After Erling Haaland's 1-1 equalizer in the 55th minute, Man City conceded 4 more goals in the remaining 30 minutes of the second half. This result prevented Man City from narrowing the gap in points with Arsenal, and at the same time made their chances of defending the championship increasingly remote.
After the match, defender John Stones apologized to the fans for his team's heavy defeat. "It was difficult, not easy for us to accept this defeat.
Our pride is hurt. Sorry to the fans who came to watch the game, the way we played in the last 30 minutes was very disappointing.
We lost ourselves in this match. Arsenal played really well. Personally and collectively, I am really angry and sad about this defeat.”
Asked later about John Stones' comments, manager Pep Guardiola said he agreed with the England defender's assessment.
"The third goal affected Man City. We forgot what we had to do, we barely defended in the last 30 minutes. It's not easy to accept that. But things happen and hopefully we can learn from it for the future," he said.
In the past month or so, Guardiola has seen his side blow two-goal leads against Brentford and Paris Saint-Germain.
The defeat to Arsenal was another example of Man City quickly collapsing under intense pressure from the opponent. The 2024-2025 season saw Man City no longer playing as well as usual, the team dropped many points, and no longer made comebacks as often as before.
According to Guardiola, Man City players were somewhat fragile towards the end of the match against Arsenal. After conceding consecutive goals, they created the necessary stability to avoid conceding more goals.
Arsenal played very comfortably in the final minutes, exploiting the spaces to the fullest and scoring the 5th goal in the 90+3 minute thanks to substitute player Nwaneri.
The defeat at the Emirates Stadium temporarily left Pep Guardiola's team in 4th place in the rankings, above their next opponent, Newcastle United, thanks to the extra index. However, Haaland and his teammates could fall to 5th place if Chelsea get a good result against West Ham in the latest match of round 24.
