Thanks for your company and emails, I’ll leave you with Nick Ames’s match report. Bye!
“Arsenal play some brilliant football but it’s hard to love them when Xhaka isn’t their stupidest player on the day and Gabriel is,” says Neill Brown, and yes he is an Arsenal fan. “Words effing fail me. I’m holding Xhaka responsible for this little meltdown; the petulance of his reaction to the [correct] VAR call was terrible, even by his abysmal standards. Eff. Eff. Eff.”
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Want more football? Bet you do.
“Two sporting things I care most about are Arsenal and Lewis Hamilton,” writes Zack. “Feel like a higher power is trying to tell me something about the meaning of life with these two.”
Heh. If I was an Arsenal fan I’d still be delighted, despite that late sting, or at least I’d like to think I’d still be delighted. When did they last play that well against a top-class team? The FA Cup final win over Chelsea in 2017? The first leg against Barcelona in 2010-11?
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The final whistle prompts boos around the ground. A number of Arsenal’s players are on their back, devastated by that sadistic late twist of fate and the perceived injustice earlier in the second half. Easy to say as a neutral, but I honestly think the result isn’t that important for Arsenal - their first-half performance was their best in years, and the most compelling evidence yet that they are going places under Mikel Arteta.
City aren’t going places, they’re already there. The win takes them 11 points clear at the top, and it’s hard to see them being caught.
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Full time: Arsenal 1-2 Man City
New year, new Manchester City: they’ve learned how to win ugly. They had two shots on target in the whole game but nicked all three points in injury-time.
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90+5 min Bernardo is booked for kicking the ball away, and is surrounded by outraged Arsenal players. At times today, Arsenal have been wonderful; at others, not so much.
Arsenal’s players are shattered; City’s could be celebrating the title. De Bruyne, on the right, flipped a dangerous cross towards Rodri in the area. It skimmed off Holding’s head and reached Laporte. His shot was blocked but Rodri poked the rebound past Ramsdale from close range and whipped off his top in celebration.
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GOAL! Arsenal 1-2 Man City (Rodri 90+3)
Football, bloody etc.
90+3 min De Bruyne shapes to cross and then angles the free-kick sharply towards the unmarked Cancelo on the edge of the D. His first-time shot hits Partey.
90+1 min Cancelo is fouled by Tierney on the right wing...
90 min Six minutes of added time.
90 min City are struggling to get any momentum. They have been noticeably below par, but I’d be inclined to give Arsenal a lot of credit for that.
87 min Mahrez takes Tierney for a little dance before hitting a right-footed shot that deflects off Xhaka into the side netting. That was really good covering from Xhaka.
86 min Cancelo’s deep cross is taken away from Gunodgan by the stretching White, an important interception. Sterling collects the ball and hits a cross that deflects off Tomiyasu and through to Ramsdale. I must say, after maybe 7-8 minutes of noggingonery following Gabriel’s red card, Arsenal have refocussed admirably.
85 min For all the everything, City’s goal remains their only shot on target. Arsenal have had just two (one of them offside), though Martinelli shot just wide on three occasions. They have certainly had the better chances in this game.
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84 min Another pragmatic substitution from Mikel Arteta: Mohamed Elneny replaces the goalscorer Bukayo Saka.
83 min This has been a really good game, and all anyone is talking about is fecking VAR. Happy new year!
82 min Laporte plays the ball back to Ederson and then waves an arm at Martinelli. I’m not sure there was much in it, though it was a reflection of how unsettled City have been by Arsenal’s aggression.
81 min “They’re very wound up, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen so much effort & passion from Arsenal, more than ten years,” says Andrew Hurley. “A bit of everyone-is-against-us was typical of great english teams, from 1989 to 2006.”
Yes, fair point. Even if they lose, this has been the most encouraging Arsenal performance I’ve seen in ages.
80 min Cancelo shoots over from 20 yards with his left foot. Arsenal’s defensive organisation has been good all game, but particularly since they went down to 10 men. At the moment - and I realise this this may well have changed by the time I finish this sentence - City don’t look like scoring.
