Key events
Half-time reading
Half time: Arsenal 0-1 Man City
City lead at the Emirates through a mighty goal from Erling Haaland. Arsenal have had more shots, all five corners and nearly 70 per cent of the possession – but they haven’t really looked like scoring against an unshamedly defensive City. And with that, I’m off to explore the concept of cognitive dissonance.
45+5 min Bernardo Silva, who has been booked, flicked a dead ball towards Trossard, who threw it back with greater force – but still not that much – and hit Bernardo in the oohmatrons. The referee Stuart Attwell keeps his cards in his pocket.
45+4 min Bernardo Silva is on the floor after an incident with Trossard, who was sent off at this stage of the 2-2 draw last year. It’s not clear what happened this time but players on both sides are having words.
45+1 min Merino plays a short pass to Madueke on the right side of the area. He shifts the ball to the side of O’Reilly and whacks an early shot that Donnarumma beats away at the near post. Good save because there was an element of surprise to the shot.
45 min Four minutes of added time.
44 min Madueke finds himself one v one with O’Reilly, who stays on his feet and makes a good tackle. Arsenal come again through Madueke, who sits O’Reilly down this time and clips a cross that is punched away by Donnarumma. Calafiori, lurking in roughly the same position from which he scored on debut against City a year ago, volleys the rebound over.
41 min Zubimendi gets to the byline on the left and strains to stand up a useful cross. Gvardiol wins the header, Madueke collects the loose ball and then Doku poke it over his own bar for a corner.
Rice swings it deep, Donnarumma makes a complete mess of his punch but gets away with it when Saliba heads the loose ball wide under pressure. Tough chance.
Donnarumma takes an age over the goalkick and Mikel Arteta is raging on the touchline. This isn’t a criticism of him, because all managers/human beings do it, but I’d love to know how he rationalises a distinction between Donnarumma’s approach and Arsenal’s consistent timewasting in the last few years.
40 min There’s a bit of dissent among the home fans, some of whom regard Arsenal’s approach as excessively cautious. In some respects it’s been a confusing half because Arsenal have had around 65 per cent of the possession.
38 min Doku, who has been quiet so far, leads a three-on-three break from a long punt forward. He shuffles past a couple of defenders, then goes down a blind alley and plays the ball back to Rodri. His first-time shot from 25 yards flies into outer space.
37 min Possession in the last 10 minutes:
EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS WRONG.
36 min Bernardo Silva is booked for a grautiously late tackle on Gabriel.
34 min Martin Odegaard hasn’t always been at his best in the last 15 months or so but Arsenal are missing his urgency and imaginative passing. There’s a long way to go – Arsenal scored four in the last 35 minutes of this fixture last season – but right now City are comfortable.
32 min Calafiori’s long throw is half cleared to Rice, whose follow-up cross is headed back across goal by Madueke. Donnarumma collects.
When the original throw came in, Gabriel ended up visiting the canvas after a slight push in the back from his old friend Haaland. Not enough for a penalty.
30 min Arsenal have had 63 per cent possession but no attempts at goal. Arsene Wenger’s phrase “sterile domination” was invented for such data.
28 min Madueke, who has been Arsenal’s best attacker so far, makes a sinuous run to the byline, beating three City players en route. There aren’t many options in the middle, however, and his cutback is cleared.
26 min “Blimey,” says Justin Kavanagh. “Has Pep, the man who drilled so many footballers how to win matches on points, now reinvented himself as a rope-a-dope coach?”
I wouldn’t quite go that far, but he is definitely – in tactical terms – having an intense, erotic relationship with Pep Lijnders. And the best thing is we all get to watch!
24 min Reijnders stays down after a challenge from Timber, who win the ball and then followed through into the back of Reijnders’ foot. He’s fine now.
24 min “Glorious day here in south-west Poland,” writes Peadar de Burca, “but I’m a bit conflicted by Haaland’s goal and a possible City victory: six points clear of Arsenal on one hand, but Guardiola’s boys gathering momentum and looming in the rearview mirror like the Truck in Spielberg’s Duel. Swings and roundabouts I suppose.”
My heart bleeds.
23 min Donnarumma isn’t hurrying the restarts, a tactic the home crowd have noticed and expressed their disapproval towards. Unpick that moral maze.
22 min Merino, in the centre circle, tries to put Gyokeres clean through with an excellent first-time pass. The right-back Khusanov shows excellent positioning and enviable pace to beat Gyokeres to the ball and clear. Terrific defending that because Gyokeres would have been through on goal.
20 min Merino farts around in possession and is robbed 25 yards from goal. City’s New Transitionists proceed with urgency until, about 0.2 seconds later, Reijnders’ low shot from distance is held to his right by David Raya.
18 min The corner is slightly underhit and O’Reilly heads away at the near post.
City’s approach is fascinating. In their pomp they dominated possession whereever they went; here they’re playing like the away side.
18 min: Arsenal win their first corner
It’s on the right so Madueke will take it…
17 min As things stand – I know, I know – Liverpool are six points clear of both their main title rivals.
16 min Khusanov needs treatment after an Arsenal player stood on his foot. It looked a complete accident and there were no City complaints, only a yelp of pain from Khusanov.
14 min When Haaland scored, the possession stats were something like 74-26 in Arsenal’s favour. Now City are keeping the ball a bit more, doubtless helped by a slightly stunned reaction from Arsenal to the goal. The best defence in world football is not supposed to be taken to the cleaners like that.
