Manchester City Dominant, Arsenal Go Missing : Three Talking Points
Alosh K Jose In what was the first heavyweight match of the Premier League this season, Pep Guardiola's Manchester City schooled a post-Arsene Wenger Arsenal. The reigning champions won the game 2-0 after goals from Raheem Sterling and Bernando Silva and responded perfectly to that emphatic win Liverpool secured earlier in the day . Here are the three thoughts from the game. 1. Manchester City's Desire to Win Still There Analyzing the Community Shield game between Arsenal and Man City, we had noted that there is no let off in their desire to be the best. Guardiola's men looks to be spurred on by the fact that nobody since a Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Manchester United have defended their title. They seem desperate to repeat their cross-city rivals' heroics.
Pep Guardiola's infectious spirit and desire has seen Man City be hungrier than ever. That much was evident from the Arsenal clash as City always held the Gunners at an arms' length. Yes, some of the passes towards the end did not find their targets as the City players seemed tired. But overall, it was a good game against a top-four contender. In his post-match interview Guardiola said that the desire of the City players are as strong as last year. It seems to be that really is the case. Pep Guardiola's teams do not rest on their laurels. And Manchester City is certainly Guardiola's team. 2. Arsenal Need Time It was strange to see an Arsenal technical area without Arsene Wenger. Despite not leaving Emirates with the trophy-laden send off the Frenchman craves, hi shadow is all over Arsenal. It must be in that context Unai Emery's beginning of reign must be studied.
New manager Unai Emery must be given time to put his ideas across. Unai Emery fielded his team after properly studying the City team, unlike Wenger who used to send out his team in one single way, no matter the opponent. That itself is a good start for the Gunners, to have a coach who understands how the opposition plays and reacts to it. Emery's Arsenal tries to press high up the field and play balls out from the back. More often than not, they were not successful in that. Manchester City smartly evaded the press and forced Peter Cech to kick longer sooner rather than later. The nervousness Arsenal players showed when employing Emery's tactics show, how much more work is needed to pull this side up from the Wenger era. His laissez-faire attitude towards training ground work had made these Arsenal players soft. It is extremely difficult to shake them towards more competitiveness within a fortnight. Emery needs more time. 3. City Evolves with the Signing of Riyad Mahrez and the Return of Mendy In our preview of Manchester City, we had noted the diverse ways of using Mahrez to create different problems to the opposition. Looks like Pep Gaurdiola is a fan of our blog as he used both Mahrez and Sterling as inverted wingers, allowing Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy to overlap frequently in the wings.
Benjamin Mendy provided two very different kinds of assists to show the tactical variety of this Manchester City side. This tactic is in contrast with hat Guardiola used last season where he chose to stretch the defence using natural wingers to open up space for Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva to work thier magic. With both of them not included in the starting eleven, the Spanish master tactician went the opposite way to include two inverted wingers and using the full backs to really stretch the field. Coupled with Benjamin Mendy's ability to both cut inside and overlap, City has an array of tactical options to confuse their opponents with. The Arsenal midfield and defence were caught out due to this tactics as it was clear Unai Emery had come for the wrong exam with his playbook. This tactical versatility makes Man City even more unpredictable in the final third and thus even more dangerous. Rivals, better watch out. Read the full article