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78 min Laporte’s dangerous, short-range backpass almost gives Martinelli another chance. Ederson was alert enough to boot the ball clear, but he only got to it a split-second before Martinelli.
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76 min “The shirt pull is the infringement,” says Gary Naylor. “Whether the player dives or not is immaterial.”
Yes. I suppose the frustration - for any team, not just Arsenal - comes from pure self-interest all the unpunished shirtpulls, though Xhaka compounded his foul by half tripping Bernardo.
75 min In other news, Jurgen Klopp has tested positive for Covid and will not be on the touchline when Liverpool go to Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
74 min Bernardo, whose every touch is being booed, has a shot blocked by Tierney.
73 min As things stand City are nine points clear of Chelsea and ten of Liverpool, though Liverpool could reduce that to four points with their games in hand.
72 min City are starting to pin Arsenal back. A loose ball breaks to Bernardo, whose driven cross from the left is crucially interecepted by Xhaka at the near post. There was a City player just behind, Gundogan I think, waiting to score.
72 min Smith Rowe has gone to the left wing, with Martinelli up front.
71 min Emile Smith Rowe replaces the captain Alexandre Lacazette, who played extremely well with and without the ball, especially in the first half.
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71 min Moments later, Laporte curls well wide from distance.
71 min CIty have their first extended spell of possession in the second half. Eventually Cancelo dances away from Tierney and stands up a cross that is slightly too deep for Gundogan.
69 min Emile Smith Rowe is about to come on for Arsenal, a sensible move given his ball-carrying ability and general brilliance.
68 min Holding is booked for a cynical pull on De Bruyne. There’s more outrage, but it was a clear yellow card.
67 min Arsenal are starting to refocus, and in truth City haven’t been particularly dominant since Gabriel walked.
66 min Sterling shoots high and wide from the edge of the area.
65 min Never mind Old Trafford 2004, Arsenal need to invoke the spirit of Anfield 2001: a spectacular, coming-of-age victory achieved with 10 men.
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64 min Saka is booked for asking for Rodri to be booked.
63 min Arsenal are in serious danger of losing the plot. The way their players and supporters are behaving, you’d think this was an Old Trafford 2004-level injustice. That was a scandal for the ages; this isn’t close. I’m not even sure it’s an injustice at all.
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62 min Arsenal bring in Rob Holding for Martin Odegaard, an inevitable change once Gabriel was sent off. And City are bringing on Ilkay Gundogan for Gabriel Jesus, who is booed off for the crime of being flattened.
61 min What an astonishing turnaround this has been. Arsenal were so good for 52 minutes, the better team by a distance. And then it all went wrong, big-time.
GABRIEL IS SENT OFF!
59 min This is going spectacularly wrong for Arsenal. After that Martinelli chance, Ederson drove a flat goalkick to Jesus in the centre circle. He took it majestically on the chest, turning Gabriel in the same movement, and Gabriel threw out an arm to block him. It’s a clear yellow card, his second in a few minutes, and he’s off.
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58 min: WHAT A MISS FROM MARTINELLI! This is pure slapstick. Laporte lobbed a panicky header over the outrushing Ederson, and it looked set to go in until Ake slid in to clear off the line. The ball came to Martinelli, who slashed wide of an open goal from eight yards. And now...
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It was a really good penalty, swept to the right as Ramsdale went the other way. Gabriel has been booked for doing a Shahid Afridi on the penalty spot before the kick was taken.
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GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Man City (Mahrez 57 pen)
Mahrez scores to a chorus of boos from the Arsenal supporters.
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57 min Riyad Mahrez will take the penalty...
56 min Now it’s kicking off - or at least what constitutes kicking off in the modern game - in the penalty area. Xhaka saw it on the big screen and charged after the referee, saying Bernardo dived. He certainly made the most of it, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a foul. Frankly, it was crap defending from Xhaka.
PENALTY GIVEN! And Xhaka is booked. Arsenal’s players are fuming, though I’m not sure why.
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The referee is going to the monitor!
