And with that, I’m off. Here’s Daniel Taylor’s match report. Enjoy, and farewell.
Here are Petr Cech’s thoughts:
What changed was the early goal in the second half. It gave them a lot of confidence. They had to come out and put us under more pressure. I thought the goal gave them confidence. I thought we were in control of the game, even in the second half, but we couldn’t hold on to it. The second goal changed everything because they could defend well and wait for the counter-attack. [For the winner] There were players in front of the goal so I didn’t even see the shot. I don’t know if one of them was David Silva or not [it wasn’t]. I didn’t seen the ball because it was behind the players, and my reaction was late. We’re very disappointed with the whole week. We gave the other teams on top an advantage, but there’s a long way to go but now we need to come back, ideally win the next game. We need to concentrate on ourselves, go back to winning games, and then we’ll see what the others will do.
A statistical breakdown of Mesut Özil’s match. Tackles are shown as crosses: green if successful, orange if not successful. In the top left corner you’ll see the only cross. It’s orange.
Apparently today was the first occasion since 2012 that City have fought back from a half-time deficit to win a game.
Yaya Touré speaks:
I think we were more clinical [in the second half], more hunger, we got a chance and we did it. I think the individual action of Raheem was brilliant. In the second half we were more aggressive and totally dominated the game. I think we deserved to win today. We were more clever. Arsenal are very dangerous on the counter-attack. I think the defence did very well today, and Raheem did a big, big job. I think it was brilliant. We needed this kind of desire. Arsenal were brilliant from the beginning of the season until now. We did very well. They had a couple of chances, but the defence was brilliant today.
The home side were devoid of confidence, adventure and accuracy for the opening half-hour and Arsenal were on course for a comfortable win. But then the home team roused and the mood transformed. Arsenal faded, and Mesut Özil’s woeful defending was an alarming sight for a manager with designs on the title.
From our report on Arsenal’s defeat at Everton on Tuesday night.
Final score: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal
90+5 mins: Inevitably, they take it short. The absolute fools. The referee blows his whistle before the ball reaches the penalty area.
90+5 mins: Into stoppage time at the end of stoppage time, and Fernando is booked for fouling Bellerin. Arsenal have a free-kick on the half-way line, and have to score from it.
90+4 mins: Gabriel gets booked for giving David Silva an excuse to fling himself to the ground.
90+3 mins: Iheanacho crosses into a deserted Arsenal penalty area instead of wasting time near the corner flag, incurring his manager’s wrath.
90+2 mins: Arsenal have spent a minute and a bit failing to get the ball out of their own half. The clock is ticking. “Everyone having a go at Ozil,” writes Gavin O’Reilly. “I see Theo did his five minutes of football in the first five mins … then took the rest of the game off. His coffee maker must already be wrapped.”
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there’ll be four minutes of it, or thereabouts.
89 mins: The state of Özil in this clip. I don’t know if he’s unfit, unwell, unhappy or just underpaid, but either motivation or mobility is an issue.
Ozil just ball watching pic.twitter.com/wJKFRjL2Xg
— DAVW (@Goalskjaer) December 18, 2016
88 mins: Elneny is booked for fouling Fernando.
@Simon_Burnton you definitely know Xmas is coming when Arsenal's title challenge ends.
— MupingMike (@Mupingmike) December 18, 2016
87 mins: But the ball is cleared for an Arsenal throw, from which they’re forced to pass back into their own half.
86 mins: Arsenal have owned the last five minutes or so, and now have a free kick on the left after Otamendi fouled Özil, who will take.
83 mins: Arsenal push forward again, but when the ball is chipped to the far post Sagna wins the header, nods it into Giroud’s face, and it flies over the bar. City promptly bring Iheanacho on for De Bruyne.
82 mins: Arsenal are, though, showing signs of life. Sánchez and Özil combine, the German slides in Walcott on the right of the penalty area, but he chips the ball beyond the far post.
80 mins: This has been a humbling half for Arsenal, who have shown neither class nor application. I don’t know what Wenger said to them at half-time, but it must have been rubbish.
80 mins: De Bruyne is booked for taking out Gabriel.
78 mins: Oxlade-Chamberlain has obviously been hurt, as he’s only lasted 13 minutes or so, and now Elneny has replaced him.
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78 mins: De Bruyne’s pass to Silva is a little slow, allowing Koscielny to slide in and dispossess. A better pass there and the Spaniard was through.
77 mins: City hit the post! Silva finds an outrageous amount of space in midfield, plays the ball wide to Navas, and his cross is deflected at least twice before crashing into the near post. De Bruyne may have got the final touch.
