11 months ago, City embarrassed Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium, defeating them 4-1 on their way to winning the triple. However, in last Sunday’s game, Arsenal delivered an entirely different performance, demonstrating that they are not ‘title pretenders’ as some labelled them last season.
At the Etihad Stadium, our Gunners demonstrated their growth over the last year and their determination to make this their redemption season.
When Arsenal spent £105 million for Declan Rice last summer, many were unsure how significant the deal would be. However, it has proven to be a transfer masterstroke. Declan Rice being an all-round midfielder has impacted this Arsenal team. He’s block-solid in midfield when playing as a number 6, and he’s also brilliant when permitted to wander forward and help in attack. As a result, it’s not surprising that the Gunners have yet to lose against City in a game Rice has played.
They clearly played as a team on Sunday, and they were solid defensively, with City only having one shot on target over 90 minutes.
Most of the teams that play City at the Etihad approach the game with similar tactics, playing defensively, but Arsenal demonstrated that they can attack as well as defend, as they had the intensity to march toe to toe with Guardiola’s boys, and they also threatened the Cityzens (later on, Trossard had a great chance to score the game-winning goal on the counter, but he squandered it).
Until Sunday’s 0-0 tie, Manchester City had scored in 57 straight home games. Well, Arsenal broke their record to demonstrate how powerful they are becoming and why many believe their defence is now the strongest.
In case you’re wondering, the last time City failed to score at the Etihad was against Crystal Palace in October 2021, when Arsenal were still hopeless.
Bottom line versus City: Arsenal had some chances that, if converted, would have earned them the three points.
Gabriel Jesus fired barely wide in the first half, and Trossard (as noted above) nearly put Arsenal ahead in the second half with a shot that the City goalie saved.
Arsenal will be okay with a point, with the game showing the Cityzens that we can compete head-to-head with any team in the world.
Arteta’s team lacked character at this stage last season, and they ‘bottled’ the league and handed it to City. This time around, with nine games remaining, can we trust them to stay to the end? We can, can’t we?
Sam P
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Yes we can trust our team to get us over the line and win the PL and am willing them to with every fibre of my being. Come on Arsenal! 💪 ♥️🤍
I disagree with you on the last sentence “we bottled it”
We were nieve, inexperienced and game plan was totally wrong in certain games on how we set our selves up at the end of last season.
This season we can see the team has grown and look a different beast compared to last season
We didnt need win but couldn’t lose and if we go on to win all the remaining games the worst we can do is finish 2nd.
Still a long way to go and still a lot of twists and turns to come in the final 9 games but deep down that result on Sunday will give us an inner belief that we can march on to glory.
What we can’t afford is to have done all the hard work Sunday against the champions and not taking the advantage of going top tonight
Onwards and upwards my fellow gooners. We march on to success
Trossard did very bad with the chance that he had!.