Much has been made of the fact that this Pep‑project Manchester City is a work in progress, a mutable thing, still looking to find its rhythms and shapes. At the Etihad Stadium, for 20 minutes either side of half-time, City seemed to be evolving at an irradiated speed as first David Silva and then Kevin De Bruyne dug their fingernails into this game and wrenched it their way.
Until that point Alexis Sánchez had been the outstanding figure on show. So keen right now to assert his own market value, Sánchez had whirled and sprinted at Manchester City’s defence in that familiar amphetamine-crazed Action Man-style,so barrel-chested he looks from a distance like a yellow‑shirted cube, propelled about the place by two furiously pumping pistons, arms paddling the turf.
At the other end City were all feints and tickles, cute angles, nice nudged passes but without anyone to apply the swift punch to the solar plexus. With Sergio Agüero still banned, the centre-forward spot was occupied instead here by a revolving peloton of attacking midfielders. At times in the first half City were ten thousand elegantly turned spoons, when all they really needed was a single prong of the knife.
Sánchez had produced the telling moment to help put Arsenal 1-0 up, dropping deep into the pocket in front of the centre-halves, reading Theo Walcott’s run and producing a lovely backspun nudged through pass into his path. Walcott’s finish was fine, opening his body and slotting the ball past Claudio Bravo as City’s goalkeeper lay down. What riches right now! The scoring pass to Walcott made it six goals and four assists in his past six games for Sánchez – great news not just for Arsenal and Sánchez himself, but for the mini‑industry of Sánchez-affiliated interests currently chuntering about that move.
Right now he and Mesut Özil are in that stage where pre-contract rumblings begin, figures are bandied, demands floated. Both want a serious boost, the kind of weekly wage that would take them from the merely ludicrously well-paid into the real overclass.
Sánchez and Özil are both lovely players. But here they were given a lesson in a creative leadership as Silva took this game in the most artfully insistent of headlocks. City went from 1-0 down to 2-1 up in 20 minutes during which he flexed his shoulders and reminded the Etihad Stadium of his own enduring brilliance, aided by some fine moments from De Bruyne.
Silva is a venerable old creative ace these days, the bottle of fine wine in that City cabinet – small, dusty, very expansive – who was suddenly everywhere here, floating into the space just behind City’s rejigged twin No10s, Leroy Sané and De Bruyne. The pressure paid off three minutes into the second half as Arsenal’s midfield slackened and three simple passes cut them open. Sané was probably offside but his run, spin and finish were evidence of his brilliantly supple athleticism. The pass floated over the top by Silva was a familiar piece of brilliance.
Arsenal looked shocked, unable to rouse themselves into keeping the ball after playing on the break for so long. Özil spent much of this period just walking around the Etihad Stadium, a man with time to kill, just enjoying Manchester, taking in the air.
Meanwhile, with a quarter of the game still to go, the transformation was complete. De Bruyne took an instant touch and produced a wonderful diagonal crossfield pass, stretching the play to City’s right wing. Raheem Sterling took the ball in his stride, cut inside Nacho Monreal and found a stinger of a left-foot shot that zipped past Petr Cech. It was a lovely moment for Sterling, who was also a growing source of menace here. He has worked hard on his finishing. This was tangible reward, as was the attention he received from Guardiola in the second half, the manager leaping up to point and shout and instil on the hoof some tactical tinker whenever Sterling strayed to his side. And with that the game was effectively done. Arsenal’s own heavyweights were unable to rouse themselves again for a second push. Silva’s silky little passing triangles, a malevolent, insistent presence, always able to put the ball in the tenderest of spots, remained the dominant image of the second half.
For Guardiola this felt like evidence of real progress, if only in his team’s ability to respond so positively to the rejig after half-time. The no-tackles business last weekend was always likely to be taken out of context. Who really does coach tackles at this level anyway? Apart from the English FA in the 1980s, of course, which produced six pages dedicated to tackling in its Winning Formula (sic) coaching guide. In the second half at the Etihad City’s switch to twin No10s, with Silva prowling behind and Yaya Touré a powerful passing presence, was as devastating as any reducer, any statement tackle.
Arsenal reeled and found no second wind. By the end Sánchez and Özil were pressed to the margins, outmanoeuvred by Silva in full playmaker mode and by the relentlessly effective De Bruyne, all crisp, clean incision, a pair of creative midfielders restating their own worth as part of this fun, frantically evolving Guardiola team.