76 mins: And another change for City: Jesús Navas replaces Sané.
75 mins: Olivier Giroud has arrived to give Arsenal some muscle up front, and Coquelin has departed.
74 mins: He lives!
Yeeeees! ⚽👌 @sterling7 #MCIARS
— Ilkay Gündogan (@IlkayGuendogan) December 18, 2016
74 mins: I think we’ve found our scapegoat.
Mesut Özil today... pic.twitter.com/swwBUtGWxQ
— BenchWarmers (@BeWarmers) December 18, 2016
Like Ozil, I also like to wander around Manchester now and then just killing time
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) December 18, 2016
Lots of stick for City's Gundogan tribute, but Arsenal have let some guy in an 'OZIL 11' shirt run around on the pitch!
— Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) December 18, 2016
Any information call Mr A Wenger in North London pic.twitter.com/HpOQfMsMuW
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) December 18, 2016
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal (Sterling, 72 mins)
City’s comeback is crowned by Sterling. De Bruyne’s super 50-yard over-the-shoulder pass finds Sterling, who teases Monreal, comes into the area, gives himself room to swing his left boot and blasts past Cech at the near post!
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70 mins: De Bruyne shoots into Xhaka, off whom the ball spins towards the far post, but Cech tips it wide wide. From the corner another deflection from De Bruyne sends the ball towards the same post, but really very slowly, and Cech picks it up.
67 mins: Arsenal attack for the first time in ages, but Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross picks out only a defender. “I’ve watched this whole game so far and I’ve only just realised that Özil is playing,” writes David Flynn. “Which tells you everything you need to know about the type of player he is this season.”
65 mins: Silva sends a low shot wide, and Arsenal ready their first substitution. It’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who is coming on for Iwobi.
64 mins: Arsenal just cannot keep the ball at the moment. They’re a shambles.
63 mins: Arsenal give the ball away in a dangerous area agin, but Sterling shoots narrowly wide from distance.
62 mins: Save! Arsenal win the ball, commit a few men forward, lose it, win it back again, commit a couple more men forward, lose it again and then De Bruyne’s got time to pick a pass, plays in Sané, and Cech comes out to block his shot.
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60 mins: The visitors appear to have left their dynamism in the dressing room. Meanwhile, here’s the least necessary statistic of the day.
Daniel Sturridge (aged 19 in Nov 2008) is the only player younger than Leroy Sane to score a PL goal for Man City against Arsenal pic.twitter.com/ytKR42KmKZ
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) December 18, 2016
58 mins: Arsenal spend three minutes pinned back, with 10 players behind the ball and within 35 yards of their own goal, but all City produce at the end of it is a weak cross, claimed by Cech.
Bacary Sagna. Time and again. Changes games.
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) December 18, 2016
55 mins: Coquelin wins the ball in his own penalty area and simply refuses to clear it, no matter how extreme the provocation. Instead he sets off on a mazy solo run, which takes him about 10 yards, and then gives it away.
53 mins: Bellerin blooters the ball high from 30 yards as some promising Arsenal passing comes to nought.
Sagna on for Zabaleta. Surprised that #MCFC didn't come on for 2nd half in Zabaleta shirts to commemorate his substitution. #MCFCvAFC
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) December 18, 2016
51 mins: Coquelin is currently receiving treatment for a sore-looking right knee.
Arsenal: Have now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 12 matches after keeping a clean sheet in 7 of their previous 8 #MCIARS
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) December 18, 2016
51 mins: Touré is booked for protesting very loudly about a throw-in decision.
8 - Petr Cech gone eight consecutive Premier League games without a clean sheet for the first time in his career. Breached.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 18, 2016
GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Arsenal (Sané, 47 mins)
City score with their first attack of the half! Cech’s goal kick lands on a City chest, is popped around a bit, and then Silva lifts the ball over the Arsenal defence for Sané – who looked offside at the time, but is shown on the replays to be perhaps just onside – to run through and slide the ball into goal.
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46 mins: Early impressions are that in the half-time reshuffle Sané has moved from right to left, and Sterling from centre to right, with De Bruyne in the middle with Silva.
46 mins: Peeeeep! City get the second half under way.
The players are coming out for the second half, and they’re not the same as the ones who left it 15 minutes ago: Bacary Sagna has replaced Zabaleta for City.
Half-time reading:
This is quite good, then.
17 - Arsenal remain the only side yet to be trailing a Premier League game at half-time this season (winning 8, drawing 9). Tight.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 18, 2016
When I wrote that Otamendi tackled Otamendi earlier, it was in fact Sánchez who was doing the tackling. He seemed to recover.
