Arsenal were well and truly beaten at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening. Four goals from three goal scorers: Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Erling Haaland was more than enough to put the Gunners away and perhaps their title challenge to rest.
Of course, Arsenal remain top of the table by two points but the two games in hand give Man City the chance of a four-point swing in their favour should they beat West Ham at home and Brighton away. Mikel Arteta’s side have faced their title rivals three times, twice in the league and once in the FA Cup, and have been deservedly beaten in them all.
It has been a demonstration of the gap that exists between City and Arsenal. Although a title challenge was a surprise this season, the cracks have opened up for Arsenal in the lead-up to this clash and it showed.
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In the absence of Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji was deployed as a left-back for City and the versatile defender kept Bukayo Saka relatively quiet. Speaking to football.london after the game, the Swiss defender explained what the difference has been between his side and their north London opponents.
“It’s hard to say, it has been three different games,” Akanji told football.london. “I think the first game was really even if I can say that.
“We both played a good game and there was not a lot of chances and we scored the deciding goal but I wouldn’t say that we were clearly better in this game. So in the second one, it was a lot different to today, today the whole team played really good and had a really good team performance over 90 minutes.
“We were strong in the duels, we were good with the ball and that was different to the game at the Emirates. Then we used our chances and we played well defensively and I think that’s the key to these wins.”
There were numerous clashes off the ball between players. Ben White, Thomas Partey and Granit Xhaka were all involved in separate incidents as the game began to run away from Arsenal.
City showed their composure throughout the match and Akanji agreed that this experience of his teammates winning so many league victories in successive seasons has allowed for the high-pressure moments to become less overwhelming, despite becoming a newcomer to the side himself.
“I think so, it’s the experience that the guys in the locker room have, that they won three championships in the last four,” he said. “The experience that they bring into the team and for me also as a player to come into the team, yeah it helps.”
Arsenal not only faced an opponent with Erling Haaland in the side this season, but the Norwegian has gone on to evolve under Pep Guardiola. Akanji detailed what he believes to be the critical change in his game since arriving in Manchester, which ultimately has led to a goal in each of the games against Arsenal.
“I think he was always clinical in front of the goal, he had it at Dortmund. But I think the play style that he has now, that he learned here with the team, that he’s more involved in the game," he added.
“Like you could see today, he had way more touches than in the games before and he’s getting better in this every day.”
Arsenal now must lick their wounds and regroup for the remaining five games of the season. They can still end the campaign on 90 points, whilst their rivals can go to 94 and Arteta and company will be hoping they have some more slip-ups whilst avoiding more of their own.
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