Arsenal 5-1 Manchester City: Premier League – live reaction

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Key events

Arsenal reaction

Martin Odegaard

Tough game, top performance. With a scoresheet like that it can’t be better so we’re very happy. In the end I think we got what we deserved.

[On Havertz] He had a massive impact again today with and without the ball. He’s a top player, an intelligent player. We understand each other well and have a good connection.

Kai Havertz

We managed to press them quite well, we didn’t give them much time. Our energy was good and we took our chances.

[What’s the key to the press?] It’s the timing, you know? We work on it a lot. We [Havertz and Odegaard] are the first ones to press but we need everyone to push and the rest of the team did it excellently as well.

[On his goal] It was lovely to see it go in. I was a bit frustrated from my chance in the first half.

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I think I did Nwaneri a disservice. Yes, his curler wasn’t right in the corner but it was close enough and a brilliant goal by anyone, never mind a 17-year-old.

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The updated Premier League table

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For whatever reason, and you can’t argue with the outcome, Arsenal only really went for City at 2-1. When it was 1-0, effectively the same score, they were happy to play at a slower pace. Maybe, given the devastating timing of Thomas Partey’s goal, they sensed City’s vulnerability; if so their game awareness is immaculate because they upped the tempo and were rampant for the rest of the match.

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“My dad who was an Arsenal supporter from when he was a lad in the 1920s passed it onto me,” writes David Paradine. “He died more than 30 years ago but at times like this I still find myself sharing the moment with him.”

I didn’t think I’d be mentioning Minnie Driver today but she was on a fascinating podcast in which she and a psychotherapist (I think) talk about how your relationship with your parents evolves even after they’ve gone. I’d recommend it, it was really thought-provoking.

Edit: thanks to Jon Hallam for sending in the link.

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There was no needle at the final whistle, at least not on the field. Gabriel was engaged in conversation with Matheus Nunes, who looked tempted to chin him at one stage, but he thought better of it and Jack Grealish walked him down the tunnel.

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Arsenal have moved to within six points of Liverpool after savaging Manchester City in the second half. When Erling Haaland scored a superb equaliser City were arguably favourites; Thomas Partey scored 38 seconds after the restart and then City were taken apart.

Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri scored fine goals, each rousing because of the personal context, and the last 10 minutes might be the most humiliating of Pep Guardiola’s entire career. City didn’t look beaten, they looked broken.

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Full time: Arsenal 5-1 Man City

Wow.

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Rice, the unsung hero of this win, pinged a crossfield pass out to Nwaneri on the right. He cut inside from the right, 20 yards from goal, and whipped a curler into the far side of the goal. It wasn’t right in the corner but it was still a beautiful goal, an homage to the injured Bukayo Saka.

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GOAL! Arsenal 5-1 Man City (Nwaneri 90+3)

Ethan Nwaneri, 17 years old, completes the humiliation with a delicious goal!

Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal scores his team’s fifth goal. Photograph: Alex Pantling/Getty Images
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90 min There will be three minutes of added misery for City. Even allowing for the devastating timing of Arsenal’s second goal, it’s been another extraordinary collapse.

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90 min: Arsenal substitution Riccardo Calafiori and Raheem Sterling replace Kai Havertz and the wonderful Myles Lewis-Skelly. I’ve just realised that, when he scored, Lewis-Skelly mimicked Erling Haaland’s meditation celebration. Six months ago he hadn’t played a single minute in the Premier League; now he’s goading the league’s biggest goal machine.

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89 min City have had some terrible defeats this seaosn. This feels like the most humiliating, possibly because of the sneering and the schadenfreude coming from every corner of the ground.

Meanwhile, Nwaneri’s corner is headed against the outside of the near post by Timber. The angle was almost impossible.

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88 min “Some matches are more personally resonant than others,” says Kári Tulinius. “A friend converted me to Arsenal fandom, and today I travelled to his hometown for his funeral. I don’t think the universe takes heed of that sort of thing, but I can’t help but be thankful that the Gunners have played so well today.”

I’m really sorry to hear that. When Lewis-Skelly scored I started thinking about Andrew Hurley, an Arsenal fan and MBM regular who died last year at a shockingly young age. I wish he was around to enjoy this.

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87 min Bernardo Silva, pushed to breaking point by some olé football, leaves plenty on an Arsenal player. I’m nopt sure who it was but the ball had long gone.

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86 min “We’re not scoring enough goals,” says Matt Emerson. “We look light up front. We need a forward in the transfer window…”

Stay humble.

