It is one thing to be overtaken but quite another to wave people through, inviting them to speed away over the horizon. Again. For the second time in five days, Arsenal’s lack of leadership from within the team and from the bench, their absence of fighting qualities, left them trailing, their title hopes failing and their supporters railing. Again.
Familiarity with a sorry scenario simply deepened fans’ resentment. This is a film they have seen before, season after season, ever since the credits rolled on the Invincibles era. After the capitulation at Goodison Park on Tuesday, this collapse at the Etihad Stadium provided further evidence that Arsenal’s manager, Arsène Wenger, has been overtaken by more responsive coaches.
Wenger simply could not deal with Pep Guardiola’s tactical changes in the second half, not just the introduction of Bacary Sagna for Pablo Zabaleta who was struggling against Alex Iwobi, but the City head coach’s galvanising rearrangement of his attack. Raheem Sterling went right, Leroy Sané left, Kevin De Bruyne central and their firefly movement was too much for Arsenal’s defence.
Guardiola was a chess grandmaster too many moves ahead of Wenger, who brought on Mohamed Elneny far too late to protect his defence. City had long seized control of midfield with Yaya Touré immense and Fernando a hustling, ball-winning force, an exceptional understudy for the suspended Fernandinho. Along with his words at half-time, Guardiola improved City’s tempo as well as their tactics. He particularly improved Nicolás Otamendi, who looked a commanding defender after the break.
Any doubts about Guardiola’s capacity to cope with the sturm and drang of English domestic football, ludicrously overstated doubts anyway, were swept away as City poured forward, as the elegant David Silva schemed, as De Bruyne delivered one of the passes of the season and Sané and Sterling took their chances, making Theo Walcott’s opener fade in City’s rear-view mirror.
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There were some surreal sights, including penguins playing football in an enclosure outside, City players emerging wearing No 8 Ilkay Gundogan shirts in tribute to their injured midfielder and the usually surefooted Guardiola slipping over, but there was also some hardy footballing perennials, such as Wenger complaining about the refereeing.
Wenger bemoaned the officials’ shaky grasp of offside, certainly with Sané’s goal, but City were vastly superior in the second half and were deserved winners. Where Touré, Sterling, De Bruyne and others rose to the challenge, Mesut Özil faded. Petr Cech and Laurent Koscielny are leaders, Alexis Sánchez gives everything, but too many of their team-mates such as Özil went missing.
Even Sánchez looked exhausted and Lucas Pérez certainly merited involvement from the bench. Sánchez needs an occasional breather. He took a knock to his ankle but poured water on it and, typically stoically, managed to run the problem off. But at the end, Sánchez sat on his haunches and glanced around at the devastation; Arsenal’s most important player, in that delicate contract renegotiation dance with his employers, needs more class — and character — around him.
He still played a key part in Arsenal’s goal after five minutes. Cech delivered the ball to Héctor Bellerín, who embarked upfield completely unchecked by De Bruyne and Gaël Clichy. Advancing into space, Bellerín clipped the ball low and hard towards Sánchez, who had stepped back from his front-running role into the hole. The Chilean’s control was instant. He shifted slightly to the right, dragging City’s attention across, took two more touches before striking a reverse pass between Otamendi and Zabaleta. Otamendi was all over the place. Walcott took the ball in his stride, ignored the sliding Zabaleta, and then angled it past Claudio Bravo for his 11th goal in 24 games this season.
Arsenal played with real discipline for a while, but were dropping too deep, inviting City on. Sterling headed wide from a De Bruyne cross. Arsenal, looking to counterattack, could have added a second but Granit Xhaka headed wide a good cross from Nacho Monreal. The visiting team strode out early for the second half but it was City who were swiftest into their stride. Within two minutes they were level. Silva and Sterling exchanged passes and the Spaniard lifted the ball through the middle for Sané to run on to. His right foot was offside, but the officials did not notice, and the move occurred almost too quick for the human eye to detect. Sané, moving at speed, managed to twist his body to collect the ball and roll it past Cech.
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Arsenal slumped, City soared. Touré was far more involved in midfield, dominating Xhaka. Silva was scheming and creating. De Bruyne’s intelligence shone through. He guided one fine pass through to Sané but Cech saved. Arsenal’s defence was creaking. The cameras rested briefly on the distinguished figures of David O’Leary and Pat Rice, legendary Arsenal defenders of yesteryear. As at Goodison, Arsenal missed Shkodran Mustafi.
Wenger tried to set City a test, sending on Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Iwobi. The momentum remained with City and Cech did well to push away a deflected shot from De Bruyne after 69 minutes. Two minutes later City were ahead from a sumptuous move. De Bruyne reacted to Clichy’s throw-in by propelling the ball 50 yards cross-field to Sterling.
The England player’s pace, balance, control and ambition did the rest. Sterling ran at Monreal, cut inside and shot low with his left foot. The ball flew between Monreal’s legs, past Koscielny who was arriving too late, and past Cech. Silva was close by, lurking in an offside position, but hardly active as Cech did not seem distracted. Arsenal’s goalkeeper was beaten by the speed of Sterling’s strike, not the proximity of Silva.
Wenger tried to give Arsenal a focus. He withdrew the ineffectual Francis Coquelin for Olivier Giroud but then had to replace the hobbling Oxlade-Chamberlain with Elneny. Guardiola remained in control. His team will need that belief when they play away to Liverpool on New Year’s Eve but they will have Sergio Agüero and Fernandinho back.
For Arsenal, it needs noting that they could go on a spree over the next few weeks, facing West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace at home, Bournemouth and Swansea City away, Burnley and Watford at home before they play at Stamford Bridge on February 4. Yet given Chelsea’s form, the pace-setters could still be nine points clear of them. These five days have cost Arsenal dear.
