Pep Guardiola said that winning the Premier League this season wouldn’t be the greatest achievement of his managerial career but, if things play out how they seem destined to, there would be every reason to believe that it is certainly up there.
Against an Arsenal side that not a long while ago were sitting nine points clear at the top of the table, Guardiola’s troupe needed a victory to keep hopes of a seventh triumph in nine seasons alive and looked on their way when Rayan Cherki opened the scoring after 16 minutes, for which the majority were dominated by City.
For all the hosts’ superiority at that point, Gianluigi Donnarumma made a silly mistake which effectively gifted Kai Havertz a goal less than two minutes later, but City weren’t done.
After 65 long, sweat-bearing minutes, Erling Haaland converted his 47th goal for club and country this season to pull City just three points behind Arsenal, with Burnley, who are relegation-bound, their game in hand to play on Wednesday.
Here, the mind games had begun way before kick-off outside the Etihad Stadium, where vendors were selling water bottles with the Arsenal badge plastered across them – referencing the club’s inability to maintain a strong stance in the Premier League in previous seasons.
On the pitch, City started out with a couple of openings inside the first four minutes where Haaland nearly pounced on a short-sighted pass by Gabriel Magalhães to David Raya, while Cherki bobbled an attempt onto the pot from a tight angle.
There were warning signs for Arsenal in the first 15 minutes despite Cristhian Mosquera and Havertz flirting with an opener but it was City who took the lead.
Cherki has become a pivotal character for the Citizens in the second half of this campaign and after tormenting Arsenal supporters in the Carabao Cup Final win just under a month ago, he returned to his swaggering ways.
On the back of a pass by Matheus Nunes on the edge of the area, Cherki spun, skipped past Declan Rice and Gabriel before sweeping a beautiful finish through William Saliba and beyond David Raya, into the bottom left corner.
For about 100 seconds, City reduced the gap from the top of the Premier League table to three points with a game in hand. But a freakish moment where Kai Havertz chased Donnarumma down and lunged ahead of his attempted clearance equalled the scoreline which shot into the roof of the net. The Etihad, for what was so celebratory and spirited, was silenced.
Securing a first Premier League win at this ground since 2015, when they were under Arsene Wenger, was all Arsenal needed to put one hand on the title, which would be their first since 2003, but the chances became harder to come by as the first half went on.
On 27 minutes, Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku all linked up in a slick passage which set Haaland up on the edge of the penalty area but the Norwegian’s strike was utterly underwhelming.
Then Guehi and Antoine Semenyo had a chance each; a header claimed by Raya and a low and powerful effort blocked by Piero Hincapie at the near post respectively. Arsenal escaped as the sides entered the interval level.
City’s dominance continued into the second period and not long after the restart Gabriel was once again called into action to prevent Khusanov from lashing a loose ball into the net from a messy corner.
Doku soon had a shot in the 52nd minute but Raya was there to collect before momentum shifted into Arsenal’s favour; Eberechi Eze struck the post after Havertz nearly found the net just 60 seconds prior, forcing Donnarumma into a game-saving save.
There was every reason to believe that the Gunners would take advantage of such a shift in threat, but legs got tired and so did the minds of those in red on the pitch. While that was happening, O’Reilly broke in a fast attack which led to Doku returning a pass to the wonderkid.
O’Reilly’s contributions this season have skyrocketed but his cross here, which was dispatched by Haaland into the bottom corner, may well be the most important.
Gabriel tried to prevent Haaland after pulling on his shirt and even pushing his head towards the Norway international’s when tempers flared shortly before full time, but the Arsenal defender had no chance in the 65th minute.
Here’s how we rated the Manchester City players from their incredible victory over Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium!
A terrible mistake during a poor half regarding his output but didn’t have much to do on a saving front until the second half where he denied Havertz heroically. That save changed the shape of the game, really.