I’ll leave you with Daniel Taylor’s match report from the Etihad Stadium. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye.
As for Arsenal, they remain in sixth place, a point behind Ole’s boys, three behind the Sarriball Art Experiment. They just aren’t capable of matching the top sides for 90 minutes. They still make too many mistakes at the back and Unai Emery will feel that a lot of his players aren’t good enough. Emery needs time. He’s done well to get them so close to the top four, but he’s working with a very unbalanced squad.
Sergio Aguero, who now has 10 hat-tricks in the Premier League, is asked if his third goal was handball. “It’s important to win. The other day I scored early, 25 seconds, and we lose. Today I am very happy. I think the third goal was off my chest. Now I see on TV it was a handball.”
Fernandinho speaks! “We wanted to go back on track. Playing good football and today we deserved it. We scored another early goal and I think we deserved the win. They are very dangerous on set-pieces. I think we didn’t drop the level. We maintained our rhythm and we scored a second goal and in the second half we controlled the game.”
An odd game. Manchester City flew out of the traps. Sergio Aguero scored within a minute, then they lost their way and gave Arsenal an equaliser. It looked ropey for a while. Arsenal even sensed they were in with a chance of stealing the points. But they couldn’t contend with a finisher of Aguero’s class. The striker’s hat-trick settled City down and ensured they were comfortable long before the final whistle. The champions go two points behind Liverpool, who will be under pressure when they travel to West Ham tomorrow night. If Liverpool lose or draw at the London Stadium, City would go top with a win against Everton on Wednesday. Are you ready for all the twists and turns to come?
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Full-time: Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal
That’s your lot. City go two points behind Liverpool with a routine win, albeit having played a game more.
90 min: Mahrez bends one wide from 20 yards. There will be three added minutes.
88 min: Riyad Mahrez replaces the excellent Kevin de Bruyne.
87 min: Now Sterling goes on a solo power surge, but Guendouzi blocks his shot. Moments later De Bruyne goes down with what appears to be cramp. His afternoon’s over, but just because of fatigue.
85 min: With options left and right, Jesus decides to go alone. He ignores Sterling, who was free to his right, and scuffs straight at Leno. You can tell he wants to make the most of his brief cameo, but I think he’d have impressed Guardiola more by passing to Sterling.
82 min: There’s more chance of a fourth for City than a second for Arsenal. Now David Silva has a go from the edge of the area, but Leno pushes his firm drive away.
81 min: Gabriel Jesus replaces Sergio Aguero, City’s hat-trick hero. De Bruyne, still full of mischievous intent, breaks down the right. His low ball towards Sterling’s cleared.
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79 min: Konstantinos Mavropanos replaces Shkodran Mustafi, which means we won’t be seeing Mesut Ozil today. Arsenal have used up their substitutes. It’s abundantly clear that Emery has no use for Ozil.
78 min: Arsenal have run out of steam. Have they had a shot in the second half? I can’t remember a shot from them in the second half. That’s a shame - they played well before going 2-1 down on the stroke of half-time.
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76 min: A free-kick to City deep on the left. De Bruyne whips it in and it’s headed to Aguero, who’s lurking unmarked on the edge of the area. He’s on to the loose ball in a flash and jabs a shot goalwards, only for Leno to make a smart stop. Arsenal survive. However, Mustafi has gone down with an injury. Unai Emery won’t want to lose another centre-back.
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74 min: “Lichtsteiner is rubbish,” Caleb Jones roars. “Passion is no substitute for skill.Moreover maybe buying over the hill defenders from a joke league to start half your games isn’t a good plan. Beepty beep.”
He’s not got the pace to start in this kind of game, sadly. He was a very effective player for Juventus for many years, but it seems the Italians knew what they were doing when they let him leave.
71 min: Barring a City collapse, which looks unlikely, thoughts are turning to whether Liverpool can hold their nerve against West Ham tomorrow. It won’t be straightforward. Probably. West Ham’s form is poor, but they’ve been decent against the big sides at home under Manuel Pellegrini.
