I don’t think the league is City’s just yet. I’m certain there will be more twists, turns and dropped points. But you can’t be throwing away points at home in a league run in if you fancy yourself for the title.
What a mental boost it would have been to have distanced Liverpool today and put the pressure on them with their run of aways coming up.
My overriding concern now is reaction. Are the players tough enough mentally to respond to this setback and not let it turning into more dropped points and poor results? I expect not. I think it was one of Arteta’s biggest question marks going into the season and I’m not sure he’ll pass.
Even if we can do it mentally, are we there physically? We look shot to bits. White off is a concern. Odegaard has looked knackered for weeks. Rice too in the last few games. Are Partey and Martinelli ready to contribute and do they have the form? Who knows.
Too many in the red zone and too many in the cold zone, same as last year. The lesson was there for Arteta but it has gone unlearnt. There were also signs at Christmas and he didn’t pick up on them. I can’t see him changing his ideology, he has too rigid a view of what he wants the team to be and can’t adapt that to accommodate bringing other players into it. It’s an improvement on the past that we were still creating today, but the chemistry and balance wasn’t quite right even in the first half.
Zinchenko has run his race. He’s been a great servant in his short time but we need more reliability and strength in that position.
I’m worried about White. Not like him to go off. Without him we will really struggle.
Odegaard is running on fumes. Unforgivable management of his workload.
31st March - Runs himself into the ground against city to the extent he can barely make a pass.
3rd April - a few days later we’re 2-0 up by half time at home to Luton and he played the full game.
6th April - 2-0 away to Brighton by about an hour and he still stays on until the 89th minute. That tells me Arteta has no conviction in either his alternative or our team defensive shape ahead of a pivotal CL game.
9th April - Bayern in one of our biggest games in years.
14th April - taken off 79th minute long after we’ve ceded control of the game to Villa, only for them to score shortly after.
Make it make sense.
I’m also getting increasingly fed up of seeing Saka on the floor. I’m not overlooking the fact he gets kicked about, but he’s doing a good Jesus impression these days. It’s telling that we don’t bother stopping playing when he’s down now and it’s not given a moments concern. Jorginho was also having none of it late in the game, he picked him up to get on with it. I don’t know what the answer is but I suspect he’s going to have to get tougher in the sense of just getting on with it and also in giving some back. His protracted lie downs are doing nothing but give him a reputation amongst referees and making him appear a soft target.
