Image Credit: Maciej Rogowski Photo & Photo Agency
Manchester City may just be back in business. Pep Guardiola’s all conquering side are a giant that’s been sleeping for some time, but right now they look wide awake and hungry. Through all their disappointments over the past year and a bit, the mantra of “you can never write them off” persisted. Football fans have long memories, and under the Spaniard’s reign our memories of City are that of consistent, ruthless dominance of English football. Unbeatable excellence. Going into this season, it was a shock to the system to see so many making that forewarned mistake; writing them off. I guess sometimes football fans have short memories too. Well, if anyone had forgotten, they remember now. This team is beginning to look frightening again.
Last weekend the Etihad was pumping as Haaland and co took out some pent up frustration on Liverpool with a 3-0 drubbing. Controversial decision aside (because you don’t want to get me started on that) it was a statement performance against the reigning champions, and it came off the back of a similarly impressive win over Dortmund midweek. As we head into the international break City have climbed their way into solo second place, 4 points off the pace at the top of the Premier League table. Standing in their way is a once defeated enemy. It’s Arsenal and their almighty defence who are under the pressure now.
Of course, we’re in the early days of a long season. It would be rash to completely rule out everyone else before the New Year has come and gone. Slot’s Liverpool are faltering but the talent in their squad is undeniable. It’s not hard to imagine a resurgence from the Reds, especially if they can get marquee signing Alexander Isak firing up front. Chelsea, Spurs, and United aren’t out of the picture yet either. An era has passed since the last time any of them went deep into a season with the consistency to match their ambitions, but stranger things have happened in football.
Still, let’s indulge the fantasy. There’s just a distinct feeling to this title race already with a familiar face-off on the boil again. You can smell it simmering. Arsenal and Manchester City contested long, dramatic league showdowns in 22/23 and 23/24. It came down to the final day in successive seasons. There were ebbs and flows. There was palpable dislike. Moments of heartstopping drama. On the balance of points won and lost, it stands out as one of the closest rivalries in English football’s modern history. The spoils all went up North though, and the Londoners walked away empty handed and devastated, so much exerted for no return. That’s the harsh reality of sharing the stage with a serial winner like Guardiola. Mikel Arteta knows it well. All that banging on the door, how he must be aching to get one over the old man at last. It’s his white whale. The natural trajectory of his arc. They really are like two leads out of a novel, this pair. In the space of a decade he’s been Pep’s beloved old friend, then his protege, and now his greatest foe. Here’s his chance, once more, to be the student turned master. It’s Arteta’s Gunners that lead the way in 25/26, and it’s Pep’s City in pursuit. The same combatants on a new battlefront. So what’s changed?
Well for starters, Arsenal are a different team at the back. A defence that was shaky and inexperienced the first go round, and lacking depth the second, now looks the full picture. Even without trophies to their name we’re starting to talk about them in the context of greatness, searching for high water marks to compare their excellence too. Sunderland finally broke the banks over the weekend, taking their limited chances in a 2-2 draw on Wearside, but the two months of football that lead up to it were an exercise in total lockdown. 8 games. 0 goals conceded. 1 shot on target for David Raya to deal with in 720 minutes of play. It’s remarkable stuff. That lone “shot” registered to Eddie Nketiah by the way was a major headscratcher from the statisticians. It never travelled goalwards. Raya knocked it onto the strikers noggin. I imagine he’ll be happy to take the save on his record. Arsenal’s keeper was arguably the league’s standout gloveman over the first 5 matchweeks, but since October 1st they might as well have put a scarecrow between the sticks. He’s had nothing to do.
It’s that pairing still, Gabriel and Saliba, at the heart of it all. They just continue to refine their craft, the two of them existing in lockstep with one another. At one point it was Saliba and his effortless class drawing all the plaudits but, through no fault of his own, the attention has shifted to the big Brazilian on his left. Saliba didn’t get any worse. It’s just that Gabriel keeps getting better and better. At this rate he’s an early front runner for the Premier League’s Player of the Season honour, not won by a defender since Virgil van Dijk took it home 6 years ago. It isn’t the great Dutchman that comes to mind when I watch Gabriel though. It’s the only man ever to win that award twice from the back line.
