Cherki and Haaland flip the title race as Manchester City beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Etihad
For six days all season Manchester City had topped the Premier League table. By full time at the Etihad on Sunday they were still three points behind Arsenal, and yet the mood around the title race had completely changed. Pep Guardiola’s side won 2-1 in a game that has been circled on the calendar for weeks, and they did it with a Rayan Cherki goal that belonged in a highlights reel and an Erling Haaland finish that finally broke a two-month Premier League drought.
Arsenal arrived with a six-point cushion and the confidence of a team that had spent most of the season at the summit. They leave with a lead that looks a lot thinner than it did a week ago, and with City holding a game in hand against second-bottom Burnley on Wednesday. Win that and Guardiola’s side go top with five matches to play.
Cherki’s solo brilliance sets the tone
The opener came in the 16th minute and it was the sort of goal that makes you rewind. Antoine Semenyo slipped the ball to Cherki on the edge of the box. The Frenchman slalomed past three Arsenal defenders, shifted it from his left foot to his right, and bent a finish into the far bottom corner. It was Cherki’s game in miniature. Arteta had built a plan around shutting down City’s midfield runners, and Cherki simply invented his way around it.
Arsenal’s response was immediate, though it came from a piece of pantomime at the other end. Gianluigi Donnarumma dwelt on a routine clearance from a throw-in, allowed Kai Havertz to close him down, and watched the ball deflect off the German striker and into the net two minutes after City had gone ahead. 1-1. The Italian’s night could have been much worse. He needed a smart stop to deny Havertz on a counter ten minutes before the second goal, and Arsenal will look back on that save as the moment the evening got away from them.
Haaland ends his Premier League drought
The second goal arrived on 65 minutes and had been building for most of the second half. City kept Arsenal pinned. Cherki kept finding pockets. Haaland, who had not scored in the Premier League since February, drifted to the edge of the area, took one touch to control, and drove a low finish past David Raya. His first league goal in two months, and it landed on the biggest night of the run-in.
Arsenal did not go quietly. Gabriel glanced a header against the post in the closing stages. Havertz missed another free header from a corner, the kind of chance that would have had Mikel Arteta’s side thinking about celebrations. Neither went in. Nico O’Reilly and Rico Lewis ran themselves into the ground at full-back, and Ruben Dias looked every inch a captain in the way he organised a back four that has not always been trusted this season.
What it means for the run-in
Arsenal stay top on 70 points. City move to 67 with a game in hand. Guardiola’s fixtures on paper look softer than Arteta’s, and Burnley at the Etihad on Wednesday is the match that could hand City the lead outright for the first time since the autumn. Arsenal host Newcastle next weekend, then face Fulham and West Ham before the end of the month.
There is a case that this is still Arsenal’s title to lose. Five games, a three-point buffer and a strong home record. There is also a case that momentum in a two-horse race matters more than anything, and momentum is with City. Haaland is scoring again. Cherki looks like the difference-maker nobody expected when he arrived from Lyon. Donnarumma got away with a gift tonight and the odds are he does not give the champions another one.
Arteta’s post-match comments were terse. He said Arsenal had done enough in the second half to take something from the game but conceded his players had been second to too many balls in the first half hour. Guardiola, for his part, refused to call it a turning point. “There are fifteen points to play for,” he said. “Nobody is going to win anything tonight.” True enough. But nobody loses anything on their own either, and Arsenal have spent two weeks giving City openings they had no right to expect.
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