Five talking points from Sunday’s Premier League matches: Manchester City dispel title doubts, Arsenal losing ground, Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford inspire Manchester United, Leicester in limbo
It took just 50 seconds for Sergio Aguero and Manchester City to dispel the notion that that the midweek defeat at Newcastle was anything other than an aberration; one of those freakish results that even the best teams usually succumb to once a season.
City penned in Arsenal, Aymeric Laporte whipped the ball across goal and there was Aguero – as he so often is, not least against the Gunners – to throw himself at the ball and head past Bernd Leno.
The hosts could have run away with it from there on Sunday afternoon but, oddly, let Arsenal back into the contest via a set piece and Laurent Koscielny’s 11th-minute header.
It always felt like a matter of time before City reasserted control, however, and they did so just before half-time when Ilkay Gundogan found Raheem Sterling with a majestic chip and Aguero tapped in the low centre.
Aguero bundled in the third with his arm in a phoney war of a second half – Arsenal failed to muster an attempt on goal to City’s 13 – and the champions moved to within two points of the Premier League leaders, who visit West Ham on Monday.
Over to you, Liverpool.
Innovation vs back to basics
Pep Guardiola perplexed pundits with a team selection that seemed to include just three defenders – Kyle Walker, Nicolas Otamendi and Laporte – but no wing backs.
It turned out to be a kind of 3-4-3, with Fernandinho dropping back to become an auxiliary centre-back when required.
This allowed City to field Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva in midfield – with Sterling and Bernardo Silva stationed on either flank and Aguero at the tip of the attack – thus utterly dominating possession and penning Arsenal into their own half.
While Guardiola went for innovation, opposite number Unai Emery opted for a back-to-basics 4-4-2 that neither shored up a creaking defence sufficiently nor tapped the potential of strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
Arsenal being cut adrift
A 3-1 defeat left Arsenal sixth in the league, behind both Chelsea and Manchester United in what now appears a three-way fight for the final Champions League place.
Emery, however, told Sky Sports that he remained “confident” of his team’s ability to finish in the top four.
This month marked four years since Arsenal last won a league game at another of the Big Six teams, and they have looked no closer to ending that wretched run under Emery than they did with Arsene Wenger.
The Spaniard has succeeded in instilling a much-needed work ethic and has turned the Gunners into a team to be feared at set-pieces, but the defence remains riven by both injury and incompetence, team selection and tactics seem to be in constant flux and it is hard to shake the feeling that Arsenal are being left behind by their peers.
Pogba-Rashford double act inspires United
No two players have epitomised Manchester United’s renaissance under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s stewardship more than Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford, so it was fitting that their burgeoning double act should prove to be the difference in Sunday’s 1-0 win at Leicester.
Seemingly liberated under Solskjaer, Pogba was a joy to watch again at the King Power Stadium, marauding, cajoling and prompting for the visitors.
Rashford put an even earlier miss behind him to capitalise on his team-mate’s lofted pass in the ninth minute, steadying himself with a deft first touch and burying a shot past Kasper Schmeichel.
If the interim United manager can work his magic on a still-misfiring Alexis Sanchez, his credentials will become even harder to ignore.
Leicester in limbo under Puel
Claude Puel was expected to have been shown the door at Leicester by now, yet here he still is: not doing well enough to suggest he should put down roots in the East Midlands, not doing badly enough to warrant urgent dismissal.
The result is a sense of limbo at the club.
The Foxes play some exciting football, as they did again against United, although with talent such as Jamie Vardy, Ben Chilwell, James Maddison, Demarai Gray, Wilfred Ndidi, Harry Maguire, Ricardo Pereira and Kasper Schmeichel, there’s a strong case to be made that Puel should have them higher than 11th in the Premier League, their current position.
For the time being, Leicester continue to drift.