Manchester City beat Arsenal 3:0 at the Etihad Stadium, in a match where the unluckiest person was the Brazilian defender of the guests.
Three months later, the Premier League is back. We indeed had to wait for almost three halves for the first goal after the restart (Aston Villa and Sheffield United played 0-0), and it turned out to be, quite frankly, clumsy. In any case, it is difficult to choose another adjective to the actions of David Luiz. The Brazilian did not manage to interrupt a simple pass from the flank of Kevin de Bruyne, awkwardly jabbing the ball with his hip in the direction of Raheem Sterling, who heartily shot and scored a goal at the end of the first half. Bernd Leno was unable to save the team.
The German was the main character of the first 45 minutes, making three cool saves, but here he was powerless. However, for all its absurdity, the goal, as is commonly said in such cases, was a logic continuation of what was happening on the field.
The match between City and Arsenal was mainly positioned as the first meeting of Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta. We can remember that the current head coach of the Gunners helped Pep in Manchester and many saw him as the successor of the Catalan, but he decided not to wait and at the end of December and accepted the offer of the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta has always been a player who had a good technique and was also an intelligent midfielder. The last years of his career were troubled by injuries, but almost everyone expected he would pursue a coaching career. And it could be no better than being appointed to Pep Guardiola. The Spaniard was always a lovable figure not only in England and Spain but in Canada as well, perhaps because of the fact that he supposedly expressed the desire to become a coach of the Canadian national team at some point. It was not decided strongly yet, but allegedly some Canadian casino operators started to offer interesting opportunities to citizens, who would bet on Arteta becoming a coach of Canada. Right now, it is far from being executed, but who knows – perhaps in future Arteta will try this opportunity as well.
On the day of the match, The Athletic published a large and rather complimentary article about Arteta’s work at Arsenal. It was noted that he had a great conversation in the locker room with the players even after unsuccessful matches. Others said that now in training, football players are working in a good mood, smiling and laughing, which was not the case with the late Unai Emery. Arteta talks a lot with players and, in particular, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose contract expires next summer – the coach wants to keep the African in London.
Probably, the Spaniard had a plan for the game with City, obviously special for him. So, he left the traditional 4-2-3-1 scheme but changed the positions of a number of players. 18-year-old Frenchman Bukayo Saka – originally an attacker, who played a left-back under Arteta, became the right forward. It is interesting that Freddie Ljungberg moved him into the defence just in the first round match against City due to a series of injuries, and the experiment seemed to be considered successful.
But this plan quickly collapsed due to injuries. Already in the 8th minute, Granit Xhaka left the field, having faced his teammate Matteo Guendouzi. And on the 24th minute, the central defender Pablo Mari suffered an injury, instead of which David Luiz came out, and this turned into a disaster. After a mistake at the end of the first half, the Brazilian also brought a penalty kick into his net at the beginning of the second, losing the position to Riyad Mahrez and got sent off, although here, of course, it is worth noting Ederson’s outstanding long pass.
Just after the ejection, Luiz City took control of the game. Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos, who came out looked very sluggish and could not oppose the midfield of an opponent, and Guendouzi traditionally moved a lot and was also traditionally ineffective. Arsenal might have been able to fix something, but the monstrous mistakes of David Luiz demolished the last hopes.
Moreover, City for the first half-hour frankly rolled in. The amount of errors was unusually large. Even Kevin De Bruyne was mistaken in simple situations, and once his loss even led to the moment of Arsenal – almost the most dangerous for the whole match. But then the circumstances played in favour of the hosts, and Sterling’s goal completely changed the situation. And after the score 2-0, everything turned into training with increased responsibility.
City is now in a strange position. In fact, the remainder of the season in the Premier League turns for Manchester City as preparation for the August Champions League. In this sense, it is significant that 19-year-old Eric Garcia, a great talent whom Guardiola praises, mainly for tactical literacy and attention to detail, came out at the centre of defence with Aymeric Laporte. Perhaps this is the prototype of the main bunch of the central defenders of City in the next season – still, Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi are already at their twilight years. The main thing is that Laporte should be healthy.
It should be noted that Garcia was injured in the match by Ederson. The episode looked like a famous moment with Schumacher and Battiston at the 1982 World Cup. The Spaniard collapsed on the lawn, they helped him for a long time, and then they carried him away on a stretcher. This is probably a concussion and possibly a spinal injury. However, it will definitely be possible to say only after the examination.
If we talk about the outcome of the match in a global sense, then the victory of Manchester City means that Liverpool will not win the title this weekend. We’ll have to wait a little longer.
