I was content with a draw towards the end but against the top teams you need a bit of luck and this time we absolutely got it!
Not every win has to be a statement win, especially against City, you take what you can get.
If I recall correctly the only team that’s really given City a proper beating was Liverpool back when they were flying.
I was disappointed in the game (as a neutral). Very unexciting, with only 3 shots on target in the whole game.
The other title contenders have little to worry about, on that showing. A draw would have been a fair result, though City should definitely have been down to 10 men in the first half.
What I found very strange, is after Arsenal scored, City carried on playing as if the score was 0-0, or they still had 20 minutes to get an equaliser.
Bizarre.
A lot of credit has to go to our defence, we didn’t give Haaland or anyone else for that matter a sniff all afternoon.
Did any of you actually watch the whole 90 minutes or just the highlights? Personally I thought it was a good old fashioned tug of war between two very good sides.
I get from a neutral’s point of view that it wasn’t exciting because of the lack of goal attempts but defensively I thought it was excellent Saliba and Gabriel really played to an exceptional level against the team that won the treble last season and are supposedly the best team in the world with probably the best striker in the world and they had just four shots and only one on target in the third minute and Haaland didn’t have a single shot.
I watched the whole 90 minutes Bob. I’m not saying it wasn’t a good game technically, there just wasn’t a great deal of goalmouth action and excitement.
Defences were definitely on top. Hey, if I was an Arsenal fan tonight, all of that wouldn’t bother me a jot. 3 points against City has been a long time coming; enjoy the win to the full!
I don’t tend to define great games by the amount of goal mouth action whether as a neutral or not. That was a fascinating great, tough, attritional game between one world class team with key players missing and another who are perhaps less attractive than they were during this part of last season but also arguably tougher and more effective and demonstrating little hangover from last season.
I think there’s an argument that the tweaks Guardiola has made to accommodate Haaland have made them more reliant on key players in midfield with specific skill sets who are currently absent. This has exposed that squad size is not everything. Having replacements who can operate the same system is key and City currently don’t have that.
This contrasts interestingly with Arsenal who may also be missing a few players but their squad has been designed so that those players who step in broadly do fit the system.
I doubt much can be read into this result beyond Arsenal showing that the talk of belief and actual belief are now not so far apart. It would be naive though to not expect City to eventually hit a run of wins which may change the complexion of the season as they have in the past but, equally, having won everything last season City can only fail this season and their issues may be psychological as well as injury and suspension based.
Also important to remember that Spurs and Liverpool are very much in this for now and will likely have a huge say in how it pans out regardless. Indeed it’s foreseeable that one or both may be the main obstacles for Arsenal rather than City. Injuries and luck will also play a far greater part than, for example, VAR or referees.
It may have been fascinating and tough, but it was not a great game, as you state, Mike. It makes the title race (though early stages) more interesting though…
The stat below is why yesterday’s game was such an exciting watch for me.
I would have removed the second paragraph because it’s much less important than the first and the third but it was a screenshot.
Whether a game was great is no less subjective than whether parrucular music is great or particular hifi kit is great. What one person sees or hears will never be the same as what another person sees and no amount of discussion or assertion to the contrary will change that.
So, for me, and for lots of reasons, a great game. There is much more to football than fancy footwork and zero physical contact.
As a neutral that was a tactical masterclass from Arteta and that’s the case regardless of City’s obvious issues. Not all tactics have to produce pretty patterns or spectacular goals and football would be all the poorer if it did.
True Mike. Not a great game, but it’s all about opinions I guess. Hope you’re on the mend.
I watched the whole game live, as a neutral. It was a poor spectacle, with both managers seemingly determined not to lose rather than go for the win. No idea how Raya is Arsenal’s Number 1 keeper - the first half was an absolute embarrassment, which City really should have exploited better. Bewildering why Kovacic didn’t get a second yellow, which would have been a different game entirely. Ultimately, it was always going to take take a huge mistake, or a slice of luck, for either team to score, and so it proved. Bizarre tactic to utilise Bernado Silva so deep (Calvin Phillips’ role surely), so Haaland was feeding on scraps and was well marshalled throughout. Title race wide open now though, and not just between these two.
Looks like Arsenal’s backroom boys have been embarrassing the club straight after the game finished…
Shocking, but not surprising.
Admittedly Raya had me hiding behind the sofa for 20 minutes without the pace of either Saka or Martinelli out wide and the fact Pep went very narrow meant that enticing them into a high press and then playing through them wasn’t working.
It was only Saliba, Gabriel and Rice holding firm during that initial third of the match that kept Arsenal in the game. Then Jesus’s industry and the introduction of Martinelli started to turn the tide a bit but it was Arteta’s three changes and Raya switching it up a bit by going further up the pitch that made the difference.
I was really pleased to see one of my former colleagues at the match , with him having travelled a round trip of two hundred miles, all the congestion after the match and watching Man Utd getting their bottom spanked Knowing that he wouldn’t get back until way after midnight
Couldn’t stand him when I worked with him and it gave me a great deal of pleasure to know he had a thoroughly miserable night
I think if you look at my posts, it is very rare for a negative post.
Impossible to see how one could draw any conclusion as to what took place; who initiated what etc. given the detail in articles such as that in The Times. A hand was offered and refused. Words were exchanged but one cannot possibly know what led to this specific exchange and whether it related to events post match; during the match or pre-dating it and possibly going back to when people were employed by different clubs. Any suggestion with regards to cause is essentially speculative.
Or in this case, a poor attempt at trolling.
Excuse me but, wtaf?
Clearly designed to create maximum CO2.
Look forward to Gianni Infantino claiming this is the most sustainable World Cup ever!