13 min “Yikes,” says Niall Mullen. “Look on his works ye mighty and despair.”
12 min The finish and the run were marvellous, as was Reijnders’ assist, but it all started with Haaland’s deft pass round the corner. Like Barney Ronay said, this is a new model Haaland.
11 min Gary Neville has just compared Haaland’s goal to one of the great counter-attacks of modern times.
Haaland was surrounded by Arsenal players when he received the ball 15 yards inside his own half. He slipped an astute pass round the corner to Reijnders, got on his bike and suddenly City were three on two against a backpedalling defence. Reijnders scampered forward, waited for Haaland to appear to his right and flicked a perfectly timed return pass. Haaland took it on the run and beat David Raya with an unerring finish from 15 yards. That’s about as incisive as football gets.
GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 Man City (Haaland 9)
This is devastating. Utterly, frighteningly brilliant.
7 min Arsenal continue to make the running. Timber curves a good pass into space for Gyokeres, who makes an excellent run but is well tracked by Gvardiol and the move peters out.
4 min Arsenal have started pretty well. Trossard makes a surging run down the left before being eased to the ground with a hint of disdain by Khusanov. No foul given.
1 min And they’re off. City have started with Phil Foden on the right and Bernardo Silva as the right-sided No8, a swap from the last two games. This is their revised line-up.
Manchester City (4-1-2-3ish) Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiola, O’Reilly; Rodri; Bernardo, Reijnders; Foden, Haaland, Doku.
A reminder of the teams
Arsenal (4-1-2-3ish) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Zubimendi; Merino, Rice; Madueke, Gyokeres, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Saka, Eze, Martinelli, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly.
Manchester City (4-1-2-3ish) Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiola, O’Reilly; Rodri; Foden, Reijnders; Bernardo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Nico, Savinho, Nunes, Bobb, Mukasa, Lewis.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
The Premier League table at kick off
Barney Ronay on that elephant-shaped thing over there
This has by now become something of a joke on the football periphery. Why has it taken so long? The charges relate to financial reporting, employee remuneration and profitability and sustainability regulation. How hard can it be to resolve this?
Actually very hard, and this is normal. As someone with a professional insight into the process of corporate law, there is, to use a technical term, masses of complex bullshit to wade through. One semi-dead case at my old law firm had been going on for eight years, much of that time taken up dusting off files in a south-coast hangar and aggressively ranking local seafood restaurants.
Premier League results
Ed Aarons assesses the new, improved Arsenal
There were rumours that [Gabriel] Martinelli and [Leandro] Trossard could be allowed to depart in the summer but it is understood [Mikel] Arteta was keen to keep both despite the arrivals of Noni Madueke and Eberechi Eze. Martinelli and Trossard scored 10 goals each last season and made regular contributions, even if the former has struggled to hit the heights of the 2022-23 campaign when he managed 15. But the Brazilian’s pace provides a very different option on the left to Eze, who prefers to drift inside.
Read Barney Ronay on Erling Haaland 2.0
Pep Guardiola’s eyes boggled with pleasure as he spoke about the relentlessness of his players. “Erling is a machine,” was Jérémy Doku’s verdict after Erling Haaland had scored two fine goals and in between spent much of the game running over the various portions of sullen human flesh acting as the United defence.
Team news: Saliba starts, City unchanged
William Saliba returns from injury for Arsenal, one of two changes from the midweek win in Bilbao. Leandro Trossard is preferred to Eberechi Eze on the left wing; Cristhian Mosquera maeks way for Saliba. Oh, and Bukayo Saka is fit enough to be on the bench.
Pep Guardiola names the same starting XI for the third game in a row. He can’t have done that too many times during his career.
Arsenal (4-1-2-3ish) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Zubimendi; Merino, Rice; Madueke, Gyokeres, Trossard.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, White, Saka, Eze, Martinelli, Norgaard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly.
Manchester City (4-1-2-3ish) Donnarumma; Khusanov, Dias, Gvardiola, O’Reilly; Rodri; Foden, Reijnders; Bernardo, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Nico, Savinho, Nunes, Bobb, Mukasa, Lewis.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
Preamble
Arsenal v Manchester City was supposed to be the Premier League’s next great rivalry, a sprawling epic to compare with Liverpool v Manchester City (2018-22) – maybe even Arsenal v Manchester United (1996-2005).
City and Arsenal were the top two in successive seasons from 2022-24, with City pipping their emerging challengers on both occasions. Then, ayear ago this weekend, they drew 2-2 in a thrilling, humble and spiteful game at the Etihad. Even in late September, the match felt hugely significant to the title race.
At the final whistle, the Guardian minute-by-minute reporter concluded, “I think we can now say that Man City v Arsenal is a proper rivalry.”
The rivalry has been frozen in time because of Liverpool’s spectacular success under Arne Slot. A year ago they were the best of the rest; now they are the reigning champions. Liverpool have also spent £450m and – by hook, crook or fairytale winners from 16-year-olds – won their first five Premier League games of the season.
Arsenal (who are six points behind with today’s game in hand) and City (nine points) need a win to maintain their proximity to Liverpool’s tail lights. That, more than the rivalry between the sides or City’s desire to avenge their 5-1 pasting in February, is why today’s game feels so significant – even in late September.
Kick off 4.30pm.
