Gameweek 11 of the Premier League ended in emphatic fashion as Manchester City dismantled reigning champions Liverpool with ease. After the Gunners had dropped points a day earlier, in their 2-2 draw to Sunderland, both sides came into the encounter needing a win to consolidate their title chances. It was the Citizens who emerged victorious thanks to a three-goal triumph, cutting Arsenal’s lead to four points.
Following their victory, it is now shaping up to be a City versus Arsenal title race once again. It is still early days, and you cannot rule out the rest of the chasing pack, but these two have looked the most complete sides so far. As it shapes up to be their third title battle in four years, what could this mean for Mikel Arteta’s side?
City’s experience could test Arsenal’s resolve
The Premier League’s most successful side of the last decade will put Arsenal under immense pressure moving forward. Their mere presence in second place is enough to be a cause for concern, especially for a side that has not yet crossed the finish line in a title race.
Manchester City know they have the experience and know-how to get over the line. The same cannot yet be said for Mikel Arteta’s squad, despite assembling a fantastic group of players. Alongside this experience, Arsenal must also contend with a certain Norwegian number nine.
A side-by-side comparison of both squads shows that Arsenal have arguably built the better collective unit, capable of challenging for major trophies on a consistent basis. This makes them current favourites for the Premier League title. Pep Guardiola knows this, but he also knows that in Erling Haaland, he possesses a striker capable of sinking any team.
Haaland the difference, but Arsenal should stay optimistic
Haaland has almost single-handedly fuelled City’s title charge. No player comes close to his level of output, and he has been the competition’s standout performer so far. If Arsenal’s defence is their superpower, then Haaland’s goalscoring ability is City’s. Combined with their experience, this will make them a formidable opponent in the title race.
However, there are reasons for Arsenal fans to remain optimistic. Looking at it objectively, the Gunners have been the better team overall and possess the stronger collective identity. Perspective is also important: the recent draw against Sunderland was just their second in the last fourteen games, the rest being victories – and that’s despite an injury list that would have been considered a crisis last season.
With several key players set to return after the international break, Arsenal are in a strong position heading into a challenging run of fixtures. There is also the question of whether City’s reliance on Haaland is sustainable. His fourteen goals account for around sixty per cent of their total league tally so far, and their next highest scorer in the league is Burnley’s Maxime Estève — with two own goals.
In contrast, Arsenal comfortably share the goalscoring burden across the team. If Haaland’s form dips or injury strikes, City could be exposed, as their recent league defeat to Aston Villa suggested. Stop Haaland, and you stand a good chance of stopping Manchester City.
Let’s see how the season unfolds, but for now, what do you make of yet another Arsenal versus City title race?
Benjamin Kenneth
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I’m not gonna lie. History favours Man City as things stands. But our only hope is history can actually be broken.
Hopefully we get no further injuries and our injured players return and perform well.
All hope is not lost but it’s scary to be chased down by Man City.
Hopefully, we return in 2 weeks time with a win against the Spurs and go on another long winning run.
It’s possible that Man City will still drop points too.
Let’s recoup and take it one step at a time.
MC have fairly recently history on their side it is true. However, history does not play football matches. The fact is that both MC and Arsenal have very good squads and both are in good form at the moment. Overall squad depth is probably similar with a slight edge possibly to Arsenal. However, it could be argued that MC’s first team might edge Arsenal’s due to certain key positions.
If Arsenal can get the injured back and in form they will remain slight favourites as there is still a points gap.
My namesake, I am impressed by your logic. Games are won on the pitch, not in history books! I sometimes wonder at the logic of some people. How can you talk of experience in winning trophies? Where did Man U’s trophy winning experience go? Where did Arsenal’s invincible experience go? How about Chelsea’s? How did Man city acquire its trophy winning experience? How about Liverpool? Where did it get the experience from? It is all ridiculous how some people reason! It is simply amazing!
In my opinion they are the favourites due to experience. They have been there and won it more than any other team recently. If Haaland missed a long period of the season with injury then I see them struggling.
They are the favourites in my opinion. I think they just started slow but if we keep with them, we can still win it
I personally was disappointed to drop the 2 points on Saturday given there were minutes left and we had a lead. On any other days we go up the other end a win with header or they don’t make a fantastic block. At the start of the season the Sunderland game looked a shoe in for 3 points but they have proven to be thorn in most teams side this season up there and on reflection it is a good point.
