City’s experience has shifted the Premier League title race
Is the title slipping from Arsenal after their loss to Manchester City on Sunday last?
For months, Arsenal have looked like a team destined to end their 22-year wait for a Premier League title. Mikel Arteta’s side had built up a commanding lead and looked unstoppable, with defensive dominance and set-piece brilliance setting them apart from the other title challengers.
They say a week is a long time in football, but had Arsenal beaten Bournemouth in their last Premier League game before they played Man City on Sunday, they could have opened up a twelve-point gap between themselves and City. Bournemouth subsequently beat Arsenal, and eight days later, that gap is now down to three points, with Man City also having a game in hand, a win in which would take them top of the league on goal difference with just five games remaining.
Such was Arsenal's dominance in early March that there was, while very premature, talk of a historic quadruple. They were nine points clear in the league, in the League Cup Final, in the FA Cup quarter-final against Championship side Southampton, and in the Champions League Quarter Final too. The players were brimming with confidence, as was the fan base, but sometimes when you get carried away, you can be brought crashing down to earth with a bang.
Arsenal have won only one of the six games they have played since beating Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League last 16. The League Cup final was a turning point. Man City beat Arsenal comfortably in the League Cup final at Wembley, and since then, Arsenal have looked unrecognisable from what they were earlier in the season. They were dumped out of the FA Cup in their next game against Southampton, and you could feel a sense of nervousness starting after that.
Cracks have started to appear in Arsenal’s armour, and they have dropped points in games when they were in control of them. Their lead in the league has shrunk, and now the aura of a team that looked impenetrable might have also disappeared.
It hasn’t just been Arsenal faltering; Man City have also done what they're good at: winning games when it matters. Pep Guardiola has built a squad that has been relentless and machine-like in crunch time. They are a team that thrives on winning, especially when they see a challenger stuttering, and their experience of winning league titles is what is setting both sides apart right now.
The result in Sunday’s big game showed that contrast perfectly. Man City were composed and, most importantly, clinical and ruthless when it mattered most. When the game was in the melting pot at 1-1, Arsenal had a huge chance to almost seal the League title, but Kai Havertz missed a golden opportunity to put Arsenal 2-1 up. That goal would have given Man City a mountain to climb, and less than ten minutes later, when a lesser opportunity fell to Man City’s talisman, Erling Haaland, he duly took it and put City on their way to all three points. Arsenal tried as they may to try and get the equalising goal, but they just couldn’t get it. They hit the post twice, and then deep into injury time, Kai Havertz headed over the bar when the goal was at his mercy.
When the season is done and dusted, you are always able to look back and reflect on the season that has passed. There are always a couple of moments that really stand out as key moments where you could feel momentum shifting or a huge save changing the course of the title outcome. If Man City are to win the title, the save by Donnarumma from Havertz will be that moment. Donnarumma had earlier in the game made a huge mistake to gift Havertz an equalising goal for Arsenal, but he stood tall and showed exactly why Pep paid big money to sign him in the off-season.
In a short space of time, the title race has been turned on its head. Arsenal’s destiny is now no longer in their own hands. Both sides have favourable run-ins against sides who are going through their own troubles at the moment. There is a real chance that it will all come down to goal difference, so you could see both Arsenal and Man City trying to outscore each other in the coming weeks.
Hopefully, we will get an exciting finish with plenty of twists and turns in the coming weeks. Arsenal will have to regroup, and they will still fancy their chances of winning a league title, but the experience of Man City could be the thing that has shifted the balance of power the most in City’s favour.
