Football with Jonathan Wilson
Manchester City have lost two Premier League games in a row for the first time since 2018. Now it’s up to Pep Guardiola to adapt
The first thing to acknowledge is that the Premier League has been here before. There have been times in the past, most obviously around this time last year, when Manchester City clearly looked moribund. Could it be that they are actually not a supernatural winning machine, but just an everyday exceptional team? Certainly on Sunday at the Emirates they didn’t look like the inevitable champions they did in, say, the two victories over Arsenal last season.
Arsenal still needed a deflected winner, just as they had needed a deflected equalizer in the penalty shootout against City in August to clinch the Community Shield. City were still ahead on xG. There was certainly no point in Arsenal outperforming City; If this turns out to be unlikely to be an epochal defeat, it will have been an unusually monotonous defeat.
What was striking was how ordinary the game felt: it was a top duel from a different generation. We’ve become used to top teams attacking each other, vying for higher, harder pressure and leaving space, and the most important games of the season being exciting exchanges of blows. This was more akin to the Ferguson-Wenger years – without ever reaching the full rigor of a Mourinho-Benítez clash.
This was partly a consequence of both managers’ selections: by including Jorginho, Mikel Arteta allowed Declan Rice to play higher up the pitch, which increased Arsenal’s press. By moving Julián Álvarez outwards and Bernardo Silva playing centrally, ahead of Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovačić, Pep Guardiola changed his midfield from creativity to caution. With Phil Foden on the other side of Álvarez, there was very little room for maneuver until Jéremy Doku came on. With Arsenal’s defense fortunately operating in a tight space, this meant that the center was extremely crowded and therefore there was very little goal area action.
Erling Haaland only had 23 ball contacts, none of them shots. The number of touches of the ball is not that important in itself: against West Ham last month, Haaland had 22 touches of the ball, but nine of them were shots. He is a minimalist. Only twice before has Haaland failed to score for City: against Arsenal in the Community Shield at Wembley and in the away defeat to Tottenham last season. Not only does this suggest that he really doesn’t like playing against North London clubs, but it also shows that if opponents get players around him they can deny him the space to face , if they can cut off his influx of crosses – three big ifs – he can be stopped. A record of one goal in his last five games would be nothing to worry about for a traditional striker, but by his standards it seems an incredible drought.
City had just four shots in total, fewer than in any other Premier League game under Guardiola. Previously, the way to beat City was the way Wolves went about it last week: sit deep, absorb pressure, let them pass in areas where they won’t hurt you and then attack with flyers on the counterattack who can carry the ball. But Newcastle in the Carabao Cup, at least in the second half, and then Arsenal beat City the way you would beat a normal top team; Arsenal had 49% possession on Sunday.
Erling Haaland only had 23 touches of the ball at the Emirates on Sunday. Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
There is the obvious caveat that these discussions took place in the autumn of last year. Despite his remarkable goalscoring performance, had the introduction of Haaland upset City’s equilibrium? Could a midfielder used to reducing the threat of a counter-attack adapt to having to pass the ball forward more quickly? The answer came in the 25-game unbeaten streak from mid-February to mid-May, in which Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Arsenal and Liverpool were all beaten by three goals or more. Guardiola is preparing his team for the climax in the spring.
There’s also the problem of Rodri, who has been absent from City’s last four defeats. Had he not been suspended, Guardiola might have felt bolder in his midfield selection. The last time City lost two Premier League games in a row was Fernandinho in December 2018: this defensive player is crucial to Guardiola’s lineup. When Rodri returns home to Brighton after the international break, City may return to their relentless rhythm.
But in recent years there has been a feeling that football is beginning to change, that the age of free-flowing slugfests between the big teams may be coming to an end and that the wheels are turning back towards something more grueling. There’s no reason Guardiola can’t adapt, but it’s another challenge.
And there is an irony, perhaps even something more causal, in the fact that while he has diversified his approach with a more orthodox centre-forward and more direct wingers, he has deviated from the strict purity of his Barcelona philosophy to counter those who have done so Trying to counter him could result in his city being beaten like a normal team.
On this day
Scotland’s manager Craig Brown inspects the floodlights before the World Cup qualifying match between Estonia and Scotland. Photo: Ben Radford/Getty Images
The Estonian Football Association had set up temporary floodlights for the home World Cup qualifier against Scotland scheduled for October 9, 1996, but when the Scots trained at the Kadrioru Stadium in Tallinn the evening before the game they were overly concerned that they were not bright were enough. FIFA agreed and ordered the kick-off time to be brought forward from 6:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. However, Estonia refused to change their plans, leaving Scotland the only team on the pitch that afternoon. As the Scottish fans chanted: “There is only one team in Tallinn,” Billy Dodds passed the ball to John Collins, prompting Yugoslav referee Miroslav Radoman to abandon the game. When Scotland left the stadium, the Estonians showed up at the original kick-off time.
Scotland assumed they would be awarded a walkover, but FIFA instead ordered the game to be played at a neutral venue the following February. There was a 0-0 draw in Monaco. Scotland still qualified for the World Cup. Many Scottish fans now liked Tallinn so much that they stayed and set up shop in Estonia.
This is an excerpt from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at football in Europe and beyond. Subscribe here for free. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected] and he will provide the best answer in a future edition
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