68 min: “How would Neville know about keepers?” says James Robinson says. “Playing in front of Schmeichel probably.”
How does that make him an expert on goalkeeping technique?
67 min: Arsenal make a double change, Denis Suarez replacing Sead Kolasinac, Aaron Ramsey on for Alex Iwobi. Suarez used to be at City, you know.
66 min: Every City goal has originated down the left. They’ve certainly identified Lichtsteiner as Arsenal’s weak link. Correction: one of Arsenal’s weakest weak links. “Agüero has scored a perfect hat-trick, head, leg and arm,” Kari Tulinius says.
65 min: Gundogan bursts into the Arsenal area and falls over a nothing challenge from Mustafi. He’s booked for diving.
63 min: Gary Neville is banging on about goalkeepers parrying shots instead of catching them. How would he know?
With Arsenal’s defenders looking leggy, Raheem Sterling finds space on the edge of the area, scoots down the outside and drives the ball into the six-yard box. It goes past Leno and reaches the sliding Aguero. But after the cross hits the striker’s midriff, the final touch appears to come off the striker’s left arm. Unable to stop the ball from trickling over the line, Arsenal appeal in vain for handball, but it would have been tough for Martin Atkinson to spot it. Plus, it would be tough to argue it was deliberate handball from Aguero. If it was handball at all.
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GOAL! Manchester City 3-1 Arsenal (Aguero, 60 min)
So it’s just as well that City have Aguero up front, though there’s a large dollop of controversy about the way he’s completed his hat-trick.
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59 min: Arsenal probe down the left, but Kolasinac’s low ball’s too close to Ederson. But that’s a minor warning for City, a message they they need to be more ruthless at the other end. Arsenal definitely have an equaliser in them.
56 min: City are playing some good stuff. With Arsenal exerting little pressure in midfield, they move through too easily, flicking the ball with giddy abandon, Sterling slipping a pass through to De Bruyne, who only has Leno to beat. But De Bruyne scuffs his shot at Leno, who saves with his feet.
56 min: Mustafi seems to be struggling with a knock. He’s wincing and clutching his leg.
53 min: With City pressing for a third, De Bruyne has another sighter from the edge of the area. He whips it with his right foot, hitting it so crisply and with such fine timing, and forces Leno to plunge low to his left to push the ball away. It comes to Sterling, who’s offside.
51 min: De Bruyne clips a shot straight at Leno from 20 yards. Leno almost spills it at David Silva’s feet, only to recover just in time.
48 min: Bernardo Silva scoops a dismal shot into the top tier from 25 yards. Useless. Retire.
46 min: City get the second half underway. “This match represents an almost perfect storm for Gary Neville on commentary,” Matt Dony says. “If City win, they’ll be very happy, and keeping up the chase for the league. Bad news for him. If Arsenal win, it would be an amazing result for them, leaving them ecstatic, AND strengthening Liverpool’s league position. Both bad news for Neville. If only Leeds could get involved somehow...”
Half-time: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal
A strange half comes to a close. City made a blistering start, took the lead and then entered panic mode after Laurent Koscielny’s equaliser. But Sergio Aguero’s second goal of the afternoon means they lead. This is fascinatingly poised.
45 min+1: Bernardo Silva strokes a pass through to De Bruyne on the right, but the Belgian’s low cross-shot’s neither here nor there, wide of the far post and too far in front of the sliding Sterling to reach.
45 min: There will be two added minutes.
After 10 minutes of struggle, this is a brilliant way for City to restore their lead. Sterling plays a pass back to Gundogan from the left and Lichtsteiner falls asleep. Gundogan instantly pops a pass over the Arsenal defence, leaving Sterling to cushion the ball across the face of goal for Aguero, who isn’t going to miss from two yards out! City have been wobbling, but their main striker has two and they’re in front again.
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal (Aguero, 43 min)
This is magnificent.
