Arsenal came through a horribly tense afternoon with their dignity intact although a 0-0 draw with Manch115ter City, coupled with Liverpool’s win over Brighton, means we slip to second in the table with nine matches of the season remaining.
After last season’s horror show at the Etihad, the Gunners produced a streetwise performance that kept the home side’s attack at arm’s length for long periods. At the same time, attempts to win the match on the break were let down by a lack of composure.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos had to say…
Mikel Arteta on taking a point…
A really competitive match as you can imagine. We made another big step today. They have the capacity to change formations to get you in deep in many moments. They are very physical but I think we coped with that very well. I think we had the best situations. We were really aggressive at times and getting the ball into great areas. The way we competed individually and as a team was phenomenal. Individually you have to be at your best. I think it is 2021 since they hadn’t scored a goal here at the Etihad. It was a really tough test for us today. We wanted to win but when you cannot win you must not lose.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Pep Guardiola on a tight clash…
We take the point. We tried. We didn’t create much, they didn’t create much. They defended very compact, we could not regain the balls high pressing because first contact, second contact they were there. They had a lot of quality and physicality. They had one or two chances in transitions when we lost one or two balls. But yes it was a tight game, we were who we are, we missed a little bit in the final third but it is not easy. The strikers run back with Rodri, the crosses they were really good with, the physicality and intensity.
Source: Sky Sports
Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal FT
It finishes goalless, meaning Arsenal have kept clean sheets both at home and away against City this season.
It is also the first time in eight visits that Arsenal have avoided defeat at the Etihad.#MCIARS pic.twitter.com/4ot2oKcAgf
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) March 31, 2024
William Saliba on Arsenal’s defence…
We are so good this season defensively. It’s not only the defenders, it’s all the team, so we can be proud of this and we have to keep going and focus on the next game. We are already focused on the next game. We don’t have the choice. We have to be ready.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Bernardo Silva on Arsenal’s tactics…
A tough game, a tough game. We played against a top side, a very well organised side. We felt like we started strong and then they got back into the game, very organised, two different phases, when we were building up they were doing man-to-man [marking] so it was tough and then when we could get three or four passes together, they would run back and their wingers would make almost a line of six and it’s never easy to create chances when they defend that well. A top side to play against and a very tough game for both teams. It could have gone both ways, so I think it’s a fair result for everyone.
Source: Premier League Productions
David Raya is the first goalkeeper to keep 10 clean sheets in the Premier League this season.
He's also the first opposition 'keeper to keep a Premier League clean sheet against Man City at the Etihad since Vicente Guaita in October 2021. ⛔ pic.twitter.com/UsvkiJALz5
— Squawka (@Squawka) March 31, 2024
Martin Odegaard on Arsenal’s defensive work…
Mixed emotions to be honest. I felt like we had the chances to get all the three points but it’s a tough place to come and it was a tough battle out there. Two good teams so maybe a point was a fair result but it’s mixed feelings. The job we do without the ball is massive from the back to the front, the distance we cover, how we defend the box, how we track box and how we won the duels today, it was brilliant. With the ball we could have done better in certain moments, we could have kept it a bit more and played a bit more but that’s how football is sometimes, if you don’t have the best day with the ball, you have to make sure you don’t lose the game.
Source: beIN SPORTS
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Mikel Arteta on Saka having to go off…
As you know he has been out for a few weeks now with a little problem and he was feeling that fatigue. Right now, he hasn’t trained. He trained one day before the match – he had a big contribution, but 90 minutes were too much for him today.
Source: Post-game press conference
Erling Haaland has accumulated 0.24(xG) against Arsenal in his last three appearances against them.
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) March 31, 2024
Shaun Wright-Phillips on his former side struggling in the final third…
There was a bit of a lack of quality from City’s finishing. Ake had a great chance, Haaland as well, but Arsenal defended well – they didn’t make those chances easy. City did waste chances but Arsenal made it hard for them.
Source: Premier League Productions
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Ian Wright on how Arsenal will feel…
Arsenal take that. City are formidable at home and Arsenal denied them – City had a lot of possession but not many chances. I’d have liked to see more going the other way but getting a point is brilliant.
