After an excellent start to the season, Hislop thinks thatArsenal deserved their win overLeeds. There is a time and a place for it.
The joke doing the rounds on social media is that after making the premier league look easy with four titles in five years, Manchester City managerPep Guardiola has built himself a challenger by sending Mikel Arteta, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko to the north London club.
With the former Man City assistant in charge, and two former City title winners in the team, and what began as a positive start to the new season is looking more and more like a title charge with each passing week. A team that has not been considered a contender for the best part of a decade is now 12 wins from 13 games.
If it wasn't for the rearranged game with PSV, the two teams would have met at the Emirates. He has seen it all.
He said last month thatArsenal is back. It has been many years since they were last there. The patience with Mikel allowed him to change the club. They are already a contender because of this.
During the occasional periods of fan unrest since his appointment in December, the decision to stick with Arteta has already been vindicated. A team which was aiming to finish in the top four for the first time since 2016 has now set their sights much higher, and fans are hoping for a first title since 2004.
It was important for Arteta to bring in players with experience of lifting silverware because the club has not been that used to winning. Man City is one of the best places to look in the league.
The Spaniard said that Jesus has a winning mentality and that they now have a new confidence. The two men have the same record. The reasoning behind the decision to let two players join a top-six rival is less obvious for City.
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According to sources, the City boss understood that Jesus wanted to play a bigger role at a different club and that he was given moves to do so. If they decided to leave, it would be easy for them to do so, since they wouldn't have a say in whether or not City continued to win the league. But they didn't, and as a result of that, they also allowed Jesus and the other two to join the other side of the pond.
At one point, City's nearest challenger for the last five years registered an interest in re-signing Sterling, but rather than immediately ruling out the prospect of strengthening the squad, City let it play out. After positive conversations with new owner Todd Boehly and then manager Thomas Tuchel, it was decided that the England winger would join the Blues.
To refresh the squad, players had to leave as well as arrive. When you're trying to get the biggest fee possible for a player, the money is usually located in England.
In the case of Jesus, for example, he was granted a move because of the insistence that he never want unhappy players in his squad. If the clubs came up with an acceptable fee, the players would be allowed to leave.
According to sources, despite their close relationship with Arteta, the team did not do any favors in their pursuit of Jesus. The deals were relatively smooth after the right offers were made by the team. City were happy to get the money they did for Jesus, who was nearing the end of his contract, because they were happy with the signings they had made.
A team with a lot of City influence is positioning itself to go toe-to-toe with City for the title Arteta is the one who deserves the credit for building the challenger.
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