With Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard and Emile Smith Rowe, Arsenal can finally face manager’s old club on their own termsThe last time Arsenal hosted Manchester City for a top-flight fixture Mikel Arteta looked on and, inwardly at least, shook his head. He was five days from becoming their manager and, barking orders alongside Pep Guardiola in the away technical area, there were shorter-term preoccupations. It would have taken superhuman self-possession not to notice the gloom enveloping the Emirates, though, and the bad feeling affected him enough to be one of the first points he raised at his unveiling.“I was a little bit down after the game when I felt what was going on,” he said. “It wasn’t only the performance,...
Watkins shows Arsenal what they are missing, Loftus-Cheek shows promise at Fulham and Dummett the man for all jobsOllie Watkins is in a rich vein of form and improving by the game. His winner against Arsenal was his fourth goal in five, bringing his Premier League tally to 10 in 21 games since arriving at Aston Villa from Brentford. He could have had a couple more on Saturday but perhaps the 25-year-old’s most impressive feature is the way he leads the line. Watkins is a hive of movement, rarely giving defenders a moment’s peace, and looks as comfortable coming deep or working the channels as he does operating off the shoulder. He is exactly the kind of striker Arsenal might...
Youngster makes the difference as Manchester City pull well clear of Liverpool – both in the match and league tableLet us take a moment to consider Phil Foden’s surging run. Never mind for now the goal he would score 10 minutes later to kill this game.Park that exhilarating, high-craft goal. OK, stop looking at the goal for a moment. Related: Manchester City hammer sorry Liverpool at Anfield after Alisson errors Related: Liverpool 1-4 Manchester City: Premier League – as it happened Continue reading...
In circumstances demanding a less energetic approach, the manager has transformed his side’s Premier League prospects Ominously, Manchester City have eased towards the front of the title race. They went into the weekend third, just four points behind the Premier League leaders, Manchester United, with a game in hand. Their next five league games are against sides in the bottom half and Aston Villa. Had Liverpool beaten them on 8 November, rather than drawing 1-1, their lead over City would have been eight points. As it is, by the time City face Liverpool on 6 February, there’s a good chance they will be top of the table. That, really, is a triumph of coaching.It’s a triumph of resources as well...
Guardiola planned to build a new cathedral on a Dias-Laporte defence but Stones has emerged as key to team’s resurgenceFootball feels at times almost wilfully contrarian, as though it delights in confounding those who try to plot a rational course through it. You can plan and plan and plan. You can have a manager who is famous for his attention to detail. You can study all the data, watch all the videos, think and plot and cogitate, formulate your grand strategy, then it turns out the answer all along was John Stones.Manchester City needed a right-sided central defender, everybody said. They had Aymeric Laporte, who was probably alongside Virgil van Dijk the best central defender in the league, but he...