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The Gunners fell 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, falling in their second loss of the Premier League season.
When Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola face off, you always have the feeling that the two great friends have spent hours preparing for the game trying to figure out how to outdo each other.
The pair were joined at the hip for three years, while Arteta was Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City and each knows exactly how the other’s mind works.
So maybe it wasn’t a surprise to see Arteta try something new at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, but from the moment he saw Willian operating as a false nine, he felt like the Arsenal manager had tried to be too smart. .
The tactic would have been something the team had worked on extensively during the week at London Colney and, as is always the case with Arteta, there would have been a lot of science behind the experiment.
But it just didn’t work out when the plan was put into action, with the Brazilian struggling to make some kind of impact when Arsenal fell in a 1-0 loss. Raheem Sterling’s goal in the first half was decisive for the hosts.
Willian, who has struggled to make his mark at his new club since his impressive debut at Fulham on the first weekend of the new season, was unable to get into the game at all and was comfortably sacked by the impressive Ruben Dias before finally finally be replaced by Alexandre Lacazette with 21 minutes remaining.
“I thought it was a game for him, the way City play, the way they attract rivals and the spaces that can be exploited,” said Arteta, when asked about his decision to lead the line with him. Brazilian.
“He was also really convinced. Obviously it was difficult to leave two forwards on the bench, but it was a tactical decision.”
“[It worked] in some moments better than in others. I think he will grow and understand that position better as we use him on other occasions, perhaps also surrounded by different players. But I’m happy with the game he had. “
This felt like an opportunity for Arsenal to try against a Manchester City team that did not have Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte and have started the season in somewhat tentative style.
But, as the road has been for some time out of North London against the ‘Big Six’ in the Premier League, the Gunners fell short.
There were still some positives to the performance, especially in the first half when Ederson was forced to make three good saves, but it has been 29 games since Arsenal went home to one of their top six rivals and won.
And if Arteta’s improving team wants to challenge for a place in the Champions League this season, that’s a streak that will have to come to an end sooner rather than later.
When the starting eleven was announced, and Lacazette was on the bench, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was supposed to start as a center forward in Arteta’s 3-4-3 formation for the first time this season.
But once the game started, it soon became clear that Aubameyang was back on the left, with Willian taking center stage and Nicolas Pepe on the right.
It was a system that certainly allowed Arsenal to enter the game and, before Sterling’s goal in the 23rd minute, the visitors had frustrated their hosts and would have been happy with the way they had settled down.
But Riyad Mahrez’s excellent pass to Sergio Agüero suddenly gave City a chance to attack with numbers and when Héctor Bellerin allowed Phil Foden to cut inside, the danger signs were there for all to see.
Bernd Leno kept Foden’s shot out but could only deflect it into the danger area and Sterling was on hand to score his now-usual goal against Arsenal.
From that moment on, Arteta’s side was always chasing the game. They had a chance to get back in shape before the break with the excellent Bukayo Saka and Aubameyang both being turned down by Ederson.
But after the break it never seemed like they got a draw. It was all a bit too passive on the part of the visitors at a time when you felt like City could have been there to take it.
Even when Lacazette replaced the ineffective Willian, he played a deeper role rather than sitting right on Dias’s shoulder and trying to push back the City defense. It was just another example of Arteta’s side, perhaps respecting her hosts too much.
There were no late charges for the tie, no bombing of the City defense. In the end, Guardiola’s team watched the game in relative comfort and that will have been a disappointment for Arteta.
However, there were positives to the defeat of an Arsenal team that is clearly much more competitive now than when Arteta picked up the pieces left by Unai Emery less than a year ago.
Saka was impressive, Gabriel was exceptional once again on defense and Thomas Partey was called up for the final stages to debut.
The Ghana international will soon be a regular in the starting eleven and his presence is likely to see Arteta switch to a more offensive formation with four defenders.
That should make Arsenal more of a threat in an attacking sense as things unfold in the coming months and it’s doubtful, given what we saw at the Etihad, that we’ll ever see the fake Willian experiment nine again.
