Football writer Alex Keble explores how Chelsea's stoppage-time equaliser has given Arsenal a commanding lead in the title race.
As the clock wound down with Manchester City leading 1-0, the hush around the Etihad Stadium was not due to complacency or expectation but nerves.
This was not a high-quality game of football, nor was it an eventful one, yet throughout the second half Chelsea always looked like they could nick a goal, such was the strange, subdued, scrappy nature of this contest. Sure enough, one messy moment at the back post and the Premier League title race has taken another unexpected turn.
Arsenal are now six points clear, which, remarkably, is their biggest ever lead at the top after 20 games of a Premier League season.
Arsenal’s biggest Premier League leads after Matchweek 20
| Season | Points clear |
| 2002/03 | 4 |
|---|---|
| 2007/08 | 2 |
| 2022/23 | 5 |
| 2025/26 | 6 |
That is hugely significant; a moment to celebrate for Gunners fans and, like their swaggering statement win over Aston Villa in Matchweek 19, a clear sign they are the favourites to be crowned champions.
Man City's failure to score second goal proves costly
Arsenal extended their lead by two points across Matchweek 20, courtesy of them surviving a scare to win 3-2 at AFC Bournemouth on Saturday and then Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez stabbing the ball into Man City's net at the third attempt, deep into stoppage time on Sunday.
Man City’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea was almost the exact opposite of Arsenal's five-goal thriller: a foggy match, perhaps reflecting the tiredness these players must feel after their recent schedules.
Pep Guardiola made attacking substitutions but could not shore up central midfield and, just when it seemed Man City would get away with it, Malo Gusto’s low cross from the right found Fernandez.
We are so used to Man City seeing these games out, the goal came as a shock – to Guardiola as much as anyone else, who praised his players for a “fantastic” 90 minutes and with a shrug explained the result as simply “one action, and they score a goal.”
There is some truth in that, but Man City looked dishevelled towards the end while managerless Chelsea, resurgent, were good value for their equaliser.
We tend to see Man City as the quietly efficient side and Arsenal as the emotional one, yet this weekend the latter held firm while Guardiola's side let the points slip through their fingers.
This has given Mikel Arteta's leaders a strong grip on top spot before they host Liverpool on Thursday, 24 hours after Man City host Brighton & Hove Albion.
McFarlane’s tactical pendulum swing earns Chelsea a deserved point
For the first 45 minutes, Chelsea were extremely defensive, sitting deep and refusing to come out, a move that certainly goes against the principles of the departed Enzo Maresca but made sense for Calum McFarlane, the Under-21 coach in interim charge of the first team.
McFarlane, channelling his inner Jose Mourinho, parked the bus; Chelsea had 32 per cent possession and one shot on goal in the first 45 minutes.
Chelsea’s huge injury list, particularly in defence, justified McFarlane’s plan for a backs-to-the-wall approach and it very nearly worked. Tijjani Reijnders’ goal was a rare moment when a very narrow Man City attack got through a deep and compact Chelsea shell.
But once the opener went in, Chelsea had to react, and it was an almighty swing of the pendulum from McFarlane in the second half.
If the defensive approach was extreme, then so too was the attacking set-up after the break, when Chelsea’s 4-2-3-1 often resembled something more like a 3-2-5 at times, with Gusto all-but abandoning his right-back duties to support the attackers as they streamed forward.
Chelsea players popped up in truly bizarre positions, from centre-backs in central midfield to wingers filling in at the back, and indeed it was the oddness of the game that prevented Man City from getting any control.
In other words Chelsea created chaos – and pulled Man City into it. The below graphic shows a shift in momentum from Man City (pink bars) in the first half to Chelsea (purple) for large parts of the second period.
Guardiola could not react, primarily because he, too, is struggling with injuries. John Stones, Mateo Kovacic and Nico Gonzalez were all sidelined, meaning Guardiola did not have the options to slow the game down as he normally would.
But that should not take anything away from McFarlane, who took a big swing on his debut and was rewarded. On this evidence, he doesn’t do anything by half.
From all-out defence to all-out attack, McFarlane deserves huge credit for muddling Guardiola’s side and stealing a draw, in the process proving that Man City are fallible.
Injuries hurt them, just like everyone else, and even Erling Haaland – now three games without a goal – won’t always get them out of trouble.
Man City have hidden vulnerabilities, Arsenal hidden strengths. Arteta will know what the statistics confirm: his team are in unprecedented territory. The Premier League title is theirs to lose.