For Arsenal, it felt as if all hope had left the stadium. Mikel Arteta had started with the dial turned towards caution but by the time the board went up to show seven minutes of stoppage time, the manager had torn off the handbrake, sending on attacking substitutes, praying that one of his finishers could come up trumps.
It was attack versus defence, as it had been throughout, but now it was a ridiculously extreme version, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City set up with everybody deep; 5-4-1, desperately holding on to the advantage given to them by Erling Haaland in the ninth minute.
The breakthrough goal seemed to have happened in a different age, Haaland running through to finish for his seventh City goal in six appearances so far this season. Was this really Guardiola, taking off forward-thinking players, including Haaland, and just clinging on?
City looked set to get over the line, the hardest fought of three points coming their way when Arsenal finally made it happen. Arteta’s team looked to have run out of ideas. And then one substitute, Eberechi Eze, saw another replacement, Gabriel Martinelli, begin an all-or-nothing run behind the City back line. And he lobbed the ball towards him.
Martinelli’s finish was outstanding. The touch was perfect and, with the outside of his right boot, he managed the not insignificant feat of lifting the ball up and over Gianluigi Donnarumma and down into the far corner. Cue joy, relief, bedlam, Arteta’s celebrations arguably the wildest. It was not the result that Arsenal wanted and it was difficult not to see the league leaders, Liverpool, as the biggest winners from the day. But it was something.
Arteta has come to be obsessed with control and he had gone with another midfield muscle selection at the outset. In the injury-enforced absence of Martin Ødegaard, he did not try Eze in the No 10 role at the beginning; rather he went for Mikel Merino. He started Leandro Trossard ahead of Eze on the left. There were echoes of his approach in the 1-0 defeat at Liverpool at the end of August. The plan for solidity would be hit hard early on.
Guardiola had named an unchanged XI. Again. The slight tweak was Phil Foden on the right, Bernardo Silva in a central area. When City broke out of a tightly-congested midfield space midway inside their own half, they broke the game open.
Arsenal brought the press, with Gabriel Magalhães tight to Haaland. So Haaland simply turned the ball up and around the corner to send Tijjani Reijnders racing upfield. Arsenal were suddenly and shockingly exposed. Haaland did not hang around to admire the pass. He eased up through the gears to give Reijnders an option to the right of centre and, when he received the ball, the weight on it just right, the finish was a formality.
It was fabulous from Haaland, the only disappointment being his refusal to perform the Zen celebration, as Arsenal’s Myles Lewis- Skelly had infamously done in the corresponding fixture here last season. It was easy to remember that game, which Arsenal won 5-1, mainly for the simmering tensions. Arteta’s team settled a few scores on that occasion. This is a rivalry that has built; the levels are extremely fractious.
Witness Silva’s yellow card foul here on Gabriel in the 35th minute. It was a slide and a sweep of his leg into that of Gabriel; fairly needless, very spiteful. When there is aggro, Silva is normally on the scene. Towards the end of the first-half, as Trossard was doubled over, having caught a ball in the nether regions, Silva rolled it at him. Trossard was incensed and he threw the ball back at Silva where it stood to hurt the most.
City were 4-4-2 out of possession, Silva alongside Haaland. Rodri had been passed fit after a scare and Arsenal’s challenge was to navigate through the thick blue lines. For all their dominance of the ball before the interval, for the handful of corners and the flickers from Noni Madueke on the right, Arsenal did not create anything of clearcut note. Their only real moment followed a drop of the shoulder by Madueke and a blast for the near corner. Donnarumma repelled it with a mighty paw.
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Arteta had to act at the interval and he did, introducing Eze for Merino. He also brought on Bukayo Saka, who was back in the squad after a hamstring injury, for Madueke. There was a more positive energy about Arsenal upon the restart; inside the stadium, too. It was not that City were penned back more. They could hardly get any deeper. It was that Arsenal had greater urgency. Saka was in the mood. Martín Zubimendi shot high from the edge of the area. Eze thumped a half-volley straight at Donnarumma.
City almost landed the counter punch in the 57th minute, Haaland barrelling up the inside left onto a Jérémy Doku pass and he had Foden square for the tap-in. Haaland took on the shot and David Raya saved. But, really, the question concerned whether City could hold firm. Guardiola sent on Nathan Aké for Foden on 68 minutes and went to 5-4-1.
It was so unusual to see him play this way, to sacrifice the aesthetic. The result was all that mattered. And he had another defensive move when he withdrew Haaland in the 76th minute and introduced Nico González in midfield. Doku went into the No 9 position.
Arteta went through agonies in his technical area because it was so difficult for his players to find any spaces. After the burst at the start of the second half, it descended into a slog. Frustration replaced optimism in the stands.
Arteta’s made positive changes and it was remarkable to see how many offensive players he had on the field in the closing stages, including another attacking midfielder, Ethan Nwaneri. Martinelli would be the match-saver.
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