To my eye ‘big Gabi’ is the fiercest centre back seen in these parts since Nemanja Vidic. He’s of the warrior mould. The kind of player who strikes fear in forwards hearts. Over the course of his time in North London the 27 year old has made himself so precise and consistent, without sacrificing an ounce of that mad passion. The way he goes about his work is gold dust to a supporter. It’s a real thrill to see the veins bursting and blood pumping when he makes a big tackle or block, but the red mist never clouds him these days. The concentration doesn’t waver. He’s simply world class at the back, and that’s on top of being a walking goal from set pieces.
So Arsenal’s brilliant duo continue to be the backbone of their defensive success, but it’s the depth around them that has improved out of sight in the last year. New signing Christian Mosquera has shown anticipation and maturity far beyond his age when asked to deputise for the injured Saliba early in the season. Gunners’ fans are no longer feeling that acute dread at the thought of losing one of their first choice centre backs; something that plagued them back in the days when the next man up was a near legless Rob Holding.
Fullback, in the meantime, has turned into a murderer’s row on both flanks. The left side of defence was a weak point during Arsenal’s title pushes, but now Arteta gets to select between two high class options, both breakout stars in 24/25. Ricciardo Califiori’s been preferred so far this league campaign, while the youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly has taken his chances to shine midweek in European ties and cup fixtures. The former is a real marauder along the touchline; tall, leggy, and determined. He’s up and down in a flash and has developed a close understanding with left winger Leandro Trossard. MLS, on the other hand, plays the position like the midfielder he once was. At 19 years old he’s an effective deep lying playmaker with excellent ball control, and he’s got a certain bulldog quality to him too, holding off much bigger opponents with ease.
Arsenal’s options on the right follow an identical blueprint. The big difference; Arteta’s choice is easy. Traditional fullback Ben White has been among the league’s best in past seasons but he can’t get a game anymore. His inverted counterpart is just too good. Jurrien Timber is a budding worldbeater. So complete, so composed. Technically perfect, tactically aware. He does it all without ever really trying to do too much. Like Lewis-Skelly he’s got strength beyond his stature as well as the chops to bring the ball into midfield with confidence. When he stays in his lane, it’s proving a confounding task for left wingers to get the ball past him or take the ball off of him, even just once. This level is what Arsenal saw back in the summer of 2023 when the Dutchman arrived from Ajax to much fanfare, but an untimely ACL tear has forced them to wait for his best to shine through. It looks like the wait is over. Aged 24, he’s coming right into his own and could well be the final piece of the puzzle in this back line. The one that turns a ‘statistically elite’ defence into a ‘lifts up major trophies’ defence.
So what do they have to contend with from Manchester City this time around? Well its not a simple question, but the simplest possible answer is this: Erling Braut Haaland. The attack he’s tasked with leading is entering a new era. The outfit around him is flash but ragtag. Newly put together and figuring things out. It doesn’t phase the Norwegian at all. He knows his job. There’s no one on the planet who does it better. After the weekend’s action Haaland sits in his well worn throne atop the goal scoring leaderboard with nearly double second place, 14 to Igor Thiago’s 8. Comfortably over a goal a game. 24/25 was a down year for the superstar striker, as it was for many in City blue. A down year for Haaland, we learnt, means 23 league goals to take third place in the Golden Boot race. The evidence suggests that those “struggles” are over. He’s back to being untouchable. Casually registering laughable numbers. Hat tricks when he feels like it. Putting the team on his back when they need it most. It’s just so hard to live with him for 90 minutes, the way he times every run to perfection and knows where the goal is at every moment. The long strides and broad shoulders. The pinpoint accuracy with left, right, and forehead. Whatever else is happening on the pitch for Pep and Manchester City, he is their constant. It’s a coach’s dream having someone like Erling to rely on. Still, you wouldn’t feel comfortable counting on any one player to win this league by themself. If City are going to continue to make Arsenal sweat they’ll need the supporting cast to step up.
