[ad_1]
Arsenal manager and former Guardiola assistant Mikel Arteta should have known better than anyone that the townspeople knew how to control the ball for the sake of control, creating the illusion of their advantage, a dominant position, but without possessing such an advantage. unconditional. In other words, “Man City” outperformed “Arsenal” in every way except creating real scoring opportunities, yet the owners could afford that game. A quick goal helped.
From the first minutes, the ‘Gunners’ showed that they had chosen a very careful strategy for the confrontation, the whole team defended themselves and rarely counterattacked. The “citizens” are not in the best shape now, but they tried to hide all their weaknesses behind false aggressiveness. In fact, Guardiola’s charges managed to perepasovyvatsya for a long time in front of the Leno penalty, make hidden attacks and return, in rare cases, these combinations ended with punches.
It turned out to create two chances for the hosts: Marez and Agüero didn’t score, and then they were lucky enough to open an account for City. After Agüero (obviously hungry for soccer after his injury healed) dispersed the attack, Marez hit the goalkeeper and Leno hit the ball in front of him. At that moment, Sterling found himself, having finished off a projectile in the net.
In the second half of the first half, Arsenal tried to level the game, but attacked the Gunners with little strength. Saka had a great chance to score, the forward came face to face in front of the goalkeeper and lost the duel to Ederson. Before the break, it was about the only chance for guests to score. They let the hosts bend their line and smoke in their eyes, and Guardiola’s tactical trick worked.
“Man City” did not swell as often in the second half, fatigue and form problems affected, of course, missing many injured players. The coach made only two changes to the game. Right away, we noticed that Nathan Aka acted in the left-back position, which, it seems, will finally get Zinchenko off the base, with all due respect to Alexander, but the Dutch player looked great, and this is only his fourth game. for ‘citizens’.
Arsenal regained consciousness closer to the 70th minute, when there was nothing left to lose, while it was difficult to undermine the opponent’s defense. Aubameyang took over the game several times and climbed, Pepe scored a few hits, nothing more. We went to replace Nketia and Lacazette, who hardly strengthen Arsenal. The impression was that the “Gunners” themselves did not believe in their strengths and the Mancunians were happy about it.
As a result, the second victory of “City” in the Premier League, which slightly corrected the position of the vice-champion in the standings. This is Arsenal’s second defeat (after losing the game to Liverpool), but Arteta’s three victories remain in the group of leaders. However, all the most interesting is yet to come. While this is only the beginning and the first tentative results, only in October can we expect the teams to get in shape and show more meaningful and interesting matches.
Nuclear submarine. Fifth round
Stadium: Etihad Stadium (Manchester)
Head Judge: Chris Kavanagh (Lancashire)
Manchester City 1: 0 Arsenal London
Goals: Sterling 23
Arsenal: 1. Leno, 2. Bellerin, 3. Tierney, 16. Holding, 6. Gabriel, 7. Saka, 8. Sebalos, 34. Jaka (Thomas 83), 12. Willian (Lacazette 69), 14. Obameyang, 19 Pepe (Nketia 83).
City of Manchester: 31. Ederson, 2. Walker, 3. Diaz, 6. Ake, 27. Cancello, 7. Sterling, 16. Rodri, 20. Silva, 47. Foden (Fernandinho 89), 10. Agüero (Gundogan 65), 26. Marez.
Warnings: Rodri 14, Cancello 63, Diaz 68, Ake 84 – Thomas 90 + 3