Source: Premier League Productions
🔴 @Arsenal are only the third team to keep two clean sheets against Pep Guardiola's @ManCity in the same season!
Only Man Utd in 2020/21 and Crystal Palace in 2021/22 have done the same! pic.twitter.com/tlddHoevKW
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 31, 2024
Theo Walcott on the Gunners breaking their losing streak at the Etihad…
The pattern has now been broken for Arsenal at Man City. It’s not a win but it’s a draw and a point away at a stadium that hasn’t been kind to Arsenal. They have four points from City this season and that says it all. They would have taken this before the game.
Source: Sky Sports
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Roy Keane on the title race…
Liverpool are the real winners today, you look at the table now, you’re thinking Liverpool are favourites for. But with the amount of quality on the pitch today [at the Etihad], that’s why we’re disappointed. Again, credit to Arsenal obviously, good team shape or whatever and a clean sheet, but when you’re looking at the standard City have set themselves the last few years, particularly players like Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden and they don’t quite reach them levels you’re disappointed. We just take for granted that these brilliant players are going to turn up and it just had an off day. They’re just off it, they’ll have to take the point but I’m not sure that’d be good enough the end of the season for City.
Source: Sky Sports
🚨NEW FAVOURITE FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE ALERT🚨
That's right. For the first time this season, the Opta supercomputer doesn't think Man City are the favourites to win the league.
Liverpool are now in the driving seat ⬇️https://t.co/n7fyu3g9Ht pic.twitter.com/thtEATt1V8
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) March 31, 2024
Gael Clichy on the match not living up to expectations…
I was a bit disappointed with the performance of both teams tonight – Arsenal came for a draw. It’s the perfect result for Liverpool, they didn’t play that well but they got the win and City and Arsenal both need to up their game.
Source: Premier League Productions
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Mikel Arteta on how Arsenal had to adapt to not having much of the ball
Clarity, before the game: are you ready to follow 30 passes? And after following the ball 30 passes, lose the ball and follow another 30 passes? Yes, then you can play Manchester City. It’s very important – if you are not ready to do that, you cannot play against them.
Source: Post-game press conference
🔵 What is the solution playing against an opposition with a low block?
Pep Guardiola: “Kill someone, maybe?”. pic.twitter.com/dtEkc1iJLR
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 31, 2024
We could be back on top next saturday.
Waiing for sunday’s clash and looking at opta supercomputer new calculaion…
COYG!! This was a massive point for Arsenal and whoever disagrees should probably step back 2 seconds and drink some fresh water
*waiting
And now back to Grandma’s supper computer!
Roy Keane is a miserable cunt. He actually said defending is the easy part.
Your damned if you do blah blah, sky disappointed we didn’t go for it and get picked a part so they could of scolded our naivety.
The best punditry came from ironically Bernardo silva interview as much as I hate him in the pitch
Unfortunately the 0-0 draw has papered over the cracks with our Goalkeeping situation. Raya had 6 miskicks and thankfully no harm was done due to our rock solid defence. He was supposed to be the “ball at your feet” GK but looked like a nervous wreck every time city pressed and miskicked time and time again with a lot of fortune. And the simple tap in incident for Haaland (which he missed) shouldn’t have never happened had Raya shown some positional awareness in the first place. Aaron would have simply punched away the flick on.
I think this discussion is over whether or not you accept it.
10 clean sheets says it all.
You really are a sad individual. Please get help.
Yeah, I’m hoping that winning the league will paper over all the things wrong with this team.
You know, the fixture list is supposed to be less kind to Arsenal in April, but we play teams that are going to come out at us while Liverpool have some tough rivalry matches away to Everton and Man United, both of whom will be desperate to stick it to their old enemies chasing a title by a narrow margin. They also get Marco Silva’s Fulham, the only team that has given Arsenal fits from a tactical point of view this season. They just beat Tottenham 3-0 as well. We on the other hand get Villa, Brighton, Luton, Chelsea; these… Read more »
An 18.8% chance of winning doesn’t sound great, let’s hope they are wrong! We have taken old steps forward, let’s keep going!