Last Sunday was a good sign. Jeremy Doku set the game alight with what was easily his best Premier League performance yet. His sweet long range curler into the top right corner was the gutpunch for Liverpool, making it 3-0 midway through the second half. The young left winger thrilled from start to finish, giving the Red’s nightmares in defence with his hard running style and ambitious dribbling. Doku has impressed in flashes since signing in 2023. There’s clearly a lot to like about the Belgian, but we’d yet to see him take a big game and make it his own. Well, we’ve seen it now, and Guardiola will be hoping there’s more to come from him and others.
Jeremy is one of the new kids on the block for City. Savinho, Marmoush, Cherki, and Gonzalez, his classmates. A posse of high potential signings made in recent seasons to address their aging core. When you look around this squad, so many of the familiar faces are missing. They’re the faces most responsible for the club’s overflowing trophy cabinet. Mahrez, Walker, Alvarez, Cancelo, Ederson, and Gundogan. All of them out the door in the past few windows. Then there’s the big one. This is the first season for Pep without the incomparable Kevin de Bruyne. 6 time champion and twice Player of the Year. The greatest midfielder in the last decade of English football. It’s going to be no small feat to replace him.
You might view Phil Foden as a natural successor, coming through the academy and now on the cusp of his prime years. That definitely looked the case in 23/24 when the young midfielder was unstoppable from outside the box, and somewhat controversially took home the Player of the Season award. He has his doubters but there’s no doubting the talent. It’s just not quite an apt comparison. There’s a reason he’s deployed on the wing so often these days. City’s local lad doesn’t approach the game in the same way that KBD did, preferring to cause trouble on the shoulder of the defensive line rather than be the one to unlock it with a pass. As good as his best can be (we’ve seen glimpses of it already this year), Foden of late has fallen short of the high bar he set two years ago.
To play the De Bruyne role, City now look to an exciting new addition by the name of Tijjani Reijnders. In the summer they prized him away from AC Milan for £48 million, with an eye on the present rather than the future. The 27 year old excelled in Serie A last season; the driving creative force behind everything Milan did. He’s built up some good will in England quickly without exactly blowing the doors down. He was man of the match on debut against Wolves, scoring and assisting to cap an electric all round showing. Since then it’s been mostly middling. There’s a lot of potential there but for his sake he should seize it sooner rather than later. It’s enormous shoes that Reijnders is being asked to fill.
In all fairness to him, and the rest of City’s new look midfield, they’ve had to deal with another missing piece too often this season. Rodri has only made 6 league appearances so far, completing 90 minutes just twice. Niggling hamstring and knee injuries have kept the brilliant Spaniard out of action. You’ve got to give some credit to where they are in his absence, given how we’ve seen this team fall apart without him before. City’s Balon D’or winner is the one who affords everyone else around him the freedom to roam. He’s the picture of a midfield metronome, keeping it all ticking with that simple but effective style. The strong physical presence and calm demeanour, always a step ahead. Always the first to see the high percentage play.
All considered, the Mancunian’s don’t have much to worry about defensively. They may not be hitting the heights that Arsenal are, but they’re alone in second place. That core of Dias, Stones, Gvardiol, and Ake is as effective as ever, and now bolstered with the addition of the Uzbek youngster Khusanov. Losing Ederson in goal isn’t ideal. To an extent his departure hampers their ability to play out from the back, but it’s not much of a sob story when your replacement is Gianluigi Donnarumma. Ultimately for Pep, it hinges on midfield and attack. If this is going to be a title winning team it’ll be one that bludgeons opponents on it’s way to silverware. We’ve seen plenty of that sort of football from this club. How many times in the last decade have City knocked the life out of a hapless midtable defence in 15 minutes or less? It’s got to be somewhere in the 50-100 range.