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85 min “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” shout the Arsenal fans, who are having the kind of party they never thought possible against a Pep Guardiola team.

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84 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino replace Trossard, who was good, and Odegaard, who was Odegood.

Sorry.

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83 min Haaland is penalised for a foul on Gabriel. He offers his hand, which Gabriel ignores. “He’s gotta snap soon, surely,” laughs Gary Neville on Sky. “I don’t think anyone who’s played football would begrudge Erling Haaland losing his rag and going for Gabriel.”

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81 min The odd thing about this is that Arsenal now need a favour from City, who host Liverpool later in the month. Arsenal could win their last 14 games and still not catch Liverpool, but the manner and emotion of this victory will make them feel they are still well in the title race.

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80 min There are more goals out there for Arsenal. City look shell shocked.

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79 min The key moment in the game, no question, was Partey’s goal at 1-1. City were on top when Haaland equalised; he seemed to have shut the home crowd up. And he had – but only for about a minute and a half.

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Arsenal have destroyed City in transition all day. This time Martinelli, found superbly by Partey, led the counter-attack from deep in his own half. He ran to the edge of the area, waiting for Havertz to make a run outside, and then gave him the ball.

Havertz skipped calmly back inside Stones and slapped the ball into the far corner. It’s a terrific finish, even more so after his earlier miss, and he slides on his knees in celebration. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him celebrate a goal quite so demonstratively, not even in the Champions League final.

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GOAL! Arsenal 4-1 Man City (Havertz 76)

A moment of pharmaceutical-grade euphoria for Kai Havertz!

Arsenal’s Kai Havertz scores their fourth goal. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters
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74 min Lewis-Skelly zips infield then sets off on a penetrative straight run before being fouled by Haaland. “He’s a joy! He’s a joy!” says Gary Neville on commentary. Even Ashley Cole wasn’t this good at 18; in fact at the same age he hadn’t played a senior game.

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73 min Arsenal have upped the tempo since going 2-1 ahead and City have struggled to cope. I can’t really believe I’m typing that sentence.

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72 min: Double substitution for Manchester City Kevin De Bruyne and James McAtee replace Omar Marmoush, who found the intensity of the game too much at this stage of his education, and Phil Foden.

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71 min Odegaard is booked for dissent after being penalised for a challenge on Kovacic just outside the City area.

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68 min Rice, who has been fabulous, leads a three-on-three break and plays the ball through to Martinelli in the inside-right channel. He smashes a shot across goal that is pushed away by the diving Ortega. That’s a good save, although maybe Rice’s pass pushed Martinelli slightly wide.

Moments later Bernardo Silva – as bad a loser as he is good a player – has a little kick at the prostrate Trossard. It wasn’t strong enough for VAR to get involved.

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66 min “Has my palate become jaded after all these years, or is this top-of-the-table clash a bad cover version of a face-off?” says Paul Griffin. “Having the magic of Duran Duran’s Public Enemy cover, Miley Cyrus’s Smells Like Teen Spirit?, or EinsturzendeNeubauten’s cover of The Wurzels ‘I am a cider drinker’ than the originals?”

Not even Johnny Cash could improve on this original.

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A spine-tingling moment at the Emirates. The teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly, whose world seemed to have collapsed eight days ago, has scored his first goal in senior football to give Arsenal a 3-1 lead.

Declan Rice, on the left, played a terrific, sharp pass into Lewis-Skelly on the edge of the area. He took it beautifully on the half turn, moved away from Stones and curled a right-footed shot that went through the left hand of the diving Ortega.

Maybe Ortega should have done better, but that’s the most incredible moment for Lewis-Skelly, an 18-year-old who was booked in the return fixture before he had played a minute of senior football – and who was asked, rhetorically, “who the eff are you?” by Erling Haaland.

Nothing stirs the soul of a football fan quite like watching young players write their own fairytales; Arsenal fans in the ground will remember that moment forever.

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GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Man City (Lewis-Skelly 63)

Who the eff are you?

Myles Lewis-Skelly of Arsenal scores his team’s third goal whilst under pressure from Manuel Akanji and John Stones of Manchester City. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
Lewis-Skelly does Haaland’s celebration. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters
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61 min A side-angle replay shows that Foden had a clear view; Foden was trying to sweep a pass into Marmoush but undercooked it badly.

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59 min That was a weirdly poor pass from Foden. Gary Neville is speculating that his view of Partey might have been obscured by the referee. I’ve no idea, but I do know this game has exploded into life. Gvardiol finds Marmoush on the left side of the area; his first-time cross is crucually cut out by the sliding Gabriel.

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