2 hours ago
12
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 Manchester City (O'Reilly 60)
It’s been coming, and I’m afraid the source of the goal isn’t that surprising. Bernardo finds Cherki, who crosses and, at the near post, Kepa makes a complete hash of a regulation leaping catch. The ball bounces loose, a few feet off the line, and O’Reilly is quicker to it than Zubimendi, nipping in front to duck into a low header and put City ahead.
58 min Haaland runs at Saliba like a fairy elephant; he’s easily read and unloaded. His finishing is so deft and definitive, I’m sure he can get better at other aspects of his game, but he looks like pretty much the same player he was when he joined.
57 min Again, Semenyo runs at Hincapie, who backs off, so the attacker shifts it left to open up a shooting lane before, from the edge, his low effort curls just wide. When was the last time a team had four players – Semenyo, Doku, Ake, Haaland – with ponytails?
55 min lovely feet from Bernardo, beating a couple of men just outside the box and finding Doku, whose flighted cross looks Haaland-boucd, but a defender, Hincapie I think, is up early to intervene.
54 min City continue in the ascendancy, Doku sending a low cross whizzing across the box with no one available to attack it. Arsenal are sitting back waiting for a counter or a set-piece; I'd expect them to make a change soon.
52 min Semenyo sends the free-kick miles from anywhere.
50 min Rice and Saka haven’t delivered their crosses as well as they usually do, the former taking this latest corner, which City clear, then a long diag finds Doku racing away. In what looks like a panic, Kepa charges out of his area, Doku bundles past him, and is yanked back; the ref blows when he might’ve let play continue a second or two, booking the Arsenal keeper.
49 mi Semenyo digs out a cross beyond the back post, then City retrieve possession with Cherki sliding into Semenyo, who lays off for Haaland. But, under pressure, he can’t quite poke his shot early enough, then Arsenal race down the other and win a corner that ought to have been a goalkick.
48 min “Sorry to be the cold water poured but, considering the available talent of both these squads, they are surely the most boring teams in the league,” reckons Dean Kinsella. “I saw Bob the last time he played Dublin and most of the material used was from Rough and Rowdy Ways. It’s the best album he has made for two decades and the crowd were really into it (including Shane McGowan in the front row). This roused Bob into performing the best I’ve seen him since Blackbushe way back in the mists of time. Rave on Mr Dylan.”
46 min No changes to either side, but I doubt it’ll be long before we see some. In the meantime, City are again dominating territory, Arsenal a little more proactive in rushing them.
46 min We go again…
Back come our teams. I doubt either is especially happy with their first-half performance, but City look closer to opening the game up.
I don’t think Havertz in midfield is working all that well. If I was Arteta which, for avoidance of doubt, I’m not, I’d be thinking about moving Saka into midfield and getting Madueke on.
Half-time email: “I saw Bob Dylan in concert last fall,” says Kári Tulinius. “To say that his voice is shot is an understatement, and his piano playing is rudimentary. His musicians had to keep his eye on him at all times, because he’d stretch and twist his songs. They mostly played tracks off Rough and Rowdy Ways, because they’re written to suit his current vocal abilities. But within those constraints, they put on a fantastic show. Though it’s more pronounced now, that’s always been the case with Dylan, musicians have to contort themselves to fit him, and that drove them to new heights. Arsenal lack a Bob Dylan. The best sides in history all had some sui generis talent whose outsized gifts were accompanied by limitations, and so needed his team mates to adjust their game. Bergkamp was that figure the last time Arsenal won the title, such an odd player they had to invent a new term just for him, ‘shadow striker’.”
I’m not sure Bergkamp was the first deep-lying striker – and where on earth would he play in this era of 4-3-3? – but agree, you see Bob, he plays a good minute or so of a song you think you don’t know, then realise it’s a peculiar interpretation of one you’ve loved for decades. At this point, it’s not about whether he’s any good, but being in same space as him, knowing that every time might be the last time.
HALF-TIME: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester City
Arsenal started the better, Trafford’s save from Havertz the closest we’ve come to a goal, but City were the superior side in the final 25 minutes, without crafting a clear-cut chance. It’s engrossing, but the quality is not legendary.
45 min We’ll have one additional minute.
45 min Bernardo finds Semenyo on the right of the box and again, he pauses, then barges down the side, leaving Rice trailing before standing up a cross to the back post … and Haaland’s up! But, though White and Saliba can’t get close to him in the air, their leaps and proximity are enough to force him into heading wide.
44 min Arsenal clear the corner, then block a Doku shot, but City have them hemmed in, sustaining attacks with the box ringfenced. This is what Guardiola wants the game to look like and it was a feature of Alex Ferguson’s teams too, but Arsenal back themselves to defend the box.
43 min But Haaland drops deep to get on the ball – that is not a misprint – and when Cherki finds him with a decent pass, punched through the lines, City win a corner.
41 min There’s not much going on here.
39 min “Per your point ‘if he’d bought either of [Ekitike/Sesko] and they’d stayed fit’,” says Mark Childs, “I think that’s the main strength of Arsenal’s transfer approach. It no longer seems like a crisis if Odegaard/Saka/Rice/Havertz picks up an injury: they now have a strong enough squad and a rotation system that presumably reduces injuries, then provides cover for any missing players. As a United fan who has had to watch the randomness of our transfer approach, I can only admire Arsenal’s decision to pick a strategy and stick with it.”
