Feature

Why City have gained more than three points on Arsenal

By Alex Keble 26 Apr 2023

Alex Keble reflects on the significance of Man City's dominant victory over the league leaders

A victory for Manchester City was always going to swing the momentum in the title race, but the sheer dominance of their 4-1 victory over Arsenal might just have broken the challengers.

MCI

4-1

ARS

This was total annihilation, a breathtaking Man City performance that put the match to bed before the hour-mark and left Mikel Arteta’s side chugging through the second half, ruing their misfortune that such a crucial fixture should fall after three consecutive draws had clipped their wings.

Rarely is first versus second such a mismatch, but rarely in Premier League history has one club looked so complete in every area. Arsenal were battered and bruised throughout, made dizzy by the sheer variety of Man City strengths, from Kevin De Bruyne’s and Erling Haaland’s drives through the heart of midfield to the long bouts of suffocating possession.

See: Guardiola hails connection between De Bruyne and Haaland

By the final whistle it felt like a lot more than three points gained on the leaders. Instead, it felt as though Pep Guardiola’s side were already top of the league and out of sight, such was the gulf in class.

How quickly things can change in football. At the beginning of April, Arsenal were eight points clear at the top, a distance they had held throughout the FIFA World Cup 2022 break and beyond. Three weeks later, Opta now put Man City’s chances of winning the league at 91 per cent.

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
1	Manchester City MCI	38	+61	89
2	Arsenal ARS	38	+45	84

All of a sudden Arsenal look brittle, their title hopes collapsing in the blink of an eye. They have now gone four matches without victory in the Premier League and need to win all of their remaining five to stand any chance of ending a 19-year wait to lift the trophy.

Even if they win all five, Arsenal would need Man City to drop five points – as many as the champions have across their last 11 matches.

See: Arteta: We're not going to give up

Realistically, attention should turn to an assessment of Arsenal’s season as runners-up. It would undoubtedly be a phenomenal success relative to expectations back in August, but after collecting 50 points from the first 19 matches their run since – 25 points from 14, or 1.79 per match – is, disappointingly, the same as their 2021/22 average, and will leave supporters feeling frustrated.

Man City simply do not look like a team about to slip up. By extending their run to seven consecutive Premier League wins, Guardiola’s side are now within 11 matches of becoming the first English side since Manchester United in 1999 to win the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League Treble.

There is a lot of work left to do, particularly in Europe, but a fifth league title in six years is now theirs for the taking. After such an emphatic and mesmerising victory, it might even feel – to buoyant Man City fans and dejected Arsenal ones – that Guardiola has one hand firmly gripping the trophy.

That’s what a win like this, a performance like this, can do to a title race. Tonight was a masterclass from Guardiola; a humbling for the apprentice.