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VAR check Bernardo was looking for it, it’s true, but I think that constitutes a clear and obvious error from the referee. Xhaka fouled Bernardo twice.
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53 min: Big City penalty appeal turned down! This might be given by VAR. Bernardo twisted Xhaka inside out and went over. Xhaka had a big handful of his shirt and probably tripped him as well, so this should be given.
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51 min “Not sure that neutral journalist should describe it as good news that Arsenal dominating City in the first half,” says David Pitkeathly. “A very uncomfortable comment.”
No, I’m pretty comfortable with it, especially as it was abundantly clear from the previous sentence that I was talking about Arsenal.
50 min Saka’s corner is half cleared towards the edge of the area, where Martinelli fresh-airs a left-footed volley. For a player of his quality that was as reasonable chance.
49 min Martinelli is launched up in the air by the sliding Rodri 22 yards from goal. Rodri slipped; he also won the ball. Arsenal’s players made a lot of it but the referee didn’t give a foul never mind a card.
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47 min “As a Manchester United fan who grew up despising Arsenal,” begins Nick Parmenter, “I feel conflicted with the fact I don’t hate this team.”
That’s what managers are for. Also, give it time: if they start winning things I suspect you’ll start to feel a bit of the old hatred.
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46 min Peep peep!
Tom Barneby (17 min) was right and I was wrong: Ederson did touch Odegaard before he got the ball. I’m still not certain it qualifies as ‘clear and obvious’ - 20 years ago we’d have said it was a man-and-ball challenge, and while the game has changed I don’t know whether it has changed that much - but there’s certainly a case that VAR should have encouraged Stuart Attwell to look at the monitor. Mind you, you could say the same after Partey’s challenge on Gabriel Jesus in the 37th minute.
Half-time reading
Half time: Arsenal 1-0 Man City
Peep peep! Arsenal’s lead through Bukayo Saka’s 31st-minute goal. They have been quite brilliant, outplaying City for much of the half, and could easily have extended their lead. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there’s a top-of-the-range hairdryer in the away dressing-room, and City will not be as sluggish in the second half.
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45 min Two minutes of added time. Still no shots on target for City.
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43 min: Just wide again from Martinelli! This is pulsating stuff from Arsenal, it really is. Martinelli went on a thrilling run from the halfway line, beating Cancelo twice and Dias once, before poking an early shot across Ederson and just wide.
41 min Odegaard’s inswinging free-kick drifts behind for a goalkick.
40 min Rodri is fortunate not to be booked for a cynical challenge on Saka. Free-kick to Arsenal on the right wing, 30 yards from goal.
39 min: So close from Martinelli! Lacazette robs Laporte on the halfway line and Arsenal are away again. Saka gives the ball back to Lacazette, who shoves it out to Martinelli on the left. He cuts inside, on his right foot, and whips a curling shot from 20 yards that flashes just wide of the far post. Ederson wasn’t saving that.
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37 min The first hint of a response from City. Mahrez teases Tierney and clips a deep cross towards Jesus, who is guided/thrown to the ground by Partey. It was a risky, hands-on challenge, but VAR aren’t interested. There wasn’t much difference between that and the penalty that was given to Manchester United at Norwich the other week.
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36 min “I think it’s also fair to point out that this is City’s third game in six days (last two away in London),” says J. A. Hopkin. “Arsenal’s last game was postponed. Indeed, Arsenal have had a couple of other Covid postponements, while City are the only team in the Prem to have played every single fixture. Arsenal have definitely caught the champions at the right time!”
Fair point. City have a huge squad but it’s still a factor. Even so, the Arsenal of a year ago would be 3-0 down by now.
35 min On BT Sport, Steve McManaman makes the point that Thomas Partey is having a minor stormer in midfield. He’s such a big-game player, that lad, though sometimes he takes that too far by being anonymous against weaker teams.
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32 min Now then City.
It was a fine goal, involving two of Arsenal’s brighest young talents. White won the ball off De Bruyne, and Arsenal worked the ball crisply across the field to Tierney on the left. He ran infield into space - too much space to be honest - and passed the ball carefully towards Saka, 15 yards from goal at the far post. He ran onto the ball and swept a low, first-time shot to Ederson’s left. That’s a lovely goal.