The ingredients for that kind of onslaught are there in this squad and watching them play in recent weeks, it’s the first time in a while that they’ve looked orchestrated rather than assembled. This is a dangerous prospect for Arsenal and the rest of the league. Like last season, much will rest on the fitness of Rodri and the form of Haaland, but I suspect their influence won’t be all or nothing this time. There are others ready to take the reins. Who knows, maybe some of them find a gallop.
As for Arsenal it’s a lot of the same rub. The frontlines facing the pressure. Can they score enough to convert clean sheets into three points on a weekly basis? They too are asking for instant impact from new signings, and now for the first time in a long time, they too have a marquee striker to depend on. Viktor Gyokeres joined the club from Sporting Lisbon in late July, putting to an end quite a saga. Window after window, the Gunners faithful cried out for a new #9 to round out the attack. They’ve got him now. The Swede is already changing the way Arsenal bring the ball forward with his relentless running off the shoulder of defenders.
He implores the Gunners midfield to play direct and they’re starting to get in sync with him. Viktor hasn’t been as clinical as fans might have hoped to see, sitting on 6 goals in 14 appearances so far, but he’s earned their patience with everything else he does on the pitch. There’s a little bit of Haaland in him. The strength and single minded ambition. The breathless work rate. It’s what attracted Arsenal to the 27 year old, along with those ludicrous numbers he was putting up year on year in Portugal. What has come as a bit of a surprise though is just how good his hold up work and passing can be. Once Kai Havertz returns from injury we may see some rotation up front, the German being known for his ability to link play, but his style is often passive and relies on the game coming to him. In contrast, Gyokeres offers what the Gunners have needed for so long. He wants the ball every time it comes forward, and is determined to never give defenders a moment’s rest.
For Arteta’s squad, their shiny new striker was the big story of the summer window, but he’s also just one of a wealth of promising new additions. There’s Premier League experience in the form of Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke, who’ve both taken to their new setting well. Eze and Arsenal felt a match made in heaven before there were even rumblings of it, and no surprise they jumped at the chance to bring the local boy and former academy player back home. His versatility and creative talents are a known quantity from fruitful seasons spent just across the Thames at Crystal Palace. Madueke didn’t jump out in the same way, in fact he caused a bit of a stir on arrival. He’d been through a downturn of form with Chelsea that left fans confused by the club’s interest in him (and the 50 million fee) but it hasn’t taken long for Arsenal’s new right winger to win them over. Noni looks back to his best and earned an emotional standing ovation for his efforts standing in for Saka in the early weeks.
The other new name on the teamsheet that has North London excited is Martin Zubimendi, who’d been a target for some time before his eventual move from Sociedad this summer. He has that Rodri-esque calming presence at the base of midfield. Tough to tackle and tougher still to cut out his passing lanes. What a start he’s had in red. Scoring an absolute worldie for your first and taking home Goal of the Month is a good way to ingratiate yourself to a new fanbase.
Put it all together and it looks a pretty picture for the title hopefuls. Still though, it’s been frustrating at times for Arsenal to create chances from open play. Injuries have had a role with attacking outlets including Saka, Havertz, Madueke, and Odegaard all spending time on the sidelines already this season, but nonetheless Arteta would have to expect more from the creative players who’ve been available for him. When Arsenal and City met at the Emirates in Matchweek 5, the Gunners had 68% of the possession. Most of it was tepid. The visitors scored early and kept them on the periphery for long stretches. If it wasn’t for a late counter attacking goal, finished smartly by Gabriel Martinelli to save the draw, we may be talking about an even closer race right now. There’ve been exceptions with free flowing performances that stood out against Leeds and Nottingham, but it’s a pattern still and a concerning one. Unlocking the low blocks has always been the sticking point for this side who are so dangerous in wide open spaces, and it’s a part of the game they’d hope to have improved on with new additions.
