The day is 21st December 2015, Mesut Ozil provides two assists for Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud respectively as Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-1 at Emirates Stadium despite a late strike from Yaya Toure.
Little did the 60,000 fans inside The Emirates that day know that 7 years later, that night will remain Arsenal’s last victory over The Citizens in the Premier League. Since that win, then club captain Mikel Arteta retired, joined Pep Guardiola’s coaching team in Manchester, and later became manager of The Gunners. There has been 3-0 cup final defeats, 4-1 humblings and 5-0 Etihad batterings, however, at long last, Arteta’s Arsenal overcame the treble winners with a late winner from Gabriel Martinelli in one of N5’s finest recent moments to win 1-0 over Guardiola’s men.
There was a lot of debate surrounding the team news ahead of the announcement, and when it came it looked like bad news for Arsenal as Bukayo Saka was nowhere to be seen, and Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli were only fit enough for the bench. Jorginho started as the holding midfielder and Eddie Nketiah led the line with Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus out wide either side of him.
Arsenal got off to a nervy start to the game in N5, and probably should’ve been 0-1 down in the early stages as Nathan Ake was presented with two big chances from a City corner. His first effort was well cleared off the line by Declan Rice and the second was hit over the bar from the Dutch defender. David Raya had a couple of slightly nervy moments with the ball at his feet in the first half and was nearly caught out when Julian Alvarez blocked his pass but the side netting was hit.
Mikel Arteta’s side gradually began to grow into the game midway through the first half and Eddie Nketiah had an effort which went wide. However, the big talking point from the opening period of the game involved City midfielder Mateo Kovacic. The Croatian was lucky to have not been initially sent off with a nasty late challenge which caught the ankle of Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, however Kovacic should have certainly been given a second yellow card when he made a similar challenge on Declan Rice just a few minutes later, referee Michael Oliver somehow did not brandish a card, enraging Mikel Arteta and the Arsenal fans.
During the interval, Arteta introduced Gabriel Martinelli in place of Trossard and the Brazilian forced a save from Ederson after being fed through by Declan Rice. However, that would be the only shot on target from either team for the majority of the half as a tense half of football was being played with both defences on form. However, just as the match looked like heading towards a 0-0 draw, substiutes Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu combined when the Ghanian midfielder found Tomiyasu with a long ball into the City box, the Japanese international knocked his header down to fellow sub Kai Havertz who set the ball to Martinelli who’s first time effort deflected off Ake and into the net. Sparking wild celebrations at Emirates Stadium. Arsenal held on to claim a massive 1-0 win and Louis Dunfold’s ‘The Angel’ played at the final whistle to an incredible rendition by the Arsenal support.
The win puts Arsenal joint top alongside Tottenham Hotspur going into the international break before they travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea.
Player Ratings:
David Raya: 6 – Had a dodgy first half but improved second half with his cross-claiming and distribution
Ben White: 8 – Ben White doing more Ben White things, quietly brilliant
William Saliba: 9 – Just a complete star. Gave Haaland absolutely nothing
Gabriel: 8 – Not quite as good as Saliba but still class
Oleksandr Zinchenko: 7 – Calm on the ball and solid defensively
Jorginho: 7 – Like Ben White, quietly great
Declan Rice: 8 – Brilliant again. Was everywhere and made a crucial goal-line clearance in the first half
Martin Odegaard: 7 – Never stopped running and led by example
Gabriel Jesus: 8 – Excellent on the right hand side. Always caused problems
Eddie Nketiah: 6 – Worked hard but couldn’t really get in the game
Leandro Trossard: 6 – Did ok before being brought off at half-time
Gabriel Martinelli: 8 – Came up with the big moment on his return to injury
Kai Havertz: 7 – Got the assist and helped run the clock down in the final minutes
Takehiro Tomiyasu: 7. – Involved in the goal by making a brilliant run into the box and nodding the ball down to Havertz
Thomas Partey: 7 – Kept things moving and played a great pass for the goal. Great to have him back
Harsy on Raya with the ratings imho