Manager Pep Guardiola will clearly not be happy with Manchester City's performance in the second half. Arsenal, reduced to just 10 players after Leandro Trossard was sent off in the 45th minute, spent almost the entire second half in a deep block. They deployed a formation of 5 defenders and 4 midfielders, keeping a close distance from each other, thereby repelling the attacks of The Citizens.
Having to defend against a fearsome attacking team like Man City seems an impossible task for Arsenal. However, Mikel Arteta's side almost did it. Therefore, Guardiola must take equal responsibility as the players for Man City's struggles to make a breakthrough before John Stones equalises.
Long-time Guardiola followers will remember Barcelona's two Champions League exits at Camp Nou against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan in 2010 and Roberto Di Matteo's Chelsea in 2012. The general scenario was that Barcelona's opponents at that time spent the entire second half defending. That happened again at the Etihad and Guardiola hardly made the necessary turning points.
The Premier League champions were so stuck that defenders Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji continuously fired hopeless shots from outside the box. And clearly Guardiola has to do something. However, he waited until the 70th minute before making a change - Phil Foden came on for Doku. Eight minutes later, Stones and Jack Grealish were brought on.
The changes didn't make much of a difference until Stones scored. And Guardiola should have kept his players interested sooner. He did not need two centre-backs to face an Arsenal side without a striker. And he took too long to bring Grealish on.
Last season, the "Gunners" scored 22 goals from set pieces, the most in the league and behind them all was Nicolas Jover, a former Man City player. And that said, Guardiola should understand the danger of the Gunners in set-pieces.
Furthermore, 14/16 of Gabriel Magalhaes' goals in the Premier League have come from corners, the highest rate for any player with 10 or more goals in the history of the competition. But the Brazilian centre-back was still easily saved from Doku and then Walker to head the ball.
Before scoring to make it 2-1, Gabriel also had a similar situation and the ball just missed the goal by a hair. That said, Guardiola and his students were too subjective in the face of Arsenal's ability to take advantage of set-piece situations.
This time, Man City and Guardiola have escaped a defeat, but Arsenal are very close to overthrowing the champions.
"10 against 11 is always very difficult. Arsenal defended very well and showed a great fighting spirit" - the Spanish strategist said after the match.
