Arsenal ended a 12-game Premier League losing streak against a tepid Manchester City side with a well-deserved 1-0 victory in front of an ecstatic Emirates crowd on Sunday afternoon.
In an otherwise mediocre match of few clear-cut opportunities, Nathan Ake deflected the returning Gabriel Martinelli’s strike into the back of the net with just four minutes remaining to hand the Gunners their first top-flight win over Pep Guardiola’s side since 2015.
With Bukayo Saka losing his battle to be passed fit for the crunch clash, Leandro Trossard, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus lined up in the final third for Arsenal, while Jorginho was also favoured over Kai Havertz in the engine room.
Meanwhile, City starlet Rico Lewis was rewarded for his starring role against RB Leipzig with an Emirates start, and the champions immediately asked questions of a noticeably nervous David Raya.
Within just six minutes, the Spaniard was caught in no man’s land from a corner and needed Declan Rice to bail him out, as the Englishman cleared Josko Gvardiol’s goal-bound effort off the line, 12 minutes before Julian Alvarez charged down Raya’s clearance inside the six-yard box and witnessed the ball fizz into the side netting.
Arsenal eventually managed to relieve some of the pressure off their shaky shot-stopper, and City lynchpin Mateo Kovacic escaped a sending-off in the 31st minute for a studs-up challenge on Martin Odegaard’s ankle – VAR referee John Brooks had a look before deciding that Michael Oliver’s yellow was sufficient.
However, the Croatian was certainly fortunate to avoid a second yellow for a similarly late challenge on Rice only four minutes later, and that sense of injustice galvanised Arsenal, who ended the half the stronger of the two sides and brought on a fit-again Gabriel Martinelli for Trossard at half time, while Guardiola elected not to take off the tightrope-walking Kovacic.
An effervescent Martinelli needed just six minutes to get a shot on target, but his effort from a tight angle was straight into the arms of Ederson, before Rico Lewis found the back of the net for the Citizens in the 55th minute, albeit long after the referee’s whistle had blown for a foul.
A raft of substitutions from both managers did little to ignite life into their disjointed attacks, with pass after pass leading to nowhere for both sets of players, who almost appeared content with a point apiece as the clock wound down.
However, the breakthrough would finally arrive for the men in red and white with 87 minutes gone – albeit in heavily fortuitous circumstances – as Takehiro Tomiyasu nodded the ball down to Havertz, who laid off Martinelli to steer a first-time strike into the centre of the goal via a significant deflection off of Nathan Ake’s head.
Four minutes of added time was not enough for a toothless Citizens side to break down a stiff Arsenal backline, as the Gunners moved above the champions in the table and into second place, behind leaders and arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur on goal difference.
A trip to Stamford Bridge to meet Chelsea awaits Arsenal on October 21 after the international break, while the wounded champions host Brighton & Hove Albion in 13 days’ time.