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GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Man City (Saka 31)
Arsenal lead Manchester City, and Arsenal deserve to lead Manchester City!
30 min It’s important not to get carried away: ultimately it’s 0-0 after half an hour and Arsenal have only had one shot on target, which would have been offside had it gone in. But this is the best Arsenal have played against quality opposition in ages. When they beat City a couple of years ago in the FA Cup semi-final, it was a slightly desperate smash-and-grab; today, so far, they’ve been the equals of City.
28 min Lacazette turns smartly on the edge of the area and hits a shot that is blocked. I suppose the big test will be if they go behind, but at the moment Arsenal look so confident.
27 min One team has had 71 per cent of the possession in the last five minutes. No, it’s not them.
24 min “I know it was lost in the penalty claim (which if given wouldn’t have been overturned; as it hadn’t, it couldn’t be given, let’s call it an umpire’s call), but how good was the control and play by Martinelli?” says Andrew Hurley. “He has gone a little bit under the radar but I don’t see a young forward in the Premier League with a higher potential. When I think of him & Grealish, there’s simply no contest.”
Indeed - Grealish is 26. I agree though, Martinelli looks fantastic, and the average age of this Arsenal team evokes their emergence under George Graham in the 1980s. I wanted to describe the build up to the chance but it was lost in the penalty appeal, and by the time the dust settled I’d forgotten most of it.
24 min I wouldn’t say City are rattled, but they’ve certainly been inconvenienced by how well Arsenal have started the game. Long way to go and all that, but this 24 minutes have been more encouraging than any of the five big wins preceding this match.
22 min “No need to panic,” says Tom Barneby. “This is surely less stressful than doing the OBO for an England batting collapse!”
On the contrary. After 18 years (gulp), I can do that in my sleep.
21 min This is a really good game, and Arsenal are playing with so much confidence. White clips a classy pass over the top to Tomiyasu, whose confident, volleyed cross is headed behind by Ake. The corner is cleared by Dias.
20 min De Bruyne reminds Arsenal of his and City’s menace with a curler from 20 yards that drifts a few yards wide.
17 min “Was that not given because Odegaard was going away from goal?” says Tom Barneby. “Ederson clearly kicks him before he gets the ball, but the touch was going out. While I like that not everything is a penalty this season, that and Jota against Spurs both looked fairly nailed on and weren’t given - feels like the refs and VAR are trying not to give anything marginal.”
I don’t agree that he ‘clearly’ kicks him before he gets the ball - had that been the case, it would have been given. Odegaard going away from goal is, or at least should be, irrelevant. That said, it’s quite hard to analyse umpteen replays while also typing/panicking, so you might be right.
16 min: Ederson saves from Martinelli! This is stirring stuff from Arsenal. Thomas Partey, a rough-track bully in midfield, nutmegs Bernardo and angles a pass to Martinelli in the inside-left channel. He scurries away from Cancelo and pokes a shot that is blocked by Ederson at the near post. Good positioning from Ederson. Replays suggest Martinelli was offside, so it wouldn’t have counted, but it was another promising move from Arsenal.
14 min: Just wide from Dias! City kept the ball alive following a corner and should have taken the lead. Sterling curled in a lovely cross from the right towards Dias, who flicked a header just wide on the stretch. He should have scored. Ramsdale will be especially thrilled he didn’t, as he came for the cross and was nowhere.
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No penalty! That’s the correct decision. It was a fine move though, with Arsenal opening City up on the counter. Eventually Lacazette played in Odegaard, whose first touch was fractionally too heavy. That allowed Ederson to lunge in and tackle him near the byline. After a few replays from different angles it was clear that he got the ball.
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VAR check This is really tough to call. I don’t think it’s a foul personally, certainly not a clear and obvious error. It’s a bit odd that he went feet-first, though.
