The first weekend in February saw two of the three most serious Premier League title contenders, Arsenal and Liverpool, do battle at the Emirates Stadium, and despite Liverpool still being at the top of the table, Arsenal’s triumph in North London wasn’t too much of a surprise. These two teams met at the same venue in the third round of the FA Cup, and though Liverpool won that day, Arsenal dominated a great portion of the game, and their inability to convert their chances coupled with Liverpool’s to take everything they could wasn’t likely to repeat itself.
The stadium exploded with joy when Bukayo Saka broke the deadlock in the 14th minute, and for a long time it seemed the visitors would be very lucky to go to the break one goal down. But in bizarre twist of events, Gabriel Magalhaes handled the ball in his own box in the final seconds of the first half, and there was no need for referee Anthony Taylor to give a penalty because the ball went into the net.
But bizarre moments hadn’t dried up just yet, and in the 67th minute, a blunder made between Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker left the ball at the feet of Gabriel Martinelli with the goal gaping, and the Brazilian winger kept his cool to restore Arsenal’s lead, ending the period when Liverpool had actually gained some control over the flow of the contest. Bad luck struck Van Dijk and Alisson again in stoppage time, when the Dutch centre-back diverted a shot by Arsenal substitute Leandro Trossard just enough to fool his goalkeeper, setting the final score at 3-1.
Despite Liverpool ending the game with the higher possession percentage, Arsenal’s triumph was fully deserved. But more importantly, it complicated the Premier League title race considerably. Liverpool went to North London sitting at the top with 51 points, with both Manchester City and Arsenal on 46, though City had (and still have) a game in hand on both rivals.
Had Liverpool won, the gap between them and Arsenal would’ve widened to eight points, and the Gunners would be facing a very difficult task of trying to catch up through the remainder of the season. Even a draw would’ve left them in an unenviable position, but as it is, the gap is now only two points wide.
City played their game away to Brentford on Monday evening, and the hearts of both Arsenal and Liverpool supporters probably skipped a beat when Neal Maupay put the Bees ahead in the 21st minute. But the defending champions quickly put everything back to normal, courtesy of a hat-trick by Phil Foden, making sure to avoid a repeat of their visit to the Community Stadium last season. The Bees were, in fact, the only team to have beaten City twice in 2022/23.
Much has been said recently about Jurgen Klopp’s decision to leave Liverpool at the end of the season, and the fact that his players had won eight and lost none of the last 11 matches before the Arsenal trip indicated that they were highly motivated to give their manager a glorious sendoff. However, they showed none of it at the Emirates – arguably the worst possible game for them to break that successful streak.
It was an all-round woeful performance from the Merseysiders, undoubtedly their worst of the season, in a crucial moment, and it could end up having huge ramifications on their title aspirations.
There’s no way to make predictions with any kind of certainty of course, but at this stage, things look very good for Manchester City. Leaving the 115 accusations of financial regularities aside now, Guardiola has led his men to five Premier League titles in the last six seasons, and every one of those campaigns, they took advantage of every rival mistake by going on fantastic winning runs. That way, they twice beat Liverpool to the throne by a single point, the only rival to have actually managed to unseat them in 2019/20.
With Kevin De Bruyne back from injury and obviously hungry for more success, Foden apparently picking the right time to develop into a world-class attacker, and the duo of Rodri and Bernardo Silva as effective at keeping everything on the pitch under their control as ever, the chances of Liverpool staying ahead of Manchester City and those of Arsenal overtaking them both look rather feeble.
The more optimistic ones among the Liverpool supporters will point to the fact that their team has lost only twice in the league, less than either of their rivals (City three, Arsenal four) or any other team in the English top flight, and that this defeat to Arsenal was the first match they lost deservedly (the memories of the blunders made by the officials when they lost to Tottenham Hotspur are still vivid). As for Arsenal, their supporters can cling on to the fact that they’ve beaten both Liverpool and City this season, and that they did so as the better team on the pitch in both matches.
But at this moment, it’s City who hold all the cards. If they win their game in hand, they’ll reclaim the top spot and be on their way to another title, and then, stopping them will take some doing, even if they do have a game against Liverpool at Anfield and against Arsenal at the Etihad still to play.
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