I think they’d be pretty stuck without Rice, and the only reason they might be fine without Saka is he’s having a relatively poor season. If you go through the list of Premier League champions, you’ll see that almost all of them have elite attackers, and though I’m not saying Arsenal can’t win the title without them, it’d be an outlier. I also think Arteta has played his key men a lot for someone who has such a deep squad – the away game against Inter, for example.
38 min The corner is easily cleared; so far, City are dealing with Arsenal’s dead-ball threat pretty comfortably, though it only takes one to change everything.
37 min Saka rolls the ball down the line, hoping to draw a tackle from O’Reilly, who stays patient before blocking the cross; corner to Arsenal. There’ll now be a 17-minute break as the players position themselves then wrestle each other.
35 min Arsenal are doubling and tripling up on Doku, who Arteta must see as City’s main threat. I don’t know if that’s leaving Hincapie isolated against Semenyo, but it can’t be helping; I’d be interested to see the two wingers swap occasionally, which might unbalance Arsenal’s defensive plan.
33 min But Arsenal sustain the attack, Gabriel flicking on a long ball and Gyokeres is in! He wants too long, though, so Ake, who was caught out initially, gets back at him to make a leaping tackle. So far, this is extremely poor fare.
31 min Calafiori is on the touchline stretching, which may or may not be because Arteta is contemplating a change. Gyokeres and Khusanov then pursue a long ball, the latter ploughing through the former and earning a yellow card for his trouble. He didn’t leave anything out of that challenge, and Rice will now laser in another free-kick, headed clear by Nunes.
29 min The corner comes to nothing, then Bernardo avoids a card for a shove. He’s perhaps the most articulate snide in the league - and what a player.
28 min City are now dominating possession, though without threatening. Semenyo looks to have Hincapie and, as I type, he he slows him down, feints the cross, and nashes away on the outside, his cross blocked behind for a corner. I’d not be surprised to see Calafiori on at half-time.
25 min “To be fair, I don’t think it was as clear then as it is now that Ekitike was the liveliest of the Ekitike/Sesko/Gyökeres mid-price strikers,” says Julia Riches. “Personally, I wish we had bought Kvaratskhelia in the 2025 January window. What I am really glad of is that we didn’t sell Martinelli and Trossard, who have been immense and undersung for us this season.”
I disagree with that – Gyokeres was clearly the least talented of the three. Perhaps Arteta wanted that profile as an option, but if he’d bought either of the other two and they’d stayed fit, Arsenal would be in a better position than they are.
23 min City look to attack down the left touchline, Arteta dancing down it to get out of the way. He’s trying much harder to affect calm this season, but his constant proximity to the action bespeaks his real state of mind. At some point, I’d not be surprised if he properly gets in the way of an opposition attack – Gareth Bale could never have done this against Arsenal.
21 min I’ve not seen many, if any defender with recovery-pace that compares to Khusanov. We see it here, as he slides in on Havertz, and if the rest of his game matures, he has the raw materials to become a very serious centre-back.
20 min Excellent from Semenyo, who isolates Hincapie and throws a lollipop inside before dashing outside, hammering over a cross that pleads to be finished … but a flying Haaland can’t quite introduce brow to ball.
19 min Saka spins Cherki adroitly, in the process raking studs down heel; he’ll be fine, but we’ve barely seen him in the game thus far.
18 min Arsenal win another free-kick, maybe 35 yards out, out on the right, so the big men go forward and Rice prepares to fizz over a outswinger like he’s Jonny Wilkinson … and Haaland heads clear.
16 min Hincapie leaps into a tackle, lands without making contact with Khusanov, then makes contact with Khusanov, studs to foot, and is booked – I imagine for the first part, though it caused no damage.
15 min “I’m an Arsenal fan,” says Nathan Brown, “and I also thought Arsenal needed a couple of definitive attackers this going into the start of the season. A lot of us were disappointed and underwhelmed by raising the floor of the squad but not the ceiling. You’re basically describing Liverpool’s summer transfer policy - buying Isak, Ekitike and Wirtz. However the depth has come in handy at times over the season and now we go into the last batch of games with a full squad most of whom have had a decent volume of game-time. Seems like the results speak for themselves.”
I’m not sure about that. Liverpool didn’t strengthen where they were weak, and Isak has barelyt been fit. Had Arsenal bought Ekitike, they’d be further ahead, in mine.
13 min Flat, to the near post … and headed away. Saka can do much better than that, but Arsenal win a throw deep inside the City half, Rice to hurl in … and again, City clear.
11 min O’Reilly naively fouls Saka in the inside-right channel, 30 yards from goal, meaning Rice can now swerve in a free-kick … which O’Reilly heads away. But Arsenal have them boxed and Bernardo can’t prevent the ball going behind for a corner, Saka to take it.
10 min Now City probe, Bernardo and Rodri on the ball just outside the box. The latter digs out a cross seeking Haaland, who’s put himself on Saliba – perhaps to avoid the more powerful Gabriel – but the defender does enough.