10 min Arsenal appeal for a penalty when Ederson lunges into a tackle on Odegaard. It was a lovely move from Arsenal, and this might be given by VAR. No, Ederson got the ball I think.
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7 min Lacazette picks his moment to press Ederson, who hangs on to the ball a split-second too long and has his clearance half-blocked by Lacazette. Nothing comes of it but that was encouraging for Arsenal.
5 min Mahrez takes the corner short and crosses low to Bernardo, whose flick behind the standing leg is blocked. City win another corner, from which Laporte and Jesus get in each other’s way while going for a header at the near post. That was a decent chance.
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4 min De Bruyne threads a fine pass towards Sterling on the edge of the area. White lunges and misses but Gabriel comes across to concede a corner.
3 min Nowt to report so far.
1 min City have started with De Bruyne as the left-sided central midfielder and Bernardo on the other side.
1 min Peep peep! City kick off from right to left.
The players are out on the field, with in-form Arsenal given a rousing reception. We’re about to get chapter and verse of how good this young team really are.
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There will be slight delay to the kick-off because of an injury to one of the assistant referees, Constantine Hatzidakis. Doesn’t sound like anything serious; they’re just scouring Holloway Road for a replacement.
“I see potential’s Kayky is on the City bench today,” says Edan Tal. “What’s the word on him these days? A cross between Kaka and Malky Mackay?”
Surely if he was Kaka, Fluminense would have bottled the transfer.
Pre-match entertainment
Why not start the year with some elite bongo?
Here come the boys! 🤩#ManCity pic.twitter.com/rO7yzgwhSm
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 1, 2022
BT Sport say the official line on Foden is that “he’s not quite fit enough”. Oleksandr Zinchenko, who often starts at left-back and was on the bench at Brentford, is absent for the same reason. It doesn’t sound like this is a case for the conspiracy theorists.
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There’s no Phil Foden in the City squad. He is one of three changes from the team that won at Brentford on Wednesday, with Jack Grealish and Fernandinho moved to the bench. Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez and Rodri replace them. Joao Cancelo, who was hurt during a robbery at his home earlier in the week, starts at right-back.
Arsenal make one change from the 5-0 victory at Norwich. The impressive Takehiro Tomiyasu is fit to return in place of Rob Holding, so Ben White moves back into the centre of defence.
Team news
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney; Partey, Xhaka; Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Lacazette.
Substitutes: Leno, Holding, Cedric, Tavares, Smith Rowe, Maitland-Niles, Lokonga, Elneny, Pepe.
Manchester City (4-3-3) Ederson; Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Ake; De Bruyne, Rodri, Bernardo; Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling.
Substitutes: Steffen, Walker, Mbete, McAtee, Gundogan, Grealish, Fernandinho, Palmer, Kayky.
Referee Stuart Attwell.
Preamble
Hello, happy new year and welcome to live coverage of Arsenal v Manchester City at the Emirates. If Mikel Arteta’s unconscious mind is doing its job properly, he’ll have been singing The Walkmen in the shower this morning. “You’ve got a nerve to be asking a favour...”
For the last few years, fans of Chelsea and Liverpool (and Manchester United and Spurs, though their houses are glassier) have been sneering and sniggering at Arsenal. Now that Arsenal are good again*, they want a favour. Chelsea and Liverpool desperately need Arsenal to take points off City today; if not, their match at Stamford Bridge tomorrow will have the look of a second-place playoff.
City start the game eight points clear of Chelsea and nine of Liverpool, though Liverpool have a game in hand. It’s hard to know whether this is a tough test or not. On the one hand, Arsenal have won their last five games, scoring 19 goals in the process, and have a team full of charismatic, brilliant young players. On the other, they have been specialists in false dawns for over a decade and have - with the odd glorious exception - generally been hammered by Pep Guardiola teams.
Every Arsenal fan at the Emirates will have a low-level fear of another almighty reality check. But in most cases that will be trumped by excitement and optimism. The next stage in Arsenal’s development is a statement victory against one of the elite. Beating the champions and runaway leaders in the first game of 2022 would do the job very nicely.
Kick off 12.30pm.
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