*big steps
This can change very fast. Yesterday when Westham were winning 3-1 at the minute 63′ the chance of Newcastle win the game was at 2 %. They won 4-3. Let’s enjoy the ride.
That’s how probability theory works!
It’s still 18.8% higher chance than we’ve had for the best part of the last 20 years.
If we do go on to win it this year we’ll definitely need this “18.8%” printed out a bunch of times. Mugs and T-shirts, let’s get it sorted.
Anytime Arsenal doesnt Lose, its always due to opponents having an off day.
This does not mean anything. What counts is who wins at the end🙄
They use old data to make the predictions too so it’s not even close to accurate. Our performances going back to 2021 will be influencing the predictions, which we know is irrelevant.
How is that a “super-computer” prediction? We’re in second with superior defensive and attacking metrics and have won the top 3 mini-league having taken 8 points to their (is it?) 3 each?
We might have a harder run-in but how can our title chance percentage not fluctuate even a smidge?
One factor is the fixtures remaining for each team
We were in first, now we’re in second
We took a point off what were the favourites ahead of this fixture at their home. It’s literally the most difficult fixture in the league and we’re the first team to hold them goalless at home in 2 years- over 50 games. We are ahead of them in every meaningful metric in the table. How does our title chance % not fluctuate at all? Not even a decimal fraction. It’s laughable.
They use old data to make the predictions so our performances going back to 2021/22 will be influencing the predictions.
If you look at the one off game win probabilities on BBC ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c724qeryjn6o ) they have Liverpool with 45% win probability going to Old Trafford next week VS us with a 38% win probability for our game at Old Trafford.
The difference is purely down to historical results in that fixture, which as we know is completely irrelevant.
Intersting, but that’s still only a 7% difference. I’d say both teams are slight favorites there but it’s a tricky fixture. They have a lot of quality forwards and can punch above their weight on their day, a bit like Arsenal was in the Auba/Ozil era. United’s performances have quite a bit of variance to them and that can really swing the difficulty of any given match with them. I think they probably want to stick it to Liverpool slightly more than us but they’ll be up for spoiling it for both teams. I wouldn’t underestimate the difficulty of that… Read more »
Id have us as 3rd favourites right now aswell tbh. We have harder games which are made harder by the champions league. Klopp can throw the Europa league, I hope he doesn’t but he’d be stupid not to being this close to a 2nd prem.
if we beat Bayern and get City in semi final huge advantage goes to pool. If we beat Bayern and get real, welll city have less games so huge advantage City. No one said it would be easy lol
No one can touch us defensively, short term maybe only a win would do but long term this is a step in the right direction , credit to arteta he’s turned this team around and made us us contenders for the top honours, 4 PTS from both city and the dirty scousers can’t be sniffed at✊
Yeah, rock solid at the back. Was one of those games you just want so desperately to snatch something, but alas. Just got to keep winning. Liverpool will drop points somewhere… We can’t slip up.
The weirdest opening statement on the BBC match report when the writer called the game “a bitterly disappointing stalemate”.
Maybe it’s because I had skin in the game but I thought that was as high a quality tactical chess game as you’re likely to see this season.
Sometimes it’s 11 players vs 11 players but that really felt like Pep vs Mikel. The way their substitutions dovetailed one another was so cool to watch.
I thought I was a fantastic game of football.
All convenient narrative. My personal favourite is guys like Neville and Keane talking out the sides of their mouths about the “quality” of football. When they were playing, these gladiators were happy to take the niggliest grubbiest points without an ounce of sympathy for the ‘neutral’, while staying focused (to their credit) on the bigger picture. Here’s United’s results from their most dominant phase ever (three titles 2007-2009) against the sides that finished second. 2006-07: vs. Chelsea 1-1 (home); 0-0 (away) 2007-08: vs. Chelsea 2-0 win (home); 1-2 loss (away) 2008-09: vs. Liverpool 1-2 loss (away); 1-4 loss (away) Same… Read more »
Well said. I wasn’t bored. Mikel actually called it thrilling, and I think it a way it was because so much hung on every little action.