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42 min: City are beginning to lose the midfield battle, which isn’t surprising given that Fernandinho is playing in defence. Arsenal swamp them again and stream forward. Aubameyang’s played into space down the inside-right channel, but his shot’s deflected over. City deal with the corner.
40 min: Torreiera has been booked for chopping down De Bruyne during that City break.
39 min: This is very entertaining. Kolasinac has a dig from the edge of the City area, stinging Ederson’s palms. Then Torreira sees a powerful drive blocked. Lacazette almost makes something from nothing and then City attack, De Bruyne leading a counter. You attack, we attack. Eventually Arsenal quell the danger. They’re playing on City’s anxiety.
37 min: David Silva wriggles down the left, burrowing into one of his favourite positions, and digs a cross into the middle. Leno claws the ball away unconvincingly and is lucky to see it land at the feet of Monreal, who mops up.
35 min: When Arsenal win possession just inside their half, Lacazette shrugs off Bernardo Silva, looks up and slides a wonderful pass towards Aubameyang, who’s peeled into enviable space. He has the pace to beat his markers, who are grateful to see Ederson storm from his area and boot the ball away.
32 min: Arsenal fancy their chances in attack. A cross from the right’s just too high for Aubameyang at the near post. But the visitors reckon they can find holes in this City defence. They also know Aubameyang and Lacazette are good enough to take advantage if they get a sight of goal.
30 min: City are nervous. They aren’t playing badly, but everything’s slightly hurried, slightly panicky. They’ve been in a lot of good positions in Arsenal’s half, but they can’t get their final ball right.
28 min: Torreira boots a pass straight against Martin Atkinson, who can’t do anything to stop the ball from rebounding to Sterling on the edge of Arsenal’s area. Controversy beckons - but the danger passes when De Bruyne lashes a shot over from 25 yards.
27 min: A rare Arsenal attack sees Lacazette slip a pass through to Kolasinac on the left, but the Bosnian’s cross is poor.
25 min: City have had 78% of the possession in the last 10 minutes.
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23 min: De Bruyne slides a clever pass through to David Silva on the right. His cutback’s knocked behind for a corner. Guendouzi is having a tough time tracking City’s creative midfielders. There are too many for him to keep tabs on.
21 min: Arsenal are starting to look a bit more comfortable. But appearances can be deceptive.
18 min: City are continuing to attack in relentless waves. The corner’s cleared to Sterling, who sees a weak volley cleared by Guendouzi. Walker puts the ball back into the area. It’s headed down to Otamendi, who fires straight at Leno. He didn’t catch it properly.
17 min: Laporte, who’s playing a bit like Roberto Carlos, pings in another cross from the left. It leads to a corner.
15 min: De Bruyne darts down the right and lifts a cross to the far post, but it’s too high for Sterling. City probe down the left and Sterling threatens to break clear, only for Torreira to deny him. “I agree that Aguero and City have a point to prove,” Peter Oh says. “As a Liverpool fan, I hope that’s all they get today. A point.”
14 min: The scoreline is quite incredible. Arsenal barely had a kick in the first 10 minutes, but they’ve equalised with their very first attack, which will do nothing to alter the impression City are becoming a soft touch at the back.
The corner comes in from Lucas Torreira from the left. Monreal darts to the near post and flicks it into the six-yard box, where Koscileny powers through the bodies to head past Ederson from close range! What a response from Arsenal, who were looking on the verge of total collapse! As for City, it’s another squandered lead. It probably didn’t help that Sterling was marking Koscielny.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal (Koscielny, 11 min)
Arsenal equalise after the longest 11 minutes in their entire history!
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10 min: Arsenal mount their first attack, Iwobi making a nuisance of himself and working the ball to Aubameyang on the edge of the area. Aubameyang’s hopeful pass hits Otamendi, deflects into the area and forces Walker to hack behind for a corner. From which...
