Manager Pep Guardiola will clearly not have been pleased with Manchester City's performance in the second half. Arsenal, reduced to 10 men after Leandro Trossard was sent off in the 45th minute, spent most of the second half in a deep defensive block, with five defenders and four midfielders, keeping close to each other, which kept the Citizens' attacks at bay.
Having to defend against a team as formidable as Man City seemed an impossible task for Arsenal. However, Mikel Arteta's side almost did it. Therefore, Guardiola must take as much responsibility as his players for Man City's struggles to make a breakthrough before John Stones equalised.
Long-time Guardiola followers will remember Barcelona’s two Champions League exits at the Camp Nou, against Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in 2010 and Roberto Di Matteo’s Chelsea in 2012. The pattern was that Barcelona’s opponents spent the entire second half defending. That happened at the Etihad, and Guardiola barely managed to create the necessary breakthroughs.
The Premier League champions were so stuck that defenders Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji were firing shots from outside the box in vain. It was clear that Guardiola had to do something. However, he waited until the 70th minute before making a change – Phil Foden came on for Doku. It was another eight minutes before Stones and Jack Grealish came on.
Those changes didn’t make much of a difference until Stones scored. And Guardiola should have energised his players sooner. He didn’t need two centre-backs against a striker-less Arsenal. 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 by that, Guardiola should understand how dangerous the Gunners are in set-pieces.
Furthermore, 14 of Gabriel Magalhaes’ 16 Premier League goals have come from corners, the highest ratio of any player to score 10 or more goals in the competition’s history. But the Brazilian centre-back still easily escaped Doku and then Walker to head home.
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 about Arsenal's ability to take advantage of set pieces.
This time, Man City and Guardiola escaped defeat, but Arsenal are very close to toppling the champions.
"10 against 11 is always difficult. Arsenal defended very well and showed great fighting spirit" - the Spanish strategist said after the match.
