Erling Haaland looks dejected after Manchester City's defeat to Arsenal. Photo: Getty Images/Ryan Pierce
Four throws. That's all Manchester City managed in their biggest game of the season. This is the lowest number they have ever scored in 274 Premier League matches under Pep Guardiola.
Only one of those four shots was on target, and none of them came from Erling Haaland's boot . Unsurprisingly, the Norwegian appeared angry at the final whistle following the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.
Jack Grealish also let his frustrations boil over, spending the entire 90 minutes on the bench watching City. struggling to create anything against their title rivals. Only one of the four shots came after 34 minutes.
Guardiola responded to questions about his City side managing just four shots, responding: “They [Arsenal] are good defended themselves. How many shots did they have?
When the answer came that the home side had taken 12 shots, three times as many as City, Guardiola admitted: “Okay, at least they won. We didn't have much. We wanted a different type of game, but it is what it is.»
Without Bukayo Saka, Arsenal were expected to have problems with creativity, but nevertheless, it was City who were sorely lacking one thing of their star players. , as no one could replicate Kevin De Bruyne's performance in front of the visitors on Sunday.
City lost all three of the games Rodri missed through suspension and his absence at the Emirates was felt in the forwards as much as the defenders he usually helps defend.
Bernardo Silva was used as part of City. a deeper role to cover Rodri's absence, with Guardiola choosing around him the energy of Rico Lewis and the physical strength of Mateo Kovacic, who was twice lucky not to be sent off.
Lewis won a free-kick in the second half, making one run into the Arsenal penalty area, but it was largely a deception and Guardiola's starting front three of Haaland, Julián Álvarez and Phil Foden simply failed as move after move broke down .
It was a disappointing day for Pep Guardiola and his players in north London. Photo: Getty Images/Ryan Pierse
“Because we didn't have Rodri, I wanted to have more ball defense with Rico, Bernardo and Mateo,” Guardiola said. «That was the reason and that's why we decided [not to start Grealish].
“We wanted to find more players in the center, Julian, with high pressing. But it was difficult to do that because [David] Raya can play high and long. Overall we defended well in a tight, close game. They controlled the game better last season than they did today and we won.»
Haaland's highlight reel shows William Saliba picking his pocket in the first 10 minutes and he fell trying to chase down a long ball. ball with a Frenchman.
It was another important game in which Haaland failed to score, but the striker could not be blamed for missing chances or misses as his teammates simply failed to get the ball anywhere near him.
City were missing someone like Mahrez on Sunday and Guardiola couldn't even find more creativity on the bench as he made a triple change, bringing on Matheus Nunez, John Stones and Jeremy Doku.
Instead, all four. Mikel Arteta's substitutes — Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli, whose shot deflected off Nathan Ake — were involved in Arsenal's winning goal.
It was the first time Arsenal «managed to keep the ball. have kept clean sheets at the Emirates in the league this season, conceding against Nottingham Forest, Fulham, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Declan Rice and the Arsenal defenders , Saliba in particular, must endure a terrible battle. There's a lot of merit to that, but it's also a result of City's predictability in attack.
“I was thinking about [the fact] that we don't have many [clean sheets at home] and against the best team in the world we managed to do it,” Arteta said. “You give in to them, and it’s very difficult.”
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