9 min: Monreal gives away a free-kick for handball on the right. De Bruyne whips in a magnificent delivery and Laporte heads past Leno – but the flag’s up for offside straight away. He was a yard or two off.
7 min: Gary Neville is losing the plot with Arsenal on Sky. Instead of a back three, it looks like they’ve lined up in a 4-4-2 system, with Kolasinac and Iwobi in the wide midfield positions. Let’s just be polite and say it isn’t working.
5 min: Bernardo Silva has some fun down the right, dribbling inside, cutting on to his left and seeing a cross-shot deflected behind. Gundogan’s corner is headed away as far as Sterling, 25 yards out. He takes a touch and lets fly, forcing Leno to dive to his left and beat the ball away to safety. The move fizzles out after a poor pass from Gundogan.
3 min: Arsenal are all over the place. Now De Bruyne pokes a pass through to Aguero, who’s pulled back by the incompetent Mustafi. The German is very lucky not to concede a penalty. Arsenal need smelling salts. City could kill this here and now. Then again, Aguero did score after 24 seconds against Newcastle.
It’s fair to say Manchester City look like a team with a point to prove. They set about Arsenal immediately, Sterling and the Silvas causing havoc down the left, De Bruyne almost latching on to the ball in the six-yard box. Arsenal hack it clear, but they’re under the cosh, and the last thing they need is for Iwobi to give the ball straight to Laporte deep on the left. Laporte steps in firmly, looks up and pings a cross into the middle for the unmarked Aguero to head past Leno from close range!
GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Arsenal (Aguero, 1 min)
Aguero scores after 50 seconds!
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Peep! Arsenal, in their famous red and white, get the game underway! And they’ll be very interested to see Fernandinho lining up in a back four for Manchester City. What does that say about how Pep Guardiola regards John Stones? No time to think about that, though. Because...
Here come the teams! We’ll have football soon!
@JacobSteinberg It never ceases to amaze me how football managers can talk for several minutes about absolutely nothing in the pre-match interviews. "I respect the the opposition and they've got a great manager, but I'm confident in my players." Rinse and repeat! Love it :D
— Adam Kline-Schoder (@AHKlineSchoder) February 3, 2019
“Another baffling team selection by Emery: he’s left three of our most creative midfielders out of the team,” Richard Arthur says. “And Lichsteiner is completely past it, but Jenkinson does not even make the bench. Emery seems also to have lost faith in Xhaka lately. It’s as if he has cards with the players’ names on and just pulls them out of the bag. I hope he proves me wrong.”
I think the loss of Hector Bellerin makes a big difference to this Arsenal side. He was very good against Chelsea and they don’t really have a proper replacement for him. Ultimately it doesn’t seem that Emery rates a lot of these players; he needs a few windows to sort it out.
Arsenal start in sixth place after Manchester United’s win over Leicester. Stuart James was at the King Power Stadium.
Unai Emery is asked about starting Aubameyang and Lacazette for the first time in an away game against a top-six rival. “They have played a lot of matches together. Sometimes you cannot play both strikers. I want to find the best individual performances from them to help the team.”
Pep Guardiola speaks! “The mentality is always good. It is not the first season together. They show up every time. They try to do their best. Sometimes you don’t have a good performance but that is enough. The mentality is always there. We need an incredible performance. We are playing one of the top sides and they have a top manager. It is going to be tough. But I am always confident with my players.”
Does this title race remind anyone of the 94-95 season? Obviously the storylines are slightly different - I can’t see anyone in Man City’s squad kung-fu kicking a Crystal Palace fan. In terms of the football, though, United didn’t do too much wrong that season, but a couple of dodgy results here and there were enough to let Blackburn take advantage and set up a big enough lead. United almost came back at the end and Blackburn, choked by nerves, only won two of their final six games. United probably would have won it if it had gone on for another week or two.
