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Goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and a 26th goal of the season for Erling Haaland, which ended a three-game scoring drought, saw Manchester City beat Arsenal 3-1 at The Emirates Stadium.

Premier League Champions Manchester City went into the game, knowing they ideally needed to win the game, to close the gap on league leaders Arsenal. A draw for Pep’s men wouldn’t have been terrible, but it would have been an opportunity missed for closing the gap on The Gunners.

It would be Man City who would come out of the blocks quicker and would take the lead, through De Bruyne’s clever finish. At this point, it was advantage City.

The home side Arsenal, were in the game however, Eddie Nketiah missed a golden opportunity for the home side. Arteta’s men would draw level through arguably their player of the season Bukayo Saka.

Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson’s clumsy foul on Nketiah allowed the home side back in the game. The Brazilian was lucky not to have been sent off. City to their credit weathered the storm and were better after the break.

The reason for this in part was the positional change of the influential Bernardo Silva. The Portuguese man was deployed in an unfamiliar left-back role, in the first half but was deployed in a more attacking role for the second half.

Nathan Ake was the man who was deployed in the left-back role, which is a position he has been regularly deployed in this season. With Manuel Aknaji at the heart of the defence, Ake on the left and Silva further forward on the right-hand side of midfield, Man City were able to grow in the game.

Pardon the cliché, but yesterday’s game did have a real sense of a heavyweight boxing contest. Champions Manchester City are the champion in the story and Arsenal are the young kid on the block beating the other contenders to get to the top of the weight division.

The Gunners reached the top of the pile, but on the night, they were powerless to stop Man City from growing into the game and going through enough gears to outpower Arsenal on the night.

Goals from Grealish, which came from a Gabriel error and Erling Haaland whose physical presence tormented Mikel Arteta’s side all evening, saw Pep Guardiola overcome his apprentice, fellow Spaniard Arteta.

Despite this defeat, Arsenal are still in control of the title race, they’re next game is away to Aston Villa. Champions Manchester City, too are away, they travel to the City Ground to visit Nottingham Forest.

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