Manchester City demolished Arsenal 5:0 in a their premier league fixture at the Etihad. The reigning Premier League champions who missed out on signing Cristiano Ronaldo, shrugged off the disappointment to turn on the style against the hapless gunners.
Pep Guardiola’s men showed no mercy against Mikel Arteta’s team, with the onslaught beginning in the seventh minute as Ilkay Gundogan arrived to head in Gabriel Jesus’s cross. Five minutes later, it was two as some lax defending by Arsenal allowed Ferran Torres to flick home. A shambolic start became even worse when Granit Xhaka was sent off for a reckless two-footed lunge in the thirty fifth minute. The cityzens quickly took advantage of this and plundered a third through Gabriel Jesus in the forty third minute.
In the second half it was more of the same as City turned the match into a passing drill and added two more goals for good measure with Rodri steering a beautifully placed shot past Bernd Leno in the Arsenal goal for City’s fourth goal. Ferran Torres completed his brace six minutes from time to round off a resounding win.
So much fuss has been made of Manchester City’s need to sign a world class centre forward but based on recent evidence, they may not need to. Ferran Torres put in another brilliant display in the centre forward position scoring two goals and creating another. All in all it was a productive day at the office for Pep Guardiola as his team recorded successive 5:0 wins to lay down a marker to their opponents. They look more than capable of defending their crown on this evidence.
Arsenal on the other hand recorded their worst ever start to a Premier League campaign having last lost their first three league games in 1954/1955 season. A closer look reveals even more disturbing statistics as Arsenal have now conceded nine goals in their three league matches and failed to score any!
The match wasn’t a pretty sight for Gunners watching as City dominated possession by an embarrassing 81-19 ratio and had 25 shots to Arsenal’s 1. This asks further questions of Mikel Arteta’s suitability to the role of manager as he was crushed by his mentor Pep Guardiola without mercy. Arteta is fast running out of time to turn things around but can at least use the international break to find ways to get his team on track.