Charles Antaki takes exception with my suggestion that “City will have to be at their sharpest” - “Ah! Arsenal fans will be saying, if only. Given the success of not-especially-sharp forward lines of, say, West Ham, Brighton and Southampton, you might reasonably expect the Agüeros, Sanes and DeBruynes of this world to have a good deal of fun with a defence now down to the last three men standing. Sharpness, sadly, may not be necessary.”
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Pep Guardiola picks a team that suggests he hasn’t slept since Tuesday night. He’s gone into ultra-Pep mode, going without any left-backs, picking five midfielders, both Silvas in, Gundogan too, De Bruyne too. It’s a midfielder party. Could be inspired. Could be overkill. Only one way to find out.
Arsenal, by contrast, are far more restrained. Unai Emery appears to have gone with a back three, but it’s a relatively cautious line-up from the Spaniard. Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil only make the bench, where they’re joined by Denis Suarez after his loan move from Barcelona.
Team news
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Laporte; Fernandinho; Sterling, Gundogan, De Bruyne, D Silva, B Silva; Aguero. Subs: Muric, Danilo, Stones, Delph, Sane, Mahrez, Jesus.
Arsenal: Leno; Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Lichtsteiner, Guendouzi, Torreira, Kolasinac; Iwobi; Lacazette, Aubameyang. Subs: Cech, Elneny, Xhaka, Suarez, Ramsey, Ozil, Mavropanos, Nketiah.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
Preamble
Hello. For all the talk of Liverpool showing the first signs of losing their nerve in the past few days, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the situation is far more precarious for Manchester City at the moment. While Liverpool didn’t play very well against Leicester on Wednesday night, the real story of the week was yet another damaging defeat for City, who fell further behind the Premier League’s pacesetters after contriving to chuck away a lead against Newcastle. The heat on the champions is increasing. Inconsistency threatens to loosen their grip on the title, leaving them with little room for manoeuvre as they attempt to make Liverpool sweat about bringing the title to Anfield for the first time since 1990. If losing to Chelsea at the start of December was unfortunate - even Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea - then following it up by falling to Crystal Palace, Leicester and Newcastle was downright careless. It’s enough to make you want to refer to Pep Guardiola as ... BALD FRAUDIOLA.
Too much? Probably. Yet these are difficult times for Guardiola, with his team just lacking that crucial extra yard, that vital extra spark of intensity and inspiration, and now City find themselves in a position where almost every game is a must-win. They can’t wait for Liverpool to wobble; they have to do all they can to force it by going on a long winning run, which needs to start against Arsenal today. For the past two months many people have said that City are too good not to win this catch-up, that they are bound to reel Jurgen Klopp’s side in eventually. But it isn’t going to happen if they continue to stumble here and there. They have to be at full throttle every week now.
It won’t be easy. By mid-March City will have met Chelsea in the League Cup final, face Schalke in the last 16 of the Champions League, have an FA Cup weekend and travel to Old Trafford for a derby with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s rejuvenated Manchester United in the league. But who look that far ahead when the next week sees Guardiola’s side travel to Goodison Park on Wednesday and host Chelsea next Sunday? The games are coming thick and fast, testing desire and stamina, and before all that first City have to deal with Arsenal, who have come a long way since losing to Guardiola’s side on the opening day of the season.
No doubt things have changed since 12 August. Back then City looked dead certs to retain their title, sweeping a new-look Arsenal aside with impeccable ease. Yet Unai Emery has started to make his presence felt in the post-Wenger era. Arsenal remain a little fragile at the back, a little open in midfield, a little unreliable in attack at times, and there have been plenty of days when it hasn’t been easy to work out Emery’s plan. There have been a lot of lost first halves. But if you’re looking for progress, ignore how Arsenal reverted to type as they were picked off on the counterattack by United in the FA Cup last weekend and focus instead on stirring home wins over Chelsea and Tottenham in the league. Emery’s men are three points off fourth-placed Chelsea and, with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in scorching form, City will have to be at their sharpest. The opportunity is there to go two points behind Liverpool, who visit West Ham tomorrow night. City can’t afford to pass it up.
Kick-off: 4.30pm.
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