Manchester City beat Arsenal 3:0 at the Etihad Stadium, in a match where the unluckiest person was the Brazilian defender of the guests.
Three months later, the Premier League is back. We indeed had to wait for almost three halves for the first goal after the restart (Aston Villa and Sheffield United played 0-0), and it turned out to be, quite frankly, clumsy. In any case, it is difficult to choose another adjective to the actions of David Luiz. The Brazilian did not manage to interrupt a simple pass from the flank of Kevin de Bruyne, awkwardly jabbing the ball with his hip in the direction of Raheem Sterling, who heartily shot and scored a goal at the end of the first half. Bernd Leno was unable to save the team.
The German was the main character of the first 45 minutes, making three cool saves, but here he was powerless. However, for all its absurdity, the goal, as is commonly said in such cases, was a logic continuation of what was happening on the field.
The match between City and Arsenal was mainly positioned as the first meeting of Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta. We can remember that the current head coach of the Gunners helped Pep in Manchester and many saw him as the successor of the Catalan, but he decided not to wait and at the end of December and accepted the offer of the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta has always been a player who had a good technique and was also an intelligent midfielder. The last years of his career were troubled by injuries, but almost everyone expected he would pursue a coaching career. And it could be no better than being appointed to Pep Guardiola. The Spaniard was always a loveable figure not only in England and Spain but in Canada as well, perhaps because of the fact that he supposedly expressed the desire to become a coach of the Canadian national team at some point. It was not decided strongly yet, but allegedly some Canadian casino operators started to offer interesting opportunities to citizens, who would bet on Arteta becoming a coach of Canada. Right now, it is far from being executed, but who knows – perhaps in future Arteta will try this opportunity as well.
On the day of the match, The Athletic published a large and rather complimentary article about Arteta’s work at Arsenal. It was noted that he had a great conversation in the locker room with the players even after unsuccessful matches. Others said that now in training, football players are working in a good mood, smiling and laughing, which was not the case with the late Unai Emery. Arteta talks a lot with players and, in particular, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose contract expires next summer – the coach wants to keep the African in London.
Probably, the Spaniard had a plan for the game with City, obviously special for him. So, he left the traditional 4-2-3-1 scheme but changed the positions of a number of players. 18-year-old Frenchman Bukayo Saka – originally an attacker, who played a left-back under Arteta, became the right forward. It is interesting that Freddie Ljungberg moved him into the defence just in the first round match against City due to a series of injuries, and the experiment seemed to be considered successful.
But this plan quickly collapsed due to injuries. Already in the 8th minute, Granit Xhaka left the field, having faced his teammate Matteo Guendouzi. And on the 24th minute, the central defender Pablo Mari suffered an injury, instead of which David Luiz came out, and this turned into a disaster. After a mistake at the end of the first half, the Brazilian also brought a penalty kick into his net at the beginning of the second, losing the position to Riyad Mahrez and got sent off, although here, of course, it is worth noting Ederson’s outstanding long pass.
Just after the ejection, Luiz City took control of the game. Joe Willock and Dani Ceballos, who came out looked very sluggish and could not oppose the midfield of an opponent, and Guendouzi traditionally moved a lot and was also traditionally ineffective. Arsenal might have been able to fix something, but the monstrous mistakes of David Luiz demolished the last hopes.
Moreover, City for the first half-hour frankly rolled in. The amount of errors was unusually large. Even Kevin De Bruyne was mistaken in simple situations, and once his loss even led to the moment of Arsenal – almost the most dangerous for the whole match. But then the circumstances played in favor of the hosts, and Sterling’s goal completely changed the situation. And after the score 2-0, everything turned into training with increased responsibility.
City is now in a strange position. In fact, the remainder of the season in the Premier League turns for Manchester City as preparation for the August Champions League. In this sense, it is significant that 19-year-old Eric Garcia, a great talent whom Guardiola praises, mainly for tactical literacy and attention to detail, came out at the centre of defence with Aymeric Laporte. Perhaps this is the prototype of the main bunch of the central defenders of City in the next season – still, Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi are already at their twilight years. The main thing is that Laporte should be healthy.
It should be noted that Garcia was injured in the match by Ederson. The episode looked like a famous moment with Schumacher and Battiston at the 1982 World Cup. The Spaniard collapsed on the lawn, they helped him for a long time, and then they carried him away on a stretcher. This is probably a concussion and possibly a spinal injury. However, it will definitely be possible to say only after the examination.
If we talk about the outcome of the match in a global sense, then the victory of Manchester City means that Liverpool will not win the title this weekend. We’ll have to wait a little longer.