The saving grace for Arsenal’s attack has been set pieces. They are simply excellent at them. It was enough to steal 3 points at St James Park, where Merino and Gabriel headed in two late corners to snatch a 2-1 win from Newcastle. That dramatic turnaround accounts for 2 of the Gunners 12 set piece goals so far. Four teams haven’t even scored that many goals in total. It’s such a boon for them, changing the equation in so many ways. In the not too distant past the brief for beating Arsenal was simple; kick them. They’re soft and will crumble. Now opponents are afraid of fouling anywhere near their defensive third because they know what’s coming next. The routines are smartly choreographed and drilled to perfection, all the doing of set piece coach Nicholas Jover. There’s size and scoring instincts aplenty to aim for in the box. Then there’s Declan Rice to execute. What an absolute artist he’s become with the dead ball. I know many don’t like it, labelling it boring or ‘anti-football’, but turning these situations from a roll of the dice into a deadly weapon has been a stroke of brilliance for Arteta. The target is still to rip teams open, but now they expect to win even when they fall short of that ideal.
The best City teams carried that aura too. That sense of inevitability. The difference being theirs always came from overwhelming force. Too many stars and too many top players in reserve. Keeping chances to a minimum was an exercise in futility. If you managed it, they would find a way to be clinical enough and they’d get you anyway. Opponents couldn’t help but feel defeated before a ball was kicked. This is what Arsenal want to be, and they’re close, truly. They’ve felt it but can’t always sustain it. It comes and goes in waves, but they need it to stay now. Set pieces aren’t going to take this team all the way to the promised land.
The Premier League returns this weekend, and Manchester City will travel to Tyneside to face Eddie Howe’s Newcastle. A tough test in front of the raucous Toon Army. For Arsenal, it’s the big one. The enemy down the lane. They host the North London Derby, with Spurs in a solid run of form under new coach Thomas Frank. Heading into the holiday period the fixtures become thick and fast as always, and you can expect a league in flux. It may be November still, but I suspect our early contenders both have one eye on late April already, anxious even now for their next meeting. A face off at the Etihad, with 6 games to go in the Premier League season. How much might be on the line come then? We’re talking about the stuff of legacies. There is foreseeable circumstance where another duel for the title brings an end to both managers’ reigns at once. That moment is definitely on the horizon for the senior. Pep has won it all. He’s done it everywhere. Crossed every accolade off the list, then packed bags and found new lands to conquer. And again. And again. Now he’s approaching 10 years in England, his longest tenure by far, and for all the glory it’s brought him you might say he’s sagging just a bit from the weight of the crown. Feeling the strain of it. There were rumours of retirement going into this season, but they amounted to nothing. On he marches. Is it going to be a last hurrah, or is there yet more stamina left in the tank? Maybe we’ll discover that the great man has a breaking point after all. Or maybe, and it’s not in his character but let’s entertain the thought anyway… maybe he’s finally ready to hand it over to the next generation. The man he moulded in his image, who now cuts his own path. The one and only individual that Guardiola might accept being bested by, knowing deep down that some of the credit belongs to him.
For Arteta it’s necessity. The weight of expectation has become immense. He’s brought about a revolution at Arsenal but, with so much road behind him, still he lists his accomplishments in the abstract. Sweeping change with nothing to show for it. All the blood, sweat, and tears he’s given to this club that he loves so much. 12 years of his life, first as captain and now as coach. When he was Pep’s assistant, up North in the land of winners learning the trade from his idol, Mikel’s heart was still in London. Just look at him squirming in the City dugout every time they scored on his Gunners. One of the games’ most intense celebrators, sat pensive, crawling out of his skin like a guilty schoolboy waiting by the principal’s office. He must’ve felt it then. That his life’s mission was to bring Arsenal out of the shadows and into the light. This is it. Every penny has been invested in right now. There’s no next time. No scenario where their inspirational leader survives another devastating disappointment. There is no more room to grow without growing into champions.
-Will Newby