City imo were always going to be the strong challenges as they had a steam roll last part of the season and been decent this season plus they have a manager who is the best at what he does.
Let’s not carried away as some might have already until Saturday result. 11 games gone and still 27 to play. A lot more twists and turns to come a lot more points to to win and drop.
Still believe it is ours to lose and other teams to catch us
If at the start of the season we did a poll and asked would we take being 4 points clear of our nearest rivals come the 2nd international week we would all have jumped on that and said yes. Well here we are amd we are 4 points clear.
Onwards and upwards
The notion that city is favorite because they are experienced don’t add up to me, the current city side is almost totally different from the one that last won the league.
Arsenal has kept the same squad and added quality without losing core players .
Anyway I think we should just keep calm and return eze to LW where he shines like I’ve always said, hopefully odegard’s return is imminent since stubborn arteta doesn’t trust nwaneri and the other youngstars still
( a stupid decision that has cost us in the past and lately at sunderland)
Dont know mate
There is a spine of players they have with experience
Just as we have Dan, after finishing second three years running.
I think he means title-winning experience Ken
I guessed that Benjamin, but finishing second three seasons on the trot, also gains experience… and…the drive to go one better wouldn’t you say?
Fairs
I’m personally less worried about city hitting form than Liverpool (so yesterday’s result was pretty good imo) – I think city are in transition and will likely have plenty of ups and downs, whereas I think Liverpool could be a real problem if they could get their new players to click. They still have a “spine” of proven players which can lead to consistency throughout a season, whereas city’s spine is not quite set imo (haaland aside).
Could be wrong, and city obviously are a threat due to having quality players and a great manager – and we still have it all to prove ourselves.
Liverpool have already dropped so many points already that it’s hard to see them being a genuine contender anymore. Of course, things could change dramatically, but I wouldn’t be betting a penny on them.
For me when reading our first 6 games, I wanted to see how many points we would get. We picked up 13 points from a possible 18, a really good start.
Now our next batch of 6 ends with a trip to Spurs, and currently we have 13 points from our last 5 games, so we will either better or equal our first 6 games.
26, 27, or 29 points from our first 12 games represents a very good start.
So as you may have gathered, I’m taking it 6 games at a time. Now for me although this represents a very positive start for the team, their character has been open to question when it really mattered in the last 3 seasons.
And with Manchester City now looking like the City we’ve been used to over the years, our character is going to be tested to the full.
Now the question that remains to be answered is having got the squad that he want’s, is Arteta and the team going to show the character needed to finally get across that winning line. Here’s hoping🤞
One advantage city has ,is they have a world class manager ,we don’t ,just hope our billion pound squad can carry us through .
They have a manager who tries to score, to win games. Not a manager who tries to stop the opposition from scoring to win games.
They didn’t try that at our place earlier this season.
Doku and Haaland are a handful but in Timber and Saliba we have defenders who can nullify them. In any event, virtually every side in the EPL is capable of causing an upset and i suspect Arsenal and Man City will both suffer setbacks in what is a marathon not a sprint.In a head to head contest i am confident this Arsenal side are capable of overcoming a City team which still has defensive problems which we can exploit.As for the experience and influence of Pep, he has been a disciple of the possession game originated by Barcelona decades ago, and as far as i am aware he has rarely, if ever , changed his tactical approach.In essence he is not some kind of uniquely intelligent super human being but a man who has a great ability to get the best out of his players by his own unending capacity for sheer hard work.He sets an example which is admired by his players and his fellow Managers but at the end of the day once the first whistle blows his influence becomes limited and he becomes dependant on his players to bring home the bacon.I may be wrong, but i do not believe the City side is near the levels of yesteryear and i am sure that Arteta and, more importantly the Arsenal players do not have any sense of inferiority when they meet City, nor for that matter any other side in Europe.
Next year ..next month .. here we are. No clue of the anticipated verdict. The elephant in the room. Who fear City need to start talking about the charges. Is it happening this or next season?
This Sunderland game is 1 we really needed to win, it’s the kind of very tough game that champions need to be grinding out! Look at our next few fixtures!
Now a draw was not a bad result but some fans don’t seem to grasp that this is where pressure builds, and historically our manager and team always cracks under this kind of pressure.
