Finally experience North London for a few days of wine and roses after years and years of baking soda and cacti. He finally beat Arsenal this Sunday against Manchester City (1-0) in the Premier, a result that was also celebrated (for once) a few kilometers away, confirming Tottenham as the leader.
Mikel Arteta had never beaten Guardiola's City in the league - 6 defeats in 6 games -, a blunder that came to an end at the Emirates, where in a tense and beautiful duel but few opportunities, Martinelli decided in the end to the gunners
The victory allows Arsenal to overtake City in the standings and tie at the top with their archrival. But Arteta's team doesn't care much about not taking the lead due to mere numerical reasons after experiencing an afternoon of glory in front of his fans, finally knocking down the best team in the world.
The defeat, on the other hand, confirms the small blip that plagues Manchester City, which has had two consecutive defeats in the Premier for the first time since 2018 and has already had three consecutive defeats in domestic competitions after its elimination from the Carabao. It is no coincidence that these three negative results have coincided with the three-match ban imposed on Rodri, undoubtedly the driving force of the citizens.
The duel had two very similar parts, with equality as the predominant note. The first would have been taken by City to the points while the second was undoubtedly taken over by Arsenal, culminating their dominance with the goal from Martinellí, whose shot bounced off Aké and confused Ederson.
City controlled the pressure in those first 45 minutes but even then the Arsenal players did not dare to raffle a single ball, always trying to build from the origin of the play. Nor did the insecurity that Raya transmitted with her foot, generating more than one scare, change that plan imposed by Arteta and which ended up being the winner in the medium term.
The dominance of Guardiola's team was so slight that they only managed one shot between the three sticks, a forced shot by Gvardiol that Rice took from the goalposts. In fact, they did not shoot between the sticks again until the final whistle.
Another focus of interest in that first half was Kovacic, whose tackle on Odegaard earned him a yellow that the VAR, so magnanimous at times with some, did not want to transform into a red. The Croatian played with fire in another subsequent foul and Guardiola ended up replacing him.
Arteta decided to change wingers at half-time, opting for Martinelli instead of Trossard. What seemed like a mere change of cards completely changed the panorama of the match and made Arsenal grow, who dominated until the end.
Despite improving his performance and masterfully escaping City's pressure, in which an absent Haaland barely touched a couple of balls, an early shot by Martinelli that Ederson caught was his only baggage until the madness arrived in the 86th minute. with the only goal of the game.
1. Arsenal: Stripe; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko (Tomiyasu, 75 mins); Odegaard, Jorginho (Party, 75 mins), Rice; Gabriel Jesus, Nketiah (Havertz, 75th min) and Trossard (Martinelli, 46th min).
0.- Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Dias, Aké, Guardiol; Lewis (Stones, min. 68), Kovacic (Matheus Nunes, min. 68); Bernardo Silva, Julián Álvarez (Doku, min. 68), Foden; y Haaland.
Goals: 1-0, min. 87: Martinelli.
Referee: Michael Oliver. He showed yellow cards to Jorginho (min. 11) and Gabriel Jesús (min. 94) by Arsenal and to Bernardo Silva (min. 23), Kovacic (min. 29) and Ederson (min. 94) by Manchester City.
Incidents: match corresponding to the eighth day of the Premier League played at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in front of nearly 55,000 spectators.