Half time: Manchester City 0-1 Arsenal
And that is half time. “Guardiola’s men concede an early goal and are having trouble tackling ? This stomach-turning start must have City fans reaching for the Pep-to-abysmal,” puns Peter Oh.
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45+1 mins: The first and only minute of stoppage time starts with another City corner, a De Bruyne cross, and a Yaya Touré free header that goes straight to Cech.
45 mins: A very lovely little passing move on the left from Arsenal is halted just when it threatened to get really interesting, when Monreal is caught marginally offside.
44 mins: Cech catches a cross, then thinks about throwing it out to his right, stops, looks to his left, thinks about throwing it there, stops, thinks about doing it again, stops and finally kicks clear. 50 minutes to go.
42 mins: Sané does very well on the right, works space, crosses, and Gabriel gets just in front of De Bruyne to turn it behind for a corner.
41 mins: Sánchez tries to tackle Otamendi, misses and seems to have hurt his ankle in the process.
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39 mins: A briefly very threatening move ends with Walcott passing just behind Sánchez, and though Arsenal keep the ball the threat passes, and ends altogether when Bellerin blasts a shot high from 25 yards.
38 mins: David Silva, already warned, is booked for very deliberately tripping Coquelin.
36 mins: Arsenal take a short corner, from which Monreal eventually crosses, and Walcott heads wide.
35 mins: Sané chips the ball into the area, where De Bruyne controls, feels Bellerin’s warm breath on the back of his neck and falls over. The referee turns down his appeals for a penalty.
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32 mins: Arsenal attack, and Walcott is totally unmarked as the ball is looped towards him, but his ambitious spinning volley flies over.
31 mins: Gabriel boots a clearance into the back of Bellerin’s head, and Cech has to make an unusual save.
30 mins: “Why are there so many smiles amongst the City fans in this photograph?” asks Jim Crane. A fine question (there’s a bigger version of the photo just down the page a tad). There are at least four people, half of them wearing City scarves, who seem delighted about the goal.
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29 mins: A brighter, more threatening attack from City ends with the ball being cleared away from Silva, but also with the crowd waking up and giving an encouraging roar.
27 mins: Koscielny’s weak clearing header is picked up by Sterling, who twists this way, turns that, and then has a shot deflected wide for a corner.
25 mins: An overhit pass from City ends up at the feet of Cech, who stands still until an opponent closes him down and forces him to pick the ball up. And so the timewasting begins. About 70 minutes to go.
22 mins: City are having a lot of possession, though having kept the ball for a couple of minutes all they come up with is a long-range De Bruyne shot that flies well over the bar.
Updated
19 mins: City’s plan to counter Arsenal’s pace and threat on the counter, identified by Guardiola pre-match as their greatest threats, is to play a comedy defence really high up the pitch, and just one defensive midfielder.
16 mins: It seems Guardiola still hasn’t told anyone how to tackle.
15 mins: Arsenal’s second attack doesn’t end with a goal, but it wasn’t too far off, City’s defence split wide open by a simple one-two involving Walcott and Özil, but the cross is headed clear.
14 mins: Yaya Touré is very nicely tackled just outside the penalty area, prompting howls of rage from the home fans.
11 mins: De Bruyne lifts the ball into the area, where Touré heads wide. And he was actually just offside.
Updated
10 mins: Koscielny takes out Sterling with a late, sloppy sliding tackle, 35 yards out, and escapes a booking because it’s still a bit too early in the game for the referee to book someone.
9 mins: Iwobi has the ball in his own half, and ahead of him Sánchez peels away from his marker and sprints into acres of space behind City’s backline. Infuriatingly, Iwobi prods the ball into an opponent’s legs.
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8 mins: Before the game Wenger said: “It’s hard to know before the game will it be locked, or will it be madness?” Looks like they’ve chosen madness.
6 mins: What a miss from Sterling! It’s a lovely cross from De Bruyne, Sterling has escaped from Koscielny, but he heads the ball wide from seven yards!
GOAL! Manchester City 0-1 Arsenal (Walcott, 5 mins)
Arsenal score with their first attack! Sánchez takes the ball with his back to goal, 30 yards out, spots Walcott’s run and picks him out with a pass behind Otamendi, and the speedster has time to control, compose himself and shoot low past Bravo!
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4 mins: Sané races into some space down the right, but he ignores the space on the wing, cuts inside and wonders into Koscielny, who dispossesses him.
3 mins: City are playing with Raheem Sterling as the main central attacker, with David Silva in reasonably close support.
1 min: Peeeeep! Arsenal kick off, game on.
