Manchester City have returned to the top of the Premier League after earning an impressive victory over Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
The away side named a very attacking line-up, with a back three of Ake, Ruben Dias and Kyle Walker, and it was quickly shown on the pitch that Bernardo Silva had been tasked with the makeshift left wing-back role, with him quickly put to work at trying to stop Bukayo Saka. The Portuguese could easily have been booked for his second strong tackle on our young Englishman inside 15 minutes, but our main man appeared unphased by the early battle.
After dominating much of the possession early on, we looked to be turning the screw after the initial 15 minutes, and when Oleksandr Zinchenko teed up Eddie Nketiah for the header from close range there was huge excitement, only for his glancing effort to slide wide of the post.
We was almost immediately punished for that mistake at the other end, when Takehiro Tomiyasu was put under pressure before misplacing a backpass, with Kevin De Bruyne latching onto the error to lob the incoming Aaron Ramsdale from outside the box, breaking the deadlock in style.
We clearly weren’t phased by falling behind, as we swiftly put the pressure back on our rivals. Both Kyle Walker and Ederson picking up yellow cards in frustration, before Eddie Nketiah forced a penalty from the goalkeeper. Bukayo Saka made no mistake from the spot, refusing to be distracted by the Brazilian’s mind games between the sticks to make sure we went into the break level.
We breathed a huge sigh of relief early into the new half, when Erling Haaland was spotted as offside by VAR after the referee had decided to penalise Gabriel Magalhaes challenge on the Norwegian in the box, while the Brazilian defender had his yellow card taken away after the decision also.
A thoroughly exciting viewing followed, with both defences being put to work, but despite our efforts, it was Jack Grealish who was next to get his name on the scoresheet. Wish just 15 minutes left on the clock to get back into it this time, the boss moved to swiftly make changes, but not before long, Erling Haaland had made it 3-1, all-but ending our reign at the head of the table.
This was certainly a great game for the neutrals, and there is definitely more positives for us to take out of this game than we have seen in previous fixtures, but the result means that we no longer hold an advantage in the table, and now have to find a way to get back winning and put pressure on the Citizens who have just leapfrogged us.
Will the boss be able to quickly guide us back to winning ways before our title hopes fizzle quickly away?
Patrick