Arsenal 1-0 Man City: How Arteta finally got better of Guardiola

From Mikel Arteta winning the battle of the substitutes to Pep Guardiola's tactical mistake,  Alex Keble looks at how Arsenal got the better of Manchester City on Sunday.

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The ball cannons off Nathan Ake’s face and, just like that, a claustrophobic match is ripped open and the Premier League title race is on.

Arsenal have done it, at long last. Fifteen Premier League matches against Man City without a victory. Twelve consecutive defeats. Finally Arteta has beaten his tutor Guardiola and given Arsenal belief they are Man City’s equals.

Arsenal are now level on points with leaders Tottenham Hotspur as we enter the second international break, and looking near certain to stay in the mix. Meanwhile, Man City have lost consecutive league matches for the first time since December 2018, and look a little untethered. 

How it stands

Position Pos	Club	Played Pl	GD	Points Pts
1	Man City MCI	38	+62	91
2	Arsenal ARS	38	+62	89
3	Liverpool LIV	38	+45	82
4	Aston Villa AVL	38	+15	68
5	Spurs TOT	38	+13	66
6	Chelsea CHE	38	+14	63

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Perhaps more importantly, last year only five points separated the sides and Arsenal lost both "six-pointers" between the two teams. The significance of this result cannot be overstated.

Here’s how Arteta’s substitutions won the match, and why Guardiola’s changes hint at Man City’s potential shortcomings this season.

See: Arteta - Beating Man City sends a message

Guardiola gets tactics wrong?

The action at Emirates Stadium was more reminiscent of a mid-2000s slog between Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez than the high-energy and end-to-end encounters we have come to expect more recently.

There were just three shots on target all match and an Expected Goals (xG) total of 0.96 shared between them. Man City took four shots in total, the fewest by a Guardiola team since April 2010.

Only Guardiola and Arteta will know why they were so cautious, why the aim appeared to be to slow the match down when possible and commit only very small numbers to each attack. Fear, perhaps, contributed to the low quality of the attacking play, and certainly key absences played a part.

Losing Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne from this fixture left Guardiola without crucial players in breaking the Arsenal press, leading to harmless sideways passing and a caution in possession that allowed everyone to sit back and wait for something to happen.

But it was also arguably a tactical error on Guardiola’s part. He instructed Phil Foden and Julian Alvarez to stay tight to Erling Haaland while the two full-backs provided all the width, which allowed Arsenal to remain compact and surround the pentagon of attackers.

Man City's pentagon of attackers

Perhaps Guardiola had expected Arsenal to press man-for-man, as they did in both Premier League matches last season. That might have turned Man City’s unusual formation into a confusing trap for Arsenal's defenders, but instead it was rather easy - especially without Rodri’s brilliant passes around the corner or De Bruyne’s charging carries.

As for Arsenal, they lacked attacking balance without Bukayo Saka, while Man City’s own defensive conservatism (they pressed far less than usual) drowned out Martin Odegaard. Looking at the players’ average positions, note how far Odegaard, No 8, is from his fellow midfielders.

Arsenal players' average position

It was a match that nobody wanted to risk losing, although credit to both sides’ high press, which prevented an open, transition-heavy match.

Arteta wins battle of the subs

A stroke of luck decided the contest in the end, and it would be a mistake to overly critique either manager for the goal. However, it is not a coincidence the move for Arsenal’s winner played out between four of the manager’s substitutes.

Thomas Partey clipped the ball forward for left-back Takehiro Tomiyasu, who headed it down for Kai Havertz to tee up Gabriel Martinelli.

By contrast, Guardiola’s attempts to unlock the contest did not pay off. John Stones and Matheus Nunes did not prove to be any more vertical or assertive in possession than Rico Lewis or Mateo Kovacic, whom they replaced.

Jeremy Doku did provide much-needed width, but he struggled to make an impact, unlike Martinelli, who was a livewire, instantly adding a directness and urgency down the left wing.

Arsenal title hopes grow; Man City squad looks thin

The differences between those two sets of substitutions hints at a deeper conclusion we can draw.

Tomiyasu made a bold forward run to help assist the winner, popping up in the box unexpectedly, which is something Man City’s defenders rarely did. Perhaps that reflects a slight difference in the two managers’ respective courage to take a late risk.

Arteta’s substitutions were certainly more obviously attacking, although arguably that is because he had more options from the bench.

After losing De Bruyne to injury and selling Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez in the summer, suddenly Man City don’t have many attacking players available to change a match. It was a problem in the 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers, when Jack Grealish was the only option, and it was a problem again on Sunday.

Could a lack of squad depth undermine their title challenge? Man City certainly feel weaker after this result, vulnerable to a post-Treble hangover that many had predicted, and lacking the same dynamism in midfield or creativity off the bench as in 2022/23.

Certainly we have seen enough today to excite supporters of rival clubs. Spurs and Arsenal are both two points ahead of Guardiola’s side. Liverpool, yet to find their feet, are just one point behind.

Just over a week ago Man City were supposedly untouchable. Not now. Arsenal’s victory has broken the spell, signalled their intent, and blown the title race wide open.