WHe had hoped for football fireworks in the premier Premier League match between Manchester City and Arsenal on Easter Sunday, but was disappointed: the classic match, announced on English pay-per-view television, was only for proven defensive mavens.
Apart from the occasional counter-attack, Arsenal concentrated almost exclusively on defending their own goal, with exemplary counter-pressing orchestrated by strong captain Martin Odegaard often starting deep in the opposition half. “We wanted to win,” Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said after the final whistle, as if justifying himself: “But if you can’t win, you can’t lose.”
New quality
City, as usual, dominated the game, possessing 73 percent of the ball, but out of twelve shots, only one was on the Arsenal goal. Star striker Erling Haaland remained unemployed for a long time because his assistants Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva had neither the time nor the space to adequately deploy him.
What’s more, Arsenal centre-back Gabriel Magalhães was constantly at the Norwegian giant’s feet – often literally – tugging and tugging at his shirt and whispering sweet words into his ear, so the friendly handshake between them after the game was absolutely amazing.
Last season Arsenal conceded a total of seven goals in a two-legged tie against City, but they haven’t conceded a single one this season. Defensive consistency is a quality that Arsenal lacked at this stage last season. The three-way title race is all open, even though Liverpool are currently two or three points clear of Arsenal and City at the top of the table.
With 24 goals conceded, Arsenal have conceded fewer goals than any other Premier League team. But with the Londoners also having the best attack with 70 goals, one has to wonder if the ultra-conservative approach against City was too radical a departure from an otherwise strong performance.
Arteta appeared unfazed by the “what if” question, appearing satisfied with the point he won against his former mentor Pep Guardiola and talking of “another big step” for his side in a “very difficult test “
A week later, on Tuesday, Bayern will host the visitors in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Munich team clearly won the last three games with a score of 5-1. But that was before Arteta made the club one of the best in England again.
Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine
I am a sports journalist with over 10 years of experience covering news, events and stories from around the world. I have written for several online news outlets and have also been published in print magazines. I am currently working as an author at the World Herald News, where I cover primarily sports-related stories.
