For Arsenal, it felt as if all hope had left the stadium. Mikel Arteta had started with the dial turned towards caution but, by the time the board went up to show seven minutes of stoppage time, the manager had torn off the handbrake, sending on attacking substitutes, praying that one of his finishers could come up trumps.
It was attack versus defence, as it had been throughout, but now it was a ridiculously extreme version. Pep Guardiola had everybody back, his Manchester City team set up in a 5-4-1 formation, desperately holding on to the advantage given to them by Erling Haaland in the ninth minute.
The breakthrough seemed to have come in a different age, Haaland running through to finish for his seventh City goal in six appearances this season. Thereafter, his team defended. And they defended some more. It was a war of attrition. Guardiola withdrew Phil Foden, he withdrew Haaland. He introduced more defensive players. Was it really him?
City finished with 32.8% of the possession; the lowest number for a Guardiola team in 601 top-flight games. They looked leggy, which was unsurprising given they had played in the Champions League at home to Napoli on Thursday night. Arsenal had their European fixture at Athletic Bilbao in a Tuesday tea-time kick-off. One question: why did Guardiola name an unchanged side?
City looked set to stagger over the line; the hardest-fought of three points were within their grasp. Then Arsenal made it happen. Arteta’s team looked to have run out of ideas. But when one substitute, Eberechi Eze, saw another, Gabriel Martinelli, begin a run in behind the City backline, his lob was made to measure.
Martinelli’s finish was outstanding. The first touch was true and, with the outside of his right boot, he managed the not insignificant feat of lifting the ball up and over Gianluigi Donnarumma and down into the far corner. Cue joy, relief, bedlam; the full heady cocktail for Arsenal. Arteta’s celebrations were arguably the wildest.
It was not the result that Arsenal wanted and it was hard not to see the league leaders, Liverpool, as the biggest beneficiaries. Even when they are not scoring the last-gasp goals themselves, they are working for them. But for Arteta and Arsenal, it was at least something.
Arteta had gone with another of his midfield muscle lineups. In the injury-enforced absence of Martin Ødegaard, he did not try Eze in the No 10 role at the outset; rather he went for Mikel Merino. He also preferred Leandro Trossard to Eze on the left. There were echoes of the approach in the 1-0 defeat at Liverpool at the end of August. The plan for solidity would be hit hard early on.
Arsenal brought the press, with Gabriel Magalhães tight to Haaland in a congested central space midway inside the City half. But the striker’s solution was to turn the ball up and around the corner to send Tijjani Reijnders racing upfield. Arsenal were exposed and Haaland did not hang around to admire his work. He eased up through the gears to give Reijnders an option to the right of centre and, when the pass was played, the weight on it just right, the finish was a formality.
City were initially 4-4-2 out of possession, Bernardo Silva alongside Haaland, and Arsenal’s challenge was to navigate through the thick blue lines. They forced a handful of first-half corners and there were flickers from Noni Madueke on the right. But what could they look back on at the interval in terms of chances? Their only real one followed a drop of the shoulder by Madueke and a blast for the near corner. Donnarumma repelled it with a mighty paw.
Arteta had to act at half-time and he did, introducing Eze for Merino. He also brought on Bukayo Saka, who was back in the squad after a hamstring injury, for Madueke. There was a more positive energy about Arsenal upon the restart; inside the stadium, too. It was not that City were penned back more. They could hardly get any deeper. It was that Arsenal had greater urgency. Saka was in the mood. Martín Zubimendi shot high from the edge of the area. Eze thumped a half-volley at Donnarumma.
City almost landed the counterpunch in the 57th minute, Haaland barrelling up the inside left onto a Jérémy Doku pass and he had Foden square for the tap-in. Haaland took on the shot and David Raya saved. But really, the question concerned whether City could hold firm.
Guardiola sent on Nathan Aké for Foden on 68 minutes and went to the back five. The next eyebrow-raiser was Nico González for Haaland in the 76th minute, Doku going into the No 9 position. It was so unusual to see Guardiola play this way, to sacrifice the aesthetic. The result was all that mattered.
Arteta went through agonies in his technical area because it was so difficult for his players to find any spaces. After the burst at the start of the second half, it descended into a slog. Frustration replaced optimism in the stands.
Arteta sent on Martinelli for Jurriën Timber and went to a back three. He also got Ethan Nwaneri on as an extra central attacking midfielder. The system was 3-2-4-1; in other words, all or nothing. Martinelli had made the difference off the bench in Bilbao, scoring one and setting up the other in the 2-0 win. Here, he was the match-saver.
