Arsenal dominated the Premier League champions at the Emirates, beating Manchester City 5-1 to keep pressure on Liverpool at the top of the table.
Mikel Arteta’s side took the lead within two minutes through Martin Odegaard before Erling Haaland equalised with a thumping header shortly after half-time. City were only level for a minute or so, though, before Thomas Partey restored Arsenal’s advantage.
From then, Arsenal were in total control, scoring further goals through their impressive teenage full-back Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and then an outstanding curling strike from the substitute Ethan Nwaneri in added time.
Arsenal are six points behind league leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand, while the defeat leaves City in fourth spot, 15 points off the pace and level with fifth-placed Newcastle United.
James McNicholas, Sam Lee and Thom Harris analyse the key talking points…
This was Lewis-Skelly’s day
Back in September, Mikel Arteta gave Lewis-Skelly his Premier League debut in the meeting between these two teams at the Etihad. It was a huge statement of the manager’s faith in the teenager, then 17 — especially as he’d already been booked for urging David Raya to go down injured from behind the Spaniard’s goal.
Since then, Lewis-Skelly has gone from strength to strength. For this game, Arteta selected him ahead of £42million summer signing Riccardo Calafiori. After scoring Arsenal’s third goal, cutting inside before bending the ball in with his weaker right-foot, he will be difficult to displace. The Emirates Stadium has a new hero.
He further endeared himself to the fans by replicating Haaland’s meditative celebration — a call-back to a brief flashpoint between the Norwegian striker and Lewis-Skelly in that 2-2 at the Etihad.
The emergence of Lewis-Skelly and fellow academy product Ethan Nwaneri has been one of the positives of Arsenal’s season. Nwaneri even found time to put the icing on the cake with his second gorgeous goal of the week.
James McNicholas
City’s uninspiring build-up play
With Stefan Ortega’s perilous pass into Mateo Kovacic midway through the first half, presenting Havertz with a gilt-edged chance, City reached a bleak landmark in North London. It was a 23rd error leading to an opposition shot so far in the Premier League; even with 14 games to spare, it’s more than they have committed in each of their last 10 full seasons. They made it 24, with a wayward Phil Foden pass cut out by Partey, later in the second half, which the Arsenal midfielder scored from to make it 2-1 to the hosts.
The sequence was nothing that we haven’t seen before — a carbon copy of what The Athletic described as the most dangerous pass in football in December — but Ortega fell straight into the trap. His ball out was short, and Kovacic, not for the first time in a dreary first-half, was crowded out.
Aside from the obvious risks, City’s approach to build-up throughout the game was rarely inventive enough to break through Arsenal’s defensive shape. With Matheus Nunes pushing up into full-back role, City formed a back-three with the ball, with Kovacic often the sole option to progress the ball through the middle. That forced them to go wide, but passes out Nunes usually came straight back, while Savinho struggled for space on the opposite side.
It helped when City’s No 10s dropped into midfield, but Omar Marmoush was loose in possession with his back to goal. When they could zip the ball up to Foden, they struggled to pick up the pace and move with him into the attacking third, usually meaning he had to come back.
With City still so fragile in their defensive third, errors in possession are the last thing they need. But an inability to consistently find their way through the first two lines of pressure are just as damaging to their struggles to control such big games.
Thom Harris
Havertz summed up Arsenal’s striker conundrum
In some respects, this Kai Havertz performance demonstrated the complexity of Arsenal’s striker situation.
The biggest talking point of the first half, aside from Arsenal’s early goal, was the chance to make it 2-0 that Havertz spurned.
There is no doubt that Arsenal could have a more clinical number nine. It’s remarkable that in Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, Arsenal have ended up with two centre-forwards who share a common and crucial weakness: finishing.
With Jesus now sidelined, Arsenal have spent much of January chasing a new centre-forward. With an attempt to sign Ollie Watkins having seemingly failed, they now have just 24 hours to try and fill that vacancy.
The curious thing is that, even if Arsenal do manage to land a striker, they will have difficulty dislodging Havertz. For all the attention on that miss, out of possession he continues to tick all the boxes Arteta wants from a forward. His pressing and physicality bring important structure to the team.
And yet in the second half, when a more difficult chance came his way, he finished with aplomb. His finishing is inconsistent, but so many other aspects of his play are reliable.
Everyone agrees Arsenal need a striker. But can Arteta find one this month he’ll value more than Havertz? That’s more difficult to say.
James McNicholas
City’s individual errors and why they are where they are
There were the bones of a good City performance in there, considering the issues they have had this season, but the errors that Thom has mentioned above really derailed any hopes of getting something out of this.
The Foden pass straight to Partey in particular is the real killer for City because having just got back into the game at 1-1, with Foden playing his part in it, conceding a goal so soon, and so cheaply, really took the wind out of their sails. It is hard to look at errors like that without taking into account the broader context of their patchy form since November: during this run, which has improved somewhat of late, they have contrived to make things worse for themselves even while things are going well.
The most famous example was Feyenoord, when they were 3-0 up with 15 minutes to go but drew 3-3, something which really destroyed confidence. More recently, even as results have picked up, they threw away a 2-0 lead at Brentford to draw 2-2 and a 2-0 lead at PSG to lose 4-2.
The City players continue to fight, and I think we saw that on Sunday, and they continue to try to play the type of football that will get them back to the top, but this habit of individual errors (and conceding goals in quick succession) is really hampering their progress.
Today, they just kept digging holes for themselves.
Sam Lee
How did Haaland get on after his ‘stay humble’ comments last time?
Given his “stay humble” comments after the reverse game in September, Haaland bore the brunt of the Arsenal fans’ hubris as the Londoners cantered towards a comfortable victory.
Given what unfolded during the game, in terms of the celebrations and chants, the Norwegian’s point was probably proven quite well, but nevertheless when you make a comment like that you have to hope your own form is in order.
For a couple of months at the end of the year, with Haaland struggling to score as City’s form nosedived, the backlash was hard to complain about. Here, though, he more or less did what he could. Sure, Arsenal’s centre-backs did pick his pocket a couple of times, but he did score to give City hope, only for those behind him to throw the hope he had generated away again.
Haaland generally lives and dies by the service he gets and often that is lacking. Today he did the business and could only watch on as mistakes from others squandered his good work.
Still, the Arsenal fans will enjoy his and City’s downfall on the day, and possibly beyond.
Sam Lee
What did Mikel Arteta say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at his post-match press conference.
What did Pep Guardiola say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at his post-match press conference.
What next for Arsenal?
Wednesday, February 5: Newcastle United (A), Carabao Cup semi-final (second leg), 8pm UK time, 3pm ET
What next for City?
Saturday, February 8: Leyton Orient (A), FA Cup fourth round, 12.15pm UK time, 7.15am ET
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(Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