With Spuds, Bayern, Chelsea, Brentford, Villa up next we’ll likely have an idea if this team is really what MA claims it to be by December
Its not a concern but it should serve as a wake up call.
We have Havertz, Ödegaard, Madueke, Gyökeres and Martinelli returning after the break. Jesus is not far behind.
We cannot let our squad be ravaged by injuries like this. ALL 3 STRIKERS INJURED. That is unacceptable and measures has to be taken because there won’t be any breaks until middle of January. And that means 10-12 PL matches and all the cup matches.
I also fear Livepool more than City…somehow I feel City have vulnerabilities too and will also stumble at some point …the City that went on a tear a few years ago is not the one that is there now…City have gotten weaker than previous seasons and Arsenal have gotten stronger..that’s ofcourse not to imply that we should be complacent….but we are in a much better place and can handle crises better…we can’t realistically win them all but as much as City are putting pressure on us…the opposite is true if we just keep winning our games…Decmember and January will be key indicators of how well both teams will cope with pressure…sqaud rotation and injuries to key personnel will be a true test of mettle
City also have Doku and Haarland. Probably the best in form forward players at the moment.
Certainly worry me.
Meanwhile Arsenal don’t have a forward that can be said to be in top form except maybe Trossard and yet we are top of the league. What happens when our guys also get in form?
We’ve seen potentially their best in an attacking sense. Whereas I don’t think we’ve seen even close to what our attack is capable of,partly due to injuries.
And also Donaruma at the back. Since the arrival of the Italian their defense has become more compact.
For me it’s simple, if our squad cannot handle the pressure of competing with City then they are not ready for the Premier League title.
I believe they are better equipped to deal with the pressure having been there twice in the last three seasons.
In opinion,we have the better squad and more tactical strings to our bow compared to City. Hopefully that will give us an edge.
I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Certain details need to be considered. In almost every season that MC have been champions they have had one of the least injury hit squads in the PL.
There are quite a few squads with similar size this season. However, not all of them will have all their key players available.
MC will struggle just as much as many other teams if certain key players are out with injury. If both teams have their key players available for most of the season it will likely be very competitive between the two throughout the season.
How big a concern are The Arsenal to Manchester City115 title hopes?!
I believe the key deciding factor in the end will be the mentality of both managers. As for the squads, both clubs have the right players to win the league. Let’s see if Arteta finally gets over the line.
100% correct.
One dimensional thinking again from Mr “Liverpool find a way”.
What happened to Pep’s mentality last season?
David,
You really are priceless, questioning Guardiola’s mentality on failing to win the league last season.
Ignoring his countless successes. As I say priceless. 😂
No, I am really questioning the premise. The poster claims that the difference will be “mentality”. Pep’s team didn’t win any titles last season and finished behind Arsenal whereas in the previous season they won multiple titles.
Did Pep’s “mentality” suddenly change last season?
David,
No his mentality didn’t change last season. City were simply not good enough over the season.
But Guardiola is a proven winner in multiple seasons, something our manager has yet to prove.
Did Guardiola make errors last season Derek? Because if the team weren’t good enough that could be construed to be a weakness in his management
Derek, he mentioned “last season.”
He hasn’t mentioned or denied Pep’s successes, simply asking what went wrong last season.
Priceless indeed 🤔
Haaland.
Doku. Foden. Cherki.
Reijnders. Rodri.
O’Reilly. Gvardiol. Dias. Nunes.
Donnarumma.
Marmoush.
Oscar. Bernado. Savinho.
Kovacic. Gonzalez.
Nouri. Ake. Stones. Khusanov.
Trafford.
Gyokeres.
Eze. Odegaard. Saka.
Rice. Zubimendi.
Calafiori. Gabriel. Saliba. Timber.
Raya.
Havertz.
Trossard. Martinelli. Madueke.
Merino. Norgaard.
Skelly. Hincapie. Mosquera. White.
Kepa.
City havent really had any injuries compared to us … if they lost Haalan for any length of time I think that could affect them whereas I think we are above where we should be based on the number we have had esp to forward players
Sunderland I think was a blip as they are bang in form and also used their long throws well and no teams have really found a way to defend those well
They were also very disciplined and only let us have 2 corners
So lets give credit where its due to Sunderland
After last International break compared to now we are further ahead of the rest
So lets take it eg 6 games at a time as someone mentioned above …
We also have to play City again and lets see if we can get a result there (a draw could also be a good result depending on how the league is shaping up)
We have also played 6 away games at tough teams / City only played 5 and lower teams..
