One of the words I like that Mikel Arteta keeps using is humble.
Quite frankly some Gooners haven’t been humble over having a 5 point lead at the top of table, refusing to acknowledge that we are only half way through the season with a lot of football still to be played.
I read this week that Man City are unlikely to put together the winning sequence needed to close such a gap, even though that’s what the Champions have experience of doing.
We still have to face City twice, a League fixture we haven’t won in years.
You can also be humble in defeat as well.
Unfortunately, some of my peers gave a predictable reaction to our 1-0 defeat.
‘Glad to be out of the Cup’, ‘one less distraction’, ‘extra rest‘, etc.
We got a whole week to prepare for our trip to Everton, so how losing at the Etihad improves our title hopes I don’t know?
There’s zero evidence that a cup run cost you the championship, hence why Pep Guardiola often adds a domestic cup to any Premiership triumph .
There is only one way Friday might benefit us long term and that is if any of our players were in danger of taking Man City lightly, thinking they have one hand on the title, this tie showed there is very much still life in the Champions and that there is still hard work to do.
If anything our cup exit highlighted why if you were betting with your life, Man City should still be considered favourites in the run in.
Don’t get me wrong, we were not humiliated like we usually are on our visits to Manchester.
City had another couple of gears but in a way that is just as scary.
Man City won 1-0, restricted us to one shot in the second half (off target). We at times struggled to retrieve possession and yet this wasn’t even City at their best.
Yes some Gunners will hide behind that we rotated but so did our opponents.
I saw laughable comparisons this week with our current squad and the Invincibles. City just beat the League leaders without Ederson, Diaz, Cancelo, Foden, Silva or LaPorte starting.
Most telling was once they scored; our opponents experience really was in evidence.
A late push to siege at City’s goal never came because we couldn’t get the ball back.
Where our pressure over Man United was so relentless they essentially buckled due to the intensity of pressure, we couldn’t do that without the ball.
With zero need to chase another goal, City expertly played down the clock with ease.
Normally when 4 mins of added time goes up, you say that’s enough time for the team chasing a goal to make a chance.
We couldn’t even go direct with City simply passing the ball around in comfort as they saw out the game.
Dan Smith
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