Arsenal won 5-1 against Manchester City at Emirates Stadium in a great result for the 24th round of the Premier League. With this victory, Mikel Arteta's team reached 50 points and kept their second place six points behind league leaders Liverpool, while City remained with 41 points, slipping to fourth place.
Follow Playing for 90 on X (Twitter).
Besides the influence it may provoke in the standings, the game marked an important moment of the season for Arsenal. His team extended their unbeaten run in the Premier League to 14 consecutive games, something that had not happened since 2018 - still with Unai Emery at the helm.
Arteta breaks negative streak against Guardiola and reinforces Arsenal's growth
Since he became the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta struggled against Pep Guardiola, with only one victory in his first ten games against the Spaniard and nine losses. This weekend's victory confirmed a different scenario. With this result, Arteta is now five games unbeaten against Guardiola, something that few managers have achieved.
The coach himself knew that his team's performance was crucial: "To beat them the way we did, many things need to happen. We were aggressive, courageous with and without the ball, and we took advantage of our chances."
Arsenal capitalizes on City's mistakes and builds victory with efficiency
The match started with Arsenal taking the lead after just 103 seconds, as Martin Odegaard took advantage of a defensive error; then Manchester City managed an equalizer in the second half through Erling Haaland, only for Arsenal to respond with the next play as Thomas Partey put the team back in front.
From that moment on, the match was all Arsenal's. Lewis-Skelly extended the lead, Kai Havertz scored the fourth, and in extra time, Ethan Nwaneri sealed the win. The victory was not about the volume of offense, but more of making the right decisions at the right moments.
Arteta called out how the atmosphere at Emirates was fundamental in their performance: "We created something very special in this stadium. That transforms the team, and it makes the game more difficult for the opponent." City suffers worst away defeat in years and exposes defensive problems
While Arsenal was efficient, City failed to keep their level throughout the match. Guardiola's team suffered its worst away defeat in the Premier League since 2017, when they lost 4-0 to Everton.
Defensively, City's numbers this season are not reassuring either. The team has already conceded 53 goals in 36 matches, almost the same number as last season's total, 54 goals in 59 games.
Guardiola acknowledged that his team lost the control in the last minutes of the game, "I only regret the last 25 minutes. We forgot to do what we should have done, what we did for 65/70 minutes."
The Spanish coach then pointed out that the created chances were not good enough, underlining that stability in the team needs to arrive at the right moments: "You can't lose control. The game is 90 minutes, and we cannot finish in that way."
This result ups the ante even more on Guardiola and the squad, as now they must react if they are not going to fall too far from first place.
History from Arsenal's young talents, the future is secure · Beyond the victory, the match also had a special meaning for two young Arsenal talents. Lewis-Skelly, 18, and Ethan Nwaneri, 17, scored historic goals.
By netting that goal, Lewis-Skelly became the youngest player to score against the reigning Premier League champions since 2003 when Wayne Rooney was the man to do it. But Nwaneri went a step further, beating that record at 17 years and 318 days to take the title for himself.