The crowd at the Emirates Stadium in London could hardly complain about the football entertainment that the two top English teams offered on Wednesday night.
Much was high-class, such as the many individual technical numbers, the creative passing solutions and the sharp finishes. It was not otherwise, like Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu’s home pass in the 24th minute. Like City goalkeeper Ederson’s reckless tackle in the 40th.
The former tried to reach his goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, but forgot to look up. Had he done that, he would have seen Kevin De Bruyne coming running. The Belgian midfield star took advantage of Tomiyasu’s mistake mercilessly and lobbed in 1-0 over a chanceless Ramsdale.
VAR assist didn’t help
However, Ederson would give Arsenal the chance to equalise. Eddie Nketiah worked his way into a position in the penalty area and got a finish past Ederson before being rammed by him. The fact that Nathan Aké saved the ball on the goal line did not matter, the referee Anthony Taylor could not ignore the goalkeeper’s infringement and pointed to the penalty spot.
Bukayo Saka stepped forward and safely rolled in 1-1, to the great joy of the crowd.
But it would be City’s night in the end.
Not in the 56th minute, when Norwegian attacking ace Erling Braut Haaland had his awarded penalty annulled after a VAR check.
But well into the 72nd, when the same Haaland opted out of his own finish to instead play the ball to Ilkay Gündogan, who spliced it on to Jack Grealish. The Englishman took advantage of the trust and via a touch on the unfortunate Tomiyasu, he made it 2-1 to City.
Bad Arsenal trends
It was a match which, based on the picture of the game, could have been won by both teams. Arsenal were sharper in the first half, the visitors clearly better in the second.
But several trends spoke for Manchester City. Partly because Arsenal came to the match in their first slump, with three straight games without a win. Partly because City won the last ten league meetings between the teams.
Arsenal tried to find an equaliser. Instead, Haaland punctuated the match by making it 3-1 in the 82nd minute.
For the first time since round two, Manchester City now top the Premier League table, level on points with Arsenal. However, the London team still has the grip numerically, with one game to spare.
On April 26, the teams meet next time, in round 33 of 38.