Arsenal was surpassed by Manchester City to take the top spot in the Premier League on Wednesday as Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland scored in the second half of the thrilling match at the Emirates Stadium to give the champions a 3-1 victory.
Grealish completed an excellent team move by finishing low and deflected past Aaron Ramsdale in the 72nd minute. Ten minutes later, Haaland scored to seal the victory and deal a significant blow to the top two teams in the Premier League.
After Takehiro Tomiyasu erred in defense, City seized the lead in the 24th minute on a fantastic finish from Kevin De Bruyne. Before the break, Bukayo Saka successfully converted a penalty for Arsenal after Ederson had fouled Eddie Nketiah in the box.
The visitors' penalty was reversed in the second half as VAR correctly concluded that Haaland was offside, but City would not be deterred from ousting Arsenal from first place for the first time since November 6.
Arsenal still has a game to play, but they also still have a trip to make to the Etihad Stadium on April 26 for a game that may be very important. City now leads the standings on goal differential.
Given that Mikel Arteta's team has only collected one point in their last three games, it's possible that Arsenal's first home loss of the season will prove to be a turning moment in the title battle.
"When you concede three goals as we did, they win the game. Unfortunately, we actually did have them "Added Arteta.
Pep Guardiola is the mayor of Guardiola criticized his team for being "soft" in the opening period but appreciated how they responded.
They were superior to us in the first half, but we improved in the second and remained competitive. In the end, the players' caliber determined the outcome, he said.
Ben White was unexpectedly dropped by the Arsenal manager in favor of Tomiyasu at right defense, and Jorginho, an experienced player who had joined from Chelsea, replaced the injured Thomas Partey.
Grealish's pressure on Tomiyasu, a Japanese player, resulted in a bad back pass, which De Bruyne pounced on before firing a brilliant lob over Aaron Ramsdale, who was left helpless. Arteta's decision backfired in his face.
While City appeared to be in a panic and bizarrely appeared intent on wasting time, the hosts responded by taking control of the middle rather than completely destroying Arsenal.
Tomiyasu's volley attempt was unsuccessful, while Saka's opportunity was lost because he took too long to take it.
Nketiah, who previously had headed a chance wide, was put through and managed to get a shot off in the 39th minute before being tripped up by City goalkeeper Ederson.
Despite Nathan Ake's attempt to hook the ball over the goal line, Anthony Taylor flagged Ederson for a foul and pointed to the spot. In order to prevent the Brazilian from obtaining a second caution, which may have had a more substantial impact on the bout and the title fight, Saka snuck his penalty past the Brazilian.
In the last moments of the first half, Ake's header off Ruben Dias and across the crossbar came dangerously close to giving City the lead again.
After the break, Gabriel took down Haaland in the area, earning City a penalty, but a VAR review found the Norwegian was offside. This gave Arsenal some breathing room.
Nketiah slid in to try to connect with a low cross after Manchester City defender Oleksandr Zinchenko slipped, and he was inches away from giving Arsenal the lead. However, Haaland was stopped by Ramsdale.
In spite of this, Arsenal persisted in posing difficulties. When Gabriel was tripped up on the edge of his penalty area, Haaland's pass found Grealish, who then fired past Ramsdale.
This time, Arsenal failed to answer, and a cruel goal from Haaland with eight minutes remaining sealed the victory.
Reviewed by F
on
Februari 15, 2023
Rating:
Tidak ada komentar: