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LONDON — A true humbling not seen since “Not Like Us,” this was the last act missing in Arsenal’s case for greatness. Here was a swaggering display of superiority from Mikel Arteta’s men against the team that has been their benchmark — through remote, their revival. There might not be enough time for Arsenal to claim Premier League supremacy this season but putting their rival out for the count like this is a sign of the greatness to come.
A celebration shouldn’t define a performance like this, a moment for the crowd that would usually be no more meaningful to the final score than the pre-match fireworks. And yet when Myles Lewis-Skelly aped Erling Haaland’s celebration with brazen self-confidence, it was apparent that something had changed for Arsenal. There was nothing to fear from their tormentors. There was nothing Manchester City could throw at them that they could not deal with. In an instant, they realized they were much the better team. Cue the Kendrick.
They had beaten City before and they will probably beat City again. Those past triumphs, even those brave defeats and the draws that might have been something more, were markers on the journey to equalling the champions. Arsenal still looked up to City, set them as the standard. No more. They are now perfectly prepared to clown on the champions. Gabriel will celebrate in Haaland’s face because he does not fear the reprisals. The home crowd will serenade City’s big man in the most robust of terms.
To get there, all Arsenal needed to was believe. For much of the first hour, Arsenal were nothing to write home about. The press had caused trouble in the City backline; Manuel Akanji robbed in possession for Martin Odegaard to score the first, Mateo Kovacic’s pocket picked before Kai Havertz blazed wide in what seemed like the moment Arsenal blew it. The backline held firm too, giving their opponents all the possession they might need without allowing much beyond a smattering of half chances.
Between that, not a lot. Arsenal weren’t building through possession. They were a little too prepared to sacrifice the area in front of their box, to bait the long shot and keep the ball away from Haaland.
It was as if they had imbued the wrong messages from the last time they’d met City. The ferocious defense of a 2-1 lead by 10 men until the death at the Etihad might have been Arsenal’s best performance of the season before today. The faith it generated in the rearguard has occasionally veered into the blind since. Often they have gotten themselves a goal to the good and declared from there. If any defense in England can hold onto such a lead it is one anchored by Gabriel and William Saliba. Still, there comes a time when sitting deep is too much of a gamble, even against this approximation of City.
They only needed to click once. And so they did, Savinho drifting from left to right, taking Phil Foden’s cross for Haaland to head home. Arsenal had been playing as they would and should against the City of last season and the one before, trusting their defense to keep the big guy quiet at one end and backing themselves to nick it at the other. Not this time. They were simply a lot better.
Arteta would insist otherwise. Asked to reflect on an impressive display by David Raya, the Arsenal manager was at pains to point to the two first-half saves his goalkeeper made. “
A lot of things have to go your way, and in those moments you have to be very efficient, you need a bit of luck, you need an individual action, we had it all today. That’s why the result reflects that distance because a lot of things go our way today.”
That may well be the case but superior personnel tend to create their own fortune. That is what Arsenal had today. Whether behind his midfield or in front of it, Odegaard could find all the space he needed. Declan Rice had enforced his will on Bernardo Silva, whose most significant contributions to this game were a string of niggly off-ball challenges. Most of all, Lewis-Skelly had approached this contest with a total absence of trepidation.
Every time he went into a challenge it was full-throated, the prelude to him driving out of danger. Press him and Lewis-Skelly was drawing a foul. His ability to do that is remarkable. The top 10 players in the Premier League for fouls drawn per 90 minutes are, well, the sort you might expect. Tricky wingers, ball-dominant midfielders. Them and Lewis-Skelly, who ranks sixth with an average of nearly three. Having already baited Haaland and Foden, his tail was up.
Right, into these, he seemed to say when the ball came to him from Declan Rice. Straight at John Stones, there was only one thing in his mind. He was going straight at goal. “I wasn’t expecting it,” joked Arteta. “I was talking with one of our staff members today about that, that he needs to threaten more in the final third when he gets in this position.”
The goal itself was a moment of dizzying talent, as good a first shot as you will see in senior football. Lewis-Skelly’s response made you wonder if he’d been waiting for this day before letting fly. As tempers flared back in September, the 18-year-old had drawn the wrath of Haaland. “Who the f— are you?” City’s No. 9 seemed to say after a final whistle in which he was at pains to tell Arteta to “stay humble.”
If Haaland didn’t know Lewis-Skelly’s name then, he does now. He was the one meditating after Arsenal’s third.
“He’s got [tenacity] inside him,” Arteta said of his young left back. “He feels it and he’s very good at expressing it as well, and some players struggle with that. He does it in every action, he does it with his body language, he does it with his facial expression, how he lives the game, and then with the ball, because he takes it.
“He wants to make things happen, he takes risks, he takes initiative, and at his age, that’s not easy to see.”
He was not the only Hale End graduate intent on making things happen. Ethan Nwaneri put a bow on this remarkable triumph with a magnificent bending strike beyond Stefan Ortega. He had come onto the pitch with the air of a young man utterly convinced he was going to do something just as special as Lewis-Skelly.
The youngsters’ belief was infectious. From 3-1 up onwards, Gabriel was calling for the ball any chance he got. He fancied getting in on the act. Flicking the ball up for a bicycle kick, he very nearly did. Jurrien Timber tried to turn one in from no angle at all at the near post. They all wanted in on the act. Why shouldn’t they? Who was stopping them?
There’s levels to this. Right now, Manchester City’s is not Arsenal’s.
