Manchester City 2-2 Arsenal Review

Premier League GW5

Manchester City impressed in the first half despite some adjustments from Arsenal, a devastating injury to Rodri, and some questionable referee decisions. They still managed to rescue a point by the end but will be disappointed not to win the match. Whether Arsenl had ten men or eleven. An important lesson in how to break down a low block and a reminder of how hungry this team still is to win the Premier League.

Notable Stats:

• Against Manchester City, Arsenal spent a total of 9 minutes and 4 seconds on goal-kicks. The most for any match during the Premier League 24/25 season so far.

• Erling Haaland scored his 100th goal for Manchester City in all competitions, needing just 105 appearances to reach the total.

• Neither Jurrien Tumber (6) nor Kai Havertz (5) completed any of their pass attempts in the match against Manchester City. The first two players on record to play 89+ minutes and manage that feat.

Game Stats

• xG: 2.97 - 1.14

• xThreat: 2.49 - 0.93

• Possession: 77.6% - 22.4%

• Field Tilt: 94.9% - 5.1%

• Penalty Box Shots: 14 - 4

• Deep Entries: 27 - 2

• Buildup Completion: 88.0% - 71.7%

• PPDA: 7.4 - 11.0

• High Turnovers: 1 - 1

• 10+ Pass Sequences: 33 - 3

Included below is a new dashboard to look at the underlying numbers from Manchester City this season. Version one so open to any feedback and will look to make tweaks over the coming weeks.

As we get further into the season this tool will be more usual to look back on as well for producing graphs on the numbers. There have been improvements but it’s also a very small sample size to go off. Some metrics are better used in isolation to explain an approach for a match rather than as an average across a season.

There is nothing in the underlying numbers to suggest City have been worse this season, if anything they have made improvements and are making some tweaks based on personnel/tactics.

If you want to stay up to date with individual player minutes check out the live Google sheet linked below. 👇

The opening goal against Arsenal was exactly what Pep Guardiola set the team up to do well. Overloading the wide areas to open up space inside. City has a free kick which Rodri takes, and Gundogan runs towards him for a one-touch pass, pulling Declan Rice with him and away from the middle of the pitch. Bernardo Silva runs across to the right side to take Partey with him. Rodri passes across the Walker who plays it into Savinho coming short. Dragging Calafiori with him. Bernardo continues to run into the space now left, bringing Partey with him. Gabriel adjusts by coming across but leaves more space for Haaland between him and Saliba.

Savinho makes a quick turn around Calafiori and drives into the space Bernardo opened up for him. Picking out the run of Haaland who goes through on goal. His movement to stay onside is something no one else does.

The use of a 3-1-5-1 by Manchester City in the first half caused Arsenal a lot of problems, particularly in the opening 15 - 20 minutes. You can get inside the block quite easily, disrupting the midfield of Arsenal and always keeping the switch open with your two wide players in Doku and Savinho. Guardiola wanted those two on to maintain the width and stretch Arsenal. Ready to be used 1v1.

Once City switched to Savinho, Gundogan could drift into the box as Arsenal got drawn over to the right side. That’s how he got a couple of excellent chances on either side of the goal. I still feel like Rico Lewis would have been the better option to do this than Gvardiol floating in front of the back line. The setup worked by pulling the Arsenal players in centrally but the personnel could have been better. Rico Lewis has the skillset required in tight spaces.

Arsenal was good at shifting across that it made it hard to get Doku and Savinho 1v1. Trossard dropped to support along with Martinelli. Havertz as well. City was sharp with their counter-press so Arsenal struggled to string together good counter-attacking opportunities quick enough. Something they’ll have to improve on if they choose to keep playing low blocks against the big teams.

The use of long balls to Havertz from Raya, then Arsenal winning the second ball helped swing momentum toward Arsenal at times. Something that Rodri is incredible at but the rest of City midfield struggles with.

There is no taking away from the Calafiori finish to make it 1-1 and I hate to make any review based on the referee's decision but this one for me was what told all the players they could get away with. If Walker was allowed to return to his position and be set then Arsenal do not risk the pass to Martenelli.

Savinho is also pulled in deep, he should be further out than that and aware of where Calafiori is to apply more pressure. Instead, he has all the time in the world to shoot.

Manchester City had a warning just before the 40th minute that Jeremy Doku should not be marking Gabriel but more importantly, their whole setup was not good enough. It left Ederson far too exposed.

The second time around, Walker comes in for Doku and is beaten even worse by Gabriel who heads in the second goal for Arsenal.

There has been no mandate for officials to deal with fouls on the keeper for set-pieces better this season. City must be better organized around Ederson. It’s nothing new from Arsenal. They are great at them and get all the small details right.

