Manchester City vs Arsenal: Manchester City’s Nathan Ake sent Arsenal out of the FA Cup with a solo goal. It was an unbelievable match-winning goal. The Dutch defender helped his team get the first win against their title rival.
Mikel Arteta, who is more focused on winning the Premier League and qualifying for the Champions League, started a different team from the one that defeated Manchester United.
Guardiola was not really impressed with what he saw in the first half, with Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard dribbling past John Stone on many occasions.
Arsenal were on top of the game and should have scored after Trossard’s shot was saved by Manchester City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega in the first half.
Arsenal’s second attempt on goal came after Trossard crossed the ball into Takehiro Tomiyasu, who hit the volley, but it was saved by Ortega.
eddie Nketiah on the second half attempt on goal
Rob Holding was given a yellow card as he failed to keep up with Erling Haaland’s pace and height.
However, he was later substituted for William Saliba in the second half as Arteta feared Haaland was likely to disturb Holding more and, being on yellow, he may receive the second yellow card and be sent off.
Despite the effort from the Norwegian striker, Holding succeeded in reducing the impact of Haaland in the match by engaging in close marking with the former Dortmund star.
Haaland did an acrobatic kick outside the Arsenal box, but his attempt was not on target. Before the break, Kevin De Bruyne came close to scoring the first goal, but his shot went wide.
In the second half, Arsenal put more pressure on the Manchester City defense, with Eddie Nketiah forcing Ortega into a save.
The breakthrough finally came after Jack Grealish took the ball and made an attempt to cross the ball, but it was blocked by the Arsenal defender. He turned and gave the ball to Ake, who put it into Arsenal’s net.
Arteta responded with two quick substitutions. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Martinelli were introduced into the match.
Nketiah almost got an equalizer from Granit Xhaka’s perfect pass, but Aymeric Laporte stopped Nketiah by nipping the ball away.
Martinelli appeared to be Arsenal’s best chance to score in the dying moments, but the 14-time FA Cup champions were unable to recover.
What next For Manchester City and Arsenal
The Manchester City team travels to Tottenham on February 5, 2023. The last meeting between the two ended in Manchester City’s favor; they scored four goals in the second half.
Guardiola wants to close the gap between his team and Arsenal. The match itself is very important.
Arsenal, on the other hand, travels to Merseyside to play against Everton in the Premier League on February 4, 2023.
It is going to be a difficult match for Mikel Arteta’s side because of Everton’s potential appointment of coach Sean Dyche. The experienced manager is capable of defeating Arsenal if he joins Everton early enough for the clash.