Looking at all the usual challengers so far, this season is Arsenal’s title to lose. And Arteta probably will like he did three seasons ago.
It is in his DNA. I would love to be proven wrong come May but I am not holding my breath.
Poet and playwright, William Shakespeare, said, “Cowards die many times before their death; The valiant never taste of death but once!” So what is the issue with our draw? Did you imagine we would win 38 games? Is that possible? If not, when did you expect us to draw? Where was Chelsea when Arsenal was accumulating 26 points against their 22? Did they have injuries while we had a fully fit squad? Does anyone still remember 23/24 season when we took Man City to the last game despite our thin squad and some injuries? Why should we think that now with our squad we can’t outwit them? I am greatly flabbergasted and disappointed by some of our fickle fans!
Instead of Chelsea it should be Man city.
David Rusa,
Spot on! Thanks mate. There sure are bumps in the road and those hiccup help us know who is who.
Our Team/Squad is the best in the league, we have the machine. We just need the driver, who drives it to prove he can do it. If he can’t Whats the point? City beat an out of sorts and out of shape Liverpool. Its made our job easier concentrating on City, who have a small squad and are 4 points adrift. Its there for the taking.
Reggie, they have the same size squad as us, 25. They have 2 players under the age of 21, while we have 3 players under the age of 21.
Of course they have. However, that doesn’t fit the narrative of some muppets, does it? The fact some are now even lying just to denigrate the team is quite something.
😂
David,
There you go again with you’re juvenile name calling. 🤦♂️
Here are some quite straightforward questions:
Do CIty have a bigger squad than Arsenal?
Would you say a title race should be over just because a team is 4 points ahead in November?
David,
No Arsenal and City have the same size squad, who’s is better is open to debate.
No the title race is not over with us having a 4 point lead. Remember back in the season 2022/2023 we had an 8 point lead with less of the season to go. And we all see what happened there didn’t we.
@Reggie
RealTalk. It’s all up to us. I don’t care who’s behind us. Let them work that out amongst themselves.
I note that, once again, HH and Reggie are preparing the fallout if MA doesn’t win the PL this season and the “I told you so” message is already written and raring to go!!
City have a small squad, while pool are out of sorts and shape, along with all our challengers not being good enough.
Hopefully all our seven injured players will be fit after the international break and we carry on our unbeaten runs in both the PL (after our defeat at Anfield with their set piece wonder goal) and CL.
Neil, at 3.47 pm made some excellent observations and it’s definitely so far so good in both competitions, plus, of course, our quarter final game against Palace in the Carabo cup.
My glass is three quarters full and I’m brimming with confidence – the only thing to stop us is said injuries and (Neil’s point regarding Haaland) I wonder how city115 and pool would cope with seven players out?
Ken, I’ve checked it and City have the same size squad as us, 25.
Now there’s a thing HD!! 😂😂
I wonder how many long term injuries they have?
They have 3 players out injured Ken, we have 6.
I hope you’re not resorting to excuses Ken1945? 😊.
It’s slightly demoralising to read the fallout from a draw against a team currently in the top4 at their ground.
SueP and HD, I do think there’s a section within JA who have not moved on from Arteta’s first two and a half seasons.
I was one of his most critical observers during that time, along with Durand and many others.
But it is nonsensical to deny that he’s brought this club to a level that has seen us challenging, not only for the PL three times in a row, but also reaching the semi final of the CL.
All of this, while, in the last two seasons (and this current one) coping with a run of injuries that stretched the squad to it’s limits.
Of course, Mikel has had tremendous support from our owner Mr Kronkie – a owner some fans want to get rid off!!
But isn’t that what club owners do?
Look how city115, chelsea and pool owners have done the same thing and yet it’s used as a tool to attack Arteta!!
He needs to win a trophy in order to get these fans off his back, but also because five years with his players needs to see a return for Mr Kronkie and us the fans who support him.
Ken, I would say that only winning the PL AND the CL would make them change their stance on the manager.
I backed the manager from the very beginning, like I have whenever we’ve had a new. He had a massive job to do when he took over and its taken time to get us back challenging for the big trophies, but we have been there doing it for the last few years.