They are no longer in the tunnel. Anthems have been played and hands shaken. Action imminent.
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The players are in the tunnel, City’s all wearing Ilkay Gundogan No8 shirts, as a show of support to their injured team-mate.
I’m not surprised the penguin is looking at that ball with a confused expression. Someone has deliberately sought out a penguinish ball. To a penguin, it must look like someone has compressed one of its siblings into a sphere, and then asked them to play with it. What does that do to a penguin, psychologically?
Pep Guardiola does his pre-match chat:
I decided on this line-up. That’s all. Every week, every game is the same. The same back four. Gundogan is injured and Leroy is inside for his pace. We have a plan. Every manager has a plan for their games. We have one. I imagine Arsène has another one. Arsenal make a high press really good, with Alexis and Walcott and Iwobi. After that, the midfield players defend deep. They have a real good counter-attack, one of the best teams in the world on those terms. If you are able to let them play, they are amazing. The wingers come inside, they pass, pass, pass, and when you are sleeping in that moment they attack the space, with Monreal, with Walcott, with Bellerin. To win, we must attack, control, what we try to build from the beginning. The way we want to play, with these players, adapting to the absence that we have.
There are penguins at the Etihad. Penguins. What is happening to this world? And who would give a penguin a novelty penguin tent to shelter in? What’s that going to do to them, psychologically?
Arsène Wenger has done some chatting to Sky:
We cannot influence the results of the other teams. We can influence our own results. The way to do it is to win here and have a positive game. It could be a spectacular game. It’s never predictable. I believe it’s a very important game for both teams. Both teams will be very organised, defend very well as well. It’s hard to know before the game will it be locked, or will it be madness? You never know. You have three, four chances that you have to put to bed. Our finishing has to be clear, but let’s first try to create chances and as well stop them from having chances. They have today a team that’s very technical, more midfielders than strikers, so it’ll be very important to defend well. At Everton our performance was there but we paid a little bid physically. We want to bounce back straight away after a disappointing result.
“No Shakin’ Stevens in the line-up? That will disappoint fans of Fulchester Rovers, though perhaps Caballero or Cech will do an impersonation of Billy the Fish in goal,” writes Charles Antaki. Shaky had his moments, not all of them cartoon-based, but these ears have heard his Christmas classic a few times too often. This one, on the other hand, is always welcome.
Whoever chooses the pre-match music at the Etihad has done a good job of avoiding the most obvious, overplayed Christmas dunes, going with Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses and What Christmas Means to Me by Stevie Wonder. A cheering absence of Shakin’ Stevens there.
Our Playlist feature is back & @HitmanHatton has chosen some of today's tracks. There's a great competition to get involved with too! #MCFC pic.twitter.com/2HaakphKGO
— City Square Live (@citysquarelive) December 18, 2016
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The team sheets are in, and the names they had on them were these:
Man City: Bravo, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Kolarov, Clichy, Fernando, Sané, Touré, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling. Subs: Sagna, Nolito, Caballero, Jesus Navas, Stones, Iheanacho, Garcia.
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Xhaka, Walcott, Özil, Iwobi, Sánchez. Subs: Gibbs, Lucas Perez, Giroud, Ospina, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Holding, Elneny.
Referee: Martin Atkinson.
TEAM NEWS with @haysworldwide #cityvafc #mcfc pic.twitter.com/IhBLvYsPzD
— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 18, 2016
The wait is over... here's how we line up for #MCFCvAFC pic.twitter.com/251uHnAiMS
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) December 18, 2016
Preamble
Hello world!
Chelsea’s 11 wins on the spin have given them not so much a cushion as an entire sofa at the top of the league, and though both of these teams will believe they have the wherewithal to catch them, whoever loses this game may well require a similar run – as well as the league leaders going off the boil, obviously – for them to return to genuine title reckoning.
It’s a big game, sure enough, and one the home side face without the injured Ilkay Gundogan or the suspended Fernandino and Sergio Agüero, but with the knowledge that in their last three months of domestic endeavour they have only beaten Swansea, West Brom (pre-recent improvement), Crystal Palace, Burnley and Watford, and just the last of them at home (Uncannily, Arsenal’s next six league games are against the last six teams to have lost to City in the league, the above five plus Bournemouth). Arsenal’s recent form is more convincing, but if the football truism that you’re only as good as your last game holds any water, Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat at Everton suggests they are more than fallible.
And so, the stage is set. It’s not yet Christmas, and the league is not quite half-run. We haven’t reached the win-or-bust stage yet. But defeat here would provide some evidence that either side’s days as genuine title contenders may well be, in traditional festive panto style, behind them.
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