As the fifth meeting of Manchester City and Arsenal in 2023 ended like the first, with the only goal going in off Nathan Ake, there was a significant difference. This time, unlike in January’s FA Cup tie, Arsenal were the victors.
Ake may have bookended a year where rivalries were renewed with greater frequency with an unfortunate touch, heading Gabriel Martinelli’s shot past Ederson, but it was enough for the majority present to revive a chant from George Graham’s days. One-nil to the Arsenal? It was, and the eventual significance may only be measured in May.
If stalemate had beckoned, if much of the match had the feel of a phoney war, it was nevertheless the case that Arsenal had lost both the battles and the wars beforehand. They had 12 consecutive Premier League defeats against City, no win against them in the division since 2015. The unlucky 13th came for Ake.
And if Arsenal’s Community Shield triumph came on penalties and this courtesy of a deflection, there are times when the ends justify the means, when even purists like Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola have to focus on the pragmatic impact of the result.
And this was huge for Arsenal. Had City won, the temptation would have been to say that they could not catch City. Arsenal topped last season’s table for 248 days, boasted an eight-point lead at one point and were still overhauled. So then try playing catch-up against the treble winners.
And at times it feels as though Arteta has tried everything in his bid to outwit Guardiola. He has tried playing possession football, only to be beaten when City went direct. Arsenal had 64 percent of the ball at the Emirates last season and City scored 75 percent of the goals. He has tried signing Guardiola’s players, in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus. He has tried signing the player who got a Champions League final winner against City, in Kai Havertz. He has tried signing a major target for Guardiola, in Declan Rice.
