2023-04-27 03:01:00
There was a time when Pep Guardiola’s teams were the reversal of the famous “tiki tiki”: possession of the ball as a non-negotiable dogma -to the point of becoming a meme-, high pressure to become the instrument and spectacle for the spectators, as if to summarize some of its attributes. But not so long ago that the Catalan coach became a bit more pragmatic. Perhaps because of the successive setbacks he suffered in the Champions League throughout his years at Manchester City… Or perhaps because he matured, because everything changes or he simply wanted to innovate.
question that this City is not afraid to play counterattack, nor make time when he is against the ropes nor appeal to as much old gadget for football as he needs -a milestone in this aspect was the crossing of the Champions League quarterfinals last year, against Atlético de Madrid-. And this Wednesday, in a crucial duel for the Premier League, he once again exhibited his evolved facet, this time adapting to the proposal of his rival. The sky-blue Manchester gave Arsenal a real tactical beating and even made a price for them with their 4-1 winseriously complicating his dream of being champion again after 19 years.
The 1 to 0 it came after 7 minutes through the famous “take out if you want to win”. Arsenal pressed up and, in another era, City would have gone down. But in this version of Guardiola, no: hit from the bottomHaaland lowered it like the tank that he is and assisted the Belgian De Bruyne for the first.
in advantage, City let Arsenal under “mini” Guardiola control the ball (Mikel Arteta was Pep’s assistant and is colloquially considered his disciple) and dedicated himself to exploiting his nerves with whom the leader of the Premier has been playing for several dates now. While Arsenal didn’t kick Éderson’s goal throughout the first half, City missed several clear chances. It was only in discount time that he was able to put on 2-0, with a free-kick center and a header from Stoneswho had to celebrate late because the line canceled it and then the VAR recognized it.
Second half: serve from the middle and the City that touches directly with their goalkeeper. Éderson takes the ball from his field and De Bruyne ends up messing up what was a very clear situation straight from the locker room. Again the long ball to look for quilombo in rival field, again pragmatism.
The 3-0 was almost 100 percent authored by Arsenal. At 54, the Norwegian Odegaard lost an incredible ball in midfield, De Bruyne played with Haaland, he returned it and the Belgian scored. It was amazing to see how the Arsenal players had a lot of waving to each other during that action, almost delimiting responsibilities. Between Partey, Gabriel and Holding they spent their time signing up while they did everything wrong -especially Holding- and left De Bruyne alone.
The game was already fully defined by then and the attraction seemed to be the riots that occurred from time to time, the product of a shock as hot as it was important. But there were more emotions: Holding claimed a little and put the discount at 86, while Haaland took advantage of another Arsenal mistake down and signed the fourth at 95 to add one to his super record (33 goals in 29 games).
So things, Arsenal continues to lead (75 points) but with two games more than City (73). To make matters worse, Guardiola’s men have seven dates left, all against teams that are from eighth place and below in the table. Difficult for the turtle to escape the current two-time English championalthough he may lose concentration with the Champions League, his great obsession and where he will play semis against Real Madrid.
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