Was on the edge of my seat the whole game. Top defensive game between two teams that are offensive fire powers against other teams. Neither team could do what they wanted offensively. Well coached match. Another step forward. We are learning.
Erling Haaland has accumulated 0.24(xG) against Arsenal in his last three appearances against them.
while at the same time accumulating 3.88 xG (expected Gabriels) in his head, laughing at him at night in his sleep, shaking his hand after the match with a big smile, “well played Erling, you did well amigo…” repeats again and again as he twists and turns and pulls the blanket over from his freezing girlfriend who happens to look just like him
Haaland was schooled by Saliba and Gabby (in both games this season)
They probably do each other’s hair too.
I hope that’s true, the part about the girlfriend looking just like him.
just googled and unfortunately it isn’t, but seemed plausible didn’t it?
Last time we had Everton as our last game at home we won the league in 97/98
The most beautiful season
Didn’t we beat Everton by 5 in our last home game the season before last?
01/02 as well a 4-3 win
I was there.
But we did win the title at old trafford that season 🙂
We’re gonna do these bastards, and Brokeside.
This winners super computer prediction thing. Please. Best team defensively, best team offensively, and still given little chance to win the league? When will the rest of the world start to show some genuine love for the way this Arsenal team has been built and is performing?
Well, they haven’t rated us in ALL the 60-odd years I’ve supported The Arsenal, – so why change now ? Ha ha!
Surely if the super computer was so bloody super it would have seen this result coming and had Liverpool as favourites beforehand.
It’s about as super at predicting results as pissed Dave down the pub. May as well ask him who’s going to win it.
Math is impartial. City and Liverpool have just been better for longer. They deserve to be favorites until we can show the same level of consistency and ability to win the top trophies.
That said I do think 18.8% is under selling our chances, mostly because I think our fixture list is more favorable than it thinks.
I hear you doc, but if we want to be logical….
Arsenals original odds of 18.8% indicate that Mr computer projected we would lose.
We didn’t lose, which means our likelyhood of winning the league HAS to go up? If that’s not the case, how could the odds of Man City winning go down?
Pissed Dave knows where it’s at!
Well, the issue is we just dropped two points. The fact that it was against a title rival who also dropped two points mitigates that, but I believe that’s probably why we’ve come out even after this game. Side note… Liverpool’s luck HAS to run out sometime doesn’t it? Doesn’t it??? I thought when they came from behind to beat Newcastle with 10 men it was a bit of a cute fluke, but now it’s becoming annoying that they keep falling behind but finding ways to win anyway. The underlying numbers support my perception that they’re a team riding hot… Read more »
‘Math’? 🤔🤔🤔
Proud to say, I am smarter than a super comp.
The thumbnail picture is basically ‘game recognise game’ and you can count on 1 hand how many people haaland has done that too, and saliba is on that hand aswell…..monster pair of cbs
Well I think this game is another measuring stick of the progress we have made. We played 90 minutes of essentially error free football against the best club team in the world that really really wanted to win, and couldn’t. It was a massive test and I think secretly the squad is buzzing with this result, though they won’t admit that publicly. It means it’s out of City’s hands from this point forward if both clubs win out. That’s a big IF but I’m more optimistic about Liverpool slipping up than City.
We have taken four points off them this season. Naysayers and party poopers can kiss my ass.
Football is a game of
unpredictabilities and so it proved yet again. No one can predict with any accuracy what will happen in the final 9 games of the season. All we can know is that we are more than a match for anyone in the league.
And doesn’t that feel nice, to be truly competitive again at the top of the table. Thank you Super Mik.
Can someone start slipping amphetamines and steroids into United’s water supply? Maybe go shave Salah’s hair and tie together Darwin’s shoe laces.
We must have got under some people’s skin with complaints about “boring” Arsenal.
A couple of seasons ago when City were rotational fouling and they didn’t complain. Why should Arsenal let them score? They simply cannot get past Gabriel and Saliba:-)