After that Trossard rightly picked up the second yellow, any comparisons to Jeremy Doku are done in complete bad faith and a lack of understanding of the rules. Arteta now has a decision to make. How does he set up his team for the second half?

Bringing on Ben White, Arteta learned from his mistake against Brighton when he played a 4-4-1-1 and this time uses a 5-4-0. It meant they could not counterattack or apply pressure on the ball but it did mean the back line did not get outnumbered.

So the entire second half was spent outside the Arsenal box, City pinning them back and trying to break down the low block. If you look at the passing maps from the first half compared to the second you’ll see everything mentioned about City in the first half having success and then the change in the second.

Manchester City was not without plenty of box entries in the match. Jeremy Doku carrying on the left side and Savinho crossing on the right.

Now much has been made of how City approached the second half against Arsenal and there are of course improvements to be made but first of all let’s start with what they couldn’t do.

As Guardiola puts it below, they could not afford to rush actions or put in reckless crosses that Arsenal could seize. Raya is exceptional at claiming crosses and they have five CBs in the box looking to win headers. City cannot play into Arsenal’s hands with those. Guardiola wanted to avoid any more stoppages from a team that had been wasting time from the first minute.

Credit to them for remaining patient and as frustrating as it was to see so many shots from defenders, they were well set up and managed. Raya made a couple of great saves. It wasn’t all of the back line hitting them over the bar every time. If it was reckless long shots then the ball goes out of play and you waste more time.

You do not want to fill the box with defenders who do not have the technical quality to keep the ball inside or win the ball back cleanly. So the defenders stayed outside the box.

City did try plenty of options and there were many times they would overload centrally. Moving players over to one side so that Doku and Savinho were on the right side together. This is probably the one approach we didn’t see enough of.

They also did try to stretch Arsenal wide by moving Savinho to the left side and Bernardo to the right side. Hoping to open up more central space for other players. But it’s always in the back of City’s mind that they need to prevent any transition. Be careful with the ball because if it’s 3-1 the game is done.

So on reflection, I’ve got no issue with the ideas they had, the options they tried, and how careful they were in possession. That all makes sense to me and it’s hard to break down a low block like that. As we well know under Pep Guardiola!

Only a couple of bits of criticism. We should have seen Phil Foden come on sooner, our best shooter from the edge of the D, assuming he was fit enough to do so. City should have used more of an asymmetrical approach. Moving Doku over to the right side with Savinho, using a player to bounce the ball off to a shooter, try to time some late runs into the box along with it. That’s the way to go in my mind.

I would add to that, a fit Rodri and De Bruyne are two of our best shooters on the edge of the box. We missed them. De Bruyne is our best crosser of the ball and Foden has just not been able to get a run of games yet.

The equalizing goal from City was exactly what they'd struggled with doing during the majority of the second half trying to break down Arsenal's low block. He wins the corner by beating Ben White and going to the byline before his cross is blocked. Grealish plays it short, Arsenal is too tired to defend the short corner, and Gundogan plays it straight back to him. Grealish then drives into the box, stands up Ben White, and picks out Mateo Kovacic for a shot.

The deflection on the shot falls to John Stones to equalize. As is pretty common when teams are trying to break down a low block. City rescued a point they shouldn't be dropping based on the match but with it some important lessons. For breaking down low blocks and defending set pieces. Without a doubt, these questions will come up again later on in the season.

Moving Forward

Despite dropping points against Arsenal, City remain top of the Premier League after five matches and are unbeaten. A League Cup match that will test the squad depth and then a tough away trip at the weekend against Newcastle is next.

Guardiola was asked about Kevin De Bruyne in his press conference last night to which he didn’t provide any details but it’s good news it’s not a serious long-term injury. Seems he could be back quite quickly.

We are still waiting on the club to report the extent of Rodri’s injury but several credible outlets have reported that he’ll be out for the remainder of the season with an ACL tear. Currently on his way to Barcelona for assessment and surgery. It’s a huge blow to Manchester City and some thoughts on how the team deal with this long-term will follow this week.

Next up for Manchester City is the third round of the League Cup against Watford (H). That takes place tomorrow night which means we’ll see a heavily rotated side. Preview to come shortly…

Other

If you want to dive into everything Arsenal did to time waste throughout the match then check out this brilliant piece by Opta Analyst below.

I’m going to keep track of these two graphs below throughout the Premier League season. The total xG and goals Haaland accumulated over a season is the first one. He’s well ahead of his xG right now but will that gap remain the same over the whole season?

The second is breaking down the xG and goal difference by match. Big overperformance in the opening five matches, particularly the two hattricks.

Callum Doyle is on loan at Norwich City, impressing already, and someone I think City should consider introducing to the first team next season.

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