Arsenal were beaten by Manchester City in a huge title clash but there was reason to believe this result is not fatal to their chances after encouraging signs
I have little doubt that the overriding emotion is one of sadness and a sense of what could have been. Yet despite my initial predictions being that Arsenal would lose this game, and lose badly, that reality did not come to pass, despite the overall result being the same.
Some might argue, therefore, why would I feel any different, yet the reality is indeed not one where I feel downhearted or defeated. Weirdly, I feel encouraged and have more confidence than I did before the game began.
I was resigned to being beaten handily because of the performances lately, especially the defeat to Bournemouth. I have never been so low about this team as I was when we were beaten by the Cherries, but this performance, and how Arsenal continued to push until the end, has made me think differently.
It could, of course, be blind naivety; there is always a chance of that. Yet, the details of the game, the selection and the near misses vindicate Declan Rice’s post-match camera-spotted message of, “It’s not over!”
I have been calling for Eberechi Eze to start on Arsenal’s left for some time and despite being at fault for the first goal, losing a 50-50 challenge which eventually saw the ball drop to Rayan Cherki, there is so much encouragement to be taken from his display. Mikel Arteta said before the game that they would not spend one second considering playing for a draw, and his line-up suggested that.
Martin Odegaard appeared to catch some heat online, at least from what I have been told – I have learned not to scroll through my social feeds besides dropping the odd reaction take and then locking my phone rapidly and ignoring the incessant buzzing that follows as counter-takes flood in. I thought, though, that the captain had a good game; he created four chances, two more than the rest of all the Arsenal players involved (including substitutes) combined…
Gabriel, I feel, played the game too emotionally and was lucky to stay on the field. I have to be honest if the shoe is on the other foot, a red card would be vehemently being called for by me. Equally, I watched Barcelona have two men sent off in two games for what Abdukodir Khusanov did to Kai Havertz but here not even a foul was given – bizarre.
It was a game of fine margins, and when you look at the attacking fours of both sides, City’s is comfortably the better of the two. That comes down to recruitment and decisions that will come later.
In regars to the league title, Man City have the chance to, and I think they will, go top of the league when they go to Burnley in midweek. But their games to come against Brentford, Bournemouth, Everton, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa are far from straightforward.
But that is them, and Arsenal can only focus on themselves. The league is, at this stage, in the hands of both clubs, with only goal difference separating the two sides should both win all their remaining games.
It means that Arsenal now don’t only need to win, but win well. When I asked Arteta about this reality, however, he appeared to hint that he is expecting both sides to drop more points due to the difficulty of the Premier League.
“Yes, let’s see what happens,” he replied. “It’s the Premier League.
“First of all, to win a game in this league is extremely tough. I mean, look at the fixtures that we both have. It’s going to be tough for both of them.
“If not, we would have already 80 points or 85 points, like happened in other seasons, it is not the case. So we will prepare game by game and learn from what happened today and do better.”
The first test for Arsenal is a struggling Newcastle United side, with the Emirates Stadium crowd again behind them to give them all the encouragement they need. They can return to the summit again if it is lost to them in a few days; however, it will be about more than just winning and, instead, about scoring.
