The pendulum may have finally swung in Arsenal’s direction in the battle for Premier League supremacy.
Gabriel Martinelli’s late goal gave Arsenal a 1-0 win over champion Manchester City on Sunday, breaking Arsenal’s 12-match unbeaten streak in the league against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Although there are 30 matches remaining and only two points separating the teams, this result will bolster Arsenal’s belief that Mikel Arteta’s side can finally end a 20-year drought in the league after last season’s defeat.
It gives us more confidence,” Martinelli said. We know our potential and how hard it is to play against them. We beat them today and that gives us even more confidence to move forward.
Second-placed Arsenal have the same number of points as leading Tottenham.
Last season, Sithand moved five points ahead of Arsenal, including thanks to a 3-1 away win over the Gunners and a 4-1 home win. In fact, Arsenal did not take a single point. The points against City in the league since 2017 is the longest winless streak against a single opponent in the club’s history.
Although Arsenal beat City on penalties in the pre-season Community Shield at Wembley, that result was arguably Arteta’s loudest victory and the final whistle was met with a mighty roar from the Emirates crowd, who stood up as one to celebrate the win.
There was no cause for celebration in the first 85 minutes, however, save for City not looking their usual best – perhaps due to the absence of suspended midfielder Rodri.
For once, City’s powerful attack kept things tight throughout the game, including striker Erling Haaland, who finished the match without a shot but got into a heated argument with one of Arsenal’s backroom staff after the final whistle. Overall, City nanes had just four shots on goal, the lowest total in Guardiola’s team’s history in Premier League matches.
City have now lost a conposition after a 2-1 defeat to Wolves last weekend for the first time since 2018.
It was a tense game. Not many chances, one miss,” Guardiola said. ‘It’s soccer, we lost the game. We will come back stronger.
Arsenal also didn’t create many chances without injured striker Bukayo Saka, whose club-record streak of 87 consecutive league games came to an end.
But Arteta’s second-half substitution paid dividends as Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kai Havertz and Martinelli, who came off the bench, combined for the goal. Partey passed the ball to Tomiyasu, who entered the City area and headed the ball into Havertz’s goal. The German expertly passed the ball to Martinelli, whose shot from outside the penalty area bounced off Nathan Ake’s forehead and into the net.
After the final whistle, there were raucous celebrations that went on for a long time. And the belief that Arsenal could finally beat City.d on the title lasted even longer.
He’s special, Arteta said. It has been a long time since the club beat Manchester City. We felt this day could come today, but we needed everyone to put in a high performance and we got it.
LIVERPOOL DROPS POINTS AGAIN
Liverpool failed to blame the referees for another team failure. This time, defensive errors were at the heart of the draw with Brighton (2:2).
A mix-up between Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mc Allister gave Brighton the lead, with Lewis Dunk equalizing in the 78th minute after Mohamed Salah scored twice late in the first half.
In the 20th minute, van Dijk carelessly gave the ball to Mc Allister near his own penalty area, which was intercepted by Simon Adingra and the winger converted from 25 yards outThe Liverpool goalkeeper ruled the ball past a stunned Alisson Becker.
It’s a risky ball and we try to play from the backline, said Wang. Dijk said. Things like that happen and you get penalized. The way we bounced back was a great reaction.
Still, it was another lost point for fourth-placed Liverpool, a week after a controversial defeat to Tottenham.
Klopp demanded a replay of that game after the VAR system failed to count his side’s goal, which was wrongly disallowed for offside, and Liverpool played the match in nine men after conceding in the final minute.
NEWCASTLE HELD AT WEST HAM
Newcastle’s impressive winning streak came to an end with a 2-2 draw with West Ham, despite Oleksandr Isak scoring two goals for the visitors.
After a 4-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and a recent victory over Man City in the English League Cup, Newcastle seemed on their way to another three points until Mohamed Koudous equalized against West Ham in the 89th minute.
Isak scored two goals within five minutes around the hour mark to put Newcastle ahead. after Tomasz Soucek put the hosts ahead from close range in the eighth minute.
Newcastle fell short of a fifth straight win in all competitions, including an 8-0 victory over Sheffield United in the Championship.
Aston Villa missed the chance to climb into the Premier League’s top four with a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton.
Pau Torres equalized in the 55th minute, just two minutes after Hwang Hee Chan had put Wolves ahead.
