Man City figured things out and made Arsenal regret their complacency and mercy. Ruben Dias was every bit as good as Takehiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel were bad.
1) There was a symbolic beauty in watching Kevin De Bruyne stroll along the touchline as Arsenal supporters launched empty bottles at him. The substitute smirked and winked as he dodged one and the rest landed aimlessly in the general area surrounding him, never close enough to make contact.
Arsenal threw everything at Manchester City. It wasn’t enough. The visitors sauntered through and took what they deem to be theirs by right of unerring brilliance. De Bruyne sandwiched a decisive victory with a sumptuous opening goal and a wonderful assist to the clincher. The Gunners could not get near him and the title momentum has shifted.
2) Arsenal did not shame themselves. Far from it. Their last 11 Premier League games against this opponent have ended in defeat and each of the previous 10 were humbling, degrading experiences which underlined the gulf in quality, ability, intelligence, tactics and expertise separating the Gunners from the top table.
This was more a lesson in efficiency and moments. Manchester City took theirs and Arsenal did not. Eddie Nketiah had two presentable chances and headed both wide, then could not quite reach a Takehiro Tomiyasu cross to tap in from six yards. De Bruyne scored from his only shot, as did Grealish. Both teams made careless mistakes under pressure but while Arsenal converted the penalty Ederson clumsily conceded, all three Manchester City goals came seconds after the home side gave the ball away. Arsenal had 10 shots to nine but in terms of efforts on target it was one to City’s six. The difference between leaders new and old was negligible yet substantial at the same time.
3) Beyond even the aforementioned moments themselves was the timing of them.
Nketiah’s attempted header connected with his shoulder and chest when Oleksandr Zinchenko’s glorious cross found him unmarked in the area on 22 minutes; De Bruyne scored two minutes later.
Wonderful link-up play between Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka allowed Tomiyasu the time and space to cross from the right in the 66th minute but Nketiah could not quite reach when any sort of forward contact would have beaten Ederson; Grealish scored six minutes later. And three minutes after that, Granit Xhaka contrived to neither pass nor shoot when either outcome would have been…
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