After the loss against RC Lens during the week in the Champions League Arsenal bounced back and got the long-awaited win against one of their (if not THE main) arrivals for the premier league title Manchester City. In this article, we break down all the important points of this fixture on Match Day 8 of the Premier League season 23-24 and the learnings we take from it.
What you will read about in this Article:
- Bounce back from bad Results/Games
- Super solid Back 4
- Absentees on both sides
- Formation
- Conclusion
Bounce back from bad Results/Games
For many years – since 2015 to be exact – Arsenal had not won a league game against Manchester City. This win came after a loss against Lens in the Champions League during the week and represents a big bounce back of the team of Mikel Arteta. In the past, we took bad results sometimes into the next game and it impacted our approach negatively. Arteta and his team changed this mindset step by step and we have reached a stage, where 1 bad game barely ever influences the attitude of how we approach the next match.
Super solid Back 4
Defensively we were super solid. Our back four with Rice in front of them as a pivot did not let anything happen. Saliba was once again amazing not allowing Haaland to create anything, the City striker registered 0 shots on target apparently his xG was 0.00 for the whole game(!). Whenever Haaland got to the side of Gabriel he took care of it as well as Saliba. On the right side, we had Benjamin White against Jeremy Doku who so far this season has been known to be a big big dribbler. However, in this game, he did not have even one single successful dribble according to statistics.
On the goalkeeper side, Raya already had looked slightly shaky against Lens and also had one or two wobbly moments again in the first half of this game. However, he stabilized in the second half, seemingly calmed down, and got more control as the game went on. Apparently, Arteta wanted the goalkeeper to play this way, putting the foot on the ball, inviting City in, and playing from the back which was not an easy task against a side as dangerous as City. However, especially towards the end, I think his long balls were very exact & he found Havertz or Martinelli on numerous occasions which gave us some relief.
Absentees on both sides
There were major absentees due to injury or suspension on both sides. For Manchester City Rodri was not allowed to play due to a red card and Kevin De Bruyne was still out with an injury. On the Arsenal side, Saka was missing, and also at least in the first half Martinelli. This changed the game dynamics considerably and the focus of both teams was on stable defenses. Both teams tried to play from a stable back and hit the opponent when the situation allowed. The problem was that since the focus was put so much on the defense it was very very hard to penetrate the opposite team. However, Arsenal seemed to have better balance and ultimately more percussion.
It was an intense but not very pretty football game. The more stable team with an injection of energy in the form of Martinelli won in the end.
Formation
At the beginning of the season Arteta for some reason had changed up the formation of the team slightly with a different defensive line of mainly 3 central defenders & then 2 wingbacks taking out Gabriel from the side in the process. Since he has gone back to the former formation with a back 4 with Gabriel included in the starting 11 (probably also due to the injury of Timber), Arsenal seems to be a much more robust and stable side again. there are still some doubts regarding the movements forward because our flanks seem to be less fluid but I see a stabilization of our play.
Conclusion
Finally Victory against Manchester City!
One and a half weeks ago before the game of Wolverhampton against City it looked as if we could be down up to 4 points in the worst case once the international break arrives. Fast forward 10 days and we are sitting second in the league only behind Spurs due to a worse goal difference.
For the first time in many years, we have beaten City in the league at home. Do not fool yourselves, we are far from being a perfect side, the season is still very long and has only just started. However, we have shown sturdiness on several occasions, beaten teams in tight games especially away from home and we are still unbeaten in the League this season. If we can keep this rhythm up and improve a few details this might again be a very interesting season once more. However, I urge everyone who supports Arsenal, be it the fans, press, and fellow bloggers to NOT jump the gauntlet & focus on 1 game at a time, not draw conclusions for the rest of the season, become hysteric, and neither prophesy nor damn single events. Come on you Gunners!