As for Silent Stan, I was against him from taking control of The Arsenal, but I’ve changed my view since his son Josh has come into run the business. I don’t think there has been any previous board member that has put any of their own money into the club since i became a supporter.
Hopefully this season we can lift some silverware.
👍
Do we really need a “I told you so” Ken when we have been proven right five seasons in a row?
Personally I said before the season started I won’t be going with the weekly highs and lows and will be waiting to be proven wrong by Arteta in his 6th try in May.
So let’s wait and see…. meanwhile why not support the manager and his players HH?
HH, were you saying the same thing from 2005 to 2014 ?
Asking for a friend…
Why do we seem to have higher percentage and more serious injuries I wonder
Anyone?
We must be cursed, the women now have 3 players out for the rest of the season with ACL injury’s.
Zinsberger, Agyemang, and the most recent one is Reid.
David,
There you go again with you’re juvenile name calling. 🤦♂️
DEREK, I’ve looked back through all of the comments and cannot find one instance of David name-calling. I do recognize the “hate David” campaign taking place here, but is it necessary to make stuff up?
Jax
Well said. The worst I’ve read from David is muppet. I’ve been called vile which is considerably worse than muppet.
I’ve also been accused of being in a small gang but the reality is that like minded individuals will stick together. Hence I usually agree with certain posters rather than others and so do those who frequently call out David
The trick is to recognise this as a typical human behaviour and often perpetrators don’t
Hi Sue. I find David’s posts often quite interesting, always with excellent grammar and correct spelling. Can that be said of some of his critics?
Jax,
I’m not just talking about the post’s on this page, in the past he’s used phrases like, Numbskulls, Brainless. And some others that escape me.
I’m sure other poster’s on here have noticed it to, whether they’ll give other examples I couldn’t tell you.
And as for you’re little dig at some poster’s who spell words incorrectly on occasion in your post to SueP.
Have you and SueP not done this yourself, I think you have. As we all have, so from that point of view those in glass house’s and all that.
And just to add to the spelling comment, I get the impression that quite a lot of the spelling mistakes come’s from some of our foreign fellow poster’s, which is sometimes lost in translation.
DEREK, David may (or may not) have previously directly insulted others by using those names, but you can’t keep this up indefinitely, surely It’s trolling.
I have the Grammarly app, which usually corrects the spelling and grammar on all my online input.
…it’s trolling. Grammarly missed that🤣
Jax,
It’s not trolling at all. And I think it fare to call out David when he gets personal, while I don’t agree with every thing he says. I believe I’ve never got personal with him, and If I have I apologize. But I don’t believe I have.
And lets face it, when you start getting personal, it’s a sign you’re loosing the argument in some cases.
So nobody minded too much when I was called vile Derek. And in fairness to David, he only started to use more questionable language after constantly being badgered about his stance on Arteta.
SueP,
Of course it’s not alright to call you or anyone vile. That’s my point regarding David, while I don’t agree with some of his views I never get personal.
Unfortunately David throws these cheap little digs about, and for me you start losing some of the argument when you resort to doing this.
And for the record, I’m sorry that you’ve been called vile. Anyone who calls you or anyone else vile are the vile ones at the end of the day. 👍
Injury have really stuffed us up again this season, because we don’t really know what this team is capable of at close to full strength. As it is we are doing well to be sitting where we are, however my main concern is that besides set pieces we are overlying on the likes of Saka, Trossard and Martinelli to score one off super goals to get us over the line. Once Odegaard returns it’s up to Arteta and his team to tweek the game plan and come up with a more creative approach which creates better chances for our strikers. And yes, Manchester City are a concern, but they can also be poor as we saw in their game against Spurs. They will drop points because they have weaknesses as well.
Well said Joe.During a 25 minute period in the second half i thought Trossard and Zubimendi were excellent and managed to create openings despite being faced with a 10 man defence.In fact until Odegaard is fit to return i would be inclined to play Trossard as our number 10, particularly as Eze has not been too effective in that role which is not surprising given that he was used on the left wing by Palace last season.
Agree grandad. Arteta has to trust his players more. Clearly, Eze at no 10i has not been working working , while Zubamendi looks much better when working outside the opposition penalty area rather than in and around his own. Perhaps, temporarily, a positional swap with Rice might be appropriate.