This was an unusual game in many ways. Not just because it was the first time we have hit four Arsenal victories on the bounce for over 80 years but because the win was pretty assured from 15 mins in.
There was a patch when City strangely stopped playing but even in those moments, the result seemed fixed as though it was all predetermined.
Arsenal can change players and managers, swap tactics and even play Aaron Ramsey up front but at the end of the day they were just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. The Arsenal players seemed to view the game with the inevitability of watching an encroaching iceberg. They played a different tune to the one played last year under Arsene Wenger but still never moved out of the way.
The game was also peculiar because I watched it in the company of several Liverpool fans in a house in Liverpool. Their natural alcohol fuelled buoyancy funelled by the earlier pummeling of West Ham seemed to quickly evaporate and they instead just started to distill into a slumber. Agreeing vociferously with the Sky commentators who seemed almost determined to undermine any contribution Man City made to the game.
We never made a good tackle rather Arsenal fluffed their lines. Our goals weren’t well taken examples of class but rather just goalkeeping mistakes. I thought it may not be possible to watch this bias all season despite having Sky. The illegal streams are all much better to watch.
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Arsenal were admittedly a work in progress and clearly have some way to go. They look a few players short of being title challengers. Mesut Ozil continues to confound. He flatters to deceive. It’s seldom a player seems to fall from grace so quickly, like his power had been dimmed, like someone has flicked a switch and suddenly he seems a shadow of the player he was. It’s almost as though he doesn’t actually want to play. It seems as though his love for the game has gone and he looks like one of those tired professionals who end up ekeing out their career in China. There’s no joy in watching his decline even as a rival fan.
City seemed to like taking their time today and rather than Gary Neville’s suggestion we should stop because it doesn’t become us, I think we should do more. Just don’t let another team play. I thought last season Sergio Aguero has perfected the slow walk off the pitch at the Etihad but it’s been improved in the summer. He walked off at the pace of a one legged tortoise and it was hilarious. You could hear everyone getting incandescent with rage.
Stephan Lichsteiner is a new pantomime villain for the Premier League. All angry faces and pushing anyone in his vicinity. He gives the impression he’d be angry even if he was alone in a soft play area. I suspect he will wind up every team he plays and today was a test for Aymeric Laporte who coped well to harness his understandable desire to punch him. Even the referee would surely have felt it was deserved.
Mendy looks like he may be bursting to make a contribution to our play. He is so up for everything he may just need to take a chill pill and have a breather. It’s understandable given what he has missed but we don’t think he has anything to prove.
So two goals to zero away from home to Arsenal without us needing to reach top gears at all, without us needing to play our first 11. There will be sterner tests ahead but this was a positive sign.
We move onto Huddersfield at home and they will park their whole team in the penalty area. I will spend the week hoping for at least another 10-1.