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After Man City defeat, the team was proud.
The referee made some key decisions in the Manchester City game. (0:55)
11:30 AM
The good news for Mikel Arteta is that the game against Manchester City was effectively decided in two minutes, which is good news for the manager. The good news is that it was an error-strewn spell which showed that individual errors remain an unwanted characteristic of his side.
Some of the mistakes in Saturday's loss to City were not theirs. The debate over how VAR is used will intensify after this game, as referee Stuart Attwell was asked to look at Granit Xhaka's challenge on Bernardo Silva at the touchline monitor, not Ederson's tackle. Attwell asked him to reexamine the second one. Both were penalties.
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They were excellent until the 57th minute. The England international side-footed home from 14 yards after a sweeping move that involved Thomas Partey, Xhaka and Odegaard had finished, giving them a deserved lead just after the half-hour mark.
City looked tired, bereft of their usual zip in possession, as they were overwhelmed by the power of the other team. The gap between the two sides has never been smaller. The team has won 10 consecutive games against the team by a combined score of 263.
In the past, the Gunners have appeared resigned to their fate, acquiescing to defeat before kick-off in a way suggesting an inferiority complex. The opening hour was the most encouraging of Arteta's two-year tenure because he is making significant strides in this area.
There were two minutes. There is little doubt that the most contact was made with Xhaka, but the man had no need to remove his shirt after clashing knees. Gabriel picked up a needless yellow card for continuing his protest to Attwell after he missed the penalty, which was why he was sent off.
Nathan Ake cleared Aymeric Laporte's goal off the line before the game even started. Martinelli hit the post when Ederson was stranded. Attwell briefly obscured his view, but not enough to explain his miss.
Man City had 10 men and could not hold off the incensed and angry Arsenal.
Gabriel took out Gabriel Jesus with excessive force when he was on a yellow card, and the Brazilian was sent off. In the space of 123 seconds, four individual errors by the Gunners gave the game in City's favour.
"Gabriel mentioned that the comment was about the first penalty moment, about Odegaard and what happened there, no dirty language was used just a comment," said assistant coach Albert Stuivenberg, in charge for the day with Arteta in touch. It is a time when young players still have to learn and we have a lot of young players that are part of the process.
With the numerical advantage, City were hardly irresistible and relied on a last-minute goal from Rodri to secure their 11th consecutive league win and move 11 points clear at the top of the table. The postponement of the Wolves game gave the team extra time to prepare.
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He said that they had six or seven days from Norwich and two and a half from Brentford. We didn't have any energy. We tried to put one more player in the middle for control.
We tried to change it in the second half. Sometimes the coin comes down on your side, other times it comes down on the other side. That is the reality. We know what it takes to win against the team at the other end of the spectrum.
There were still plenty of positives for the team here, not least the contrast from August's defeat at the Etihad Stadium, when the team looked in utter disarray.
"If you compare it to the start of the season, where we come from, and where we are now, we had a lot of chances, prevented them from getting chances, that is something we can build on," said Stuivenberg.
Arteta could be back in the dug out for Thursday's Carabao Cup semifinal first leg againstLiverpool, if he's all right. On the US side, it's on the Disney channel. Pierre-Emerick was not missed. They need to eradicate the two-minute blips like the one against City if they want to finish in the top four.
