the top of the table due to their superior goal difference. An error from Takehiro Tomiyasu in the 24th minute allowed Kevin De Bruyne to open the scoring with a brilliant lobbed finish past Aaron Ramsdale.
Mikel Arteta remained positive after the match and admitted he has more belief that his players can go on to win the title despite the devastating defeat. Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard failed to have a big impact on the game but fans did notice the Norwegian playmaker sharing a brief exchange with his international teammate Haaland at half-time.
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Speaking to Amazon Prime after the game, Guardiola revealed how he tasked Ruben Dias with getting closer to Odegaard during the second period to nullify Arsenal's attacking threat. “Second half we were much, much better," Guardiola said.
"[In the first half] we let them play in the build-up, in our shape. When you let them play with Jorginho, Xhaka with Alex [Zinchenko], they found the players in behind Odegaard and the other one, the players behind and the runners outside.
“In the second half at half-time we adjusted a little bit. Ruben [Dias] was really good, going more aggressive to Odegaard and we controlled more of the balls.
“We played more and more, and Erling [Haaland] helped us a lot because one against one we had to do more long balls and he used his power to enable us to do it," he added. It's no real surprise that Guardiola focused on limiting Odegaard's impact given the Gunners captain has registered 14 goal contributions in 21 appearances this term.
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