Being an Arsenal supporter is not easy. Even when the title extends its arms to Gunnersthey always find a way not to kill the suspense, and above all to leave their main competitors alive. On Saturday, Mikel Arteta’s gang burned a new joker by losing at home to Bournemouth, who no longer play much. Manchester City logically stepped into the breach this Sunday, by humiliating Chelsea, to come back six lengths behind the leader. Enough to add a little more spice to the duel between the top two in the championship, scheduled for next Sunday.
The weather is nice in Manchester…
A week after their recital against Liverpool, the Cityzens therefore continued their march forward this weekend, and showed an impressive second wind to begin their final sprint. Not particularly transcendent in the first half at Stamford Bridge, they only needed 18 minutes to bring down the Blues in the second half, under the leadership of a great Rayan Cherki, who increasingly has the lead in the X factor determining the end of the season. But where does this little redemption come from, when we thought City’s season was over after the elimination against Real Madrid in the Champions League?
Winning once or twice is good. But for nine years, being there all the time except last season, it shows what we are…
Pep Guardiola has the beginnings of an answer. “The sun… No, no, I’m not kidding. In Manchester, it’s never sunny. If there was sunshine in November, we would be Premier League champions in January. It’s the sun, honestly. The mood is better, said the Spaniard on Sunday, before being a bit more rational. One of the secrets that we have as a club, as an organization, is that after the success, the success, the success, we were humble enough and calm enough to say: “Okay, what do we need to do to continue to be at the top?” It’s the hardest thing. Winning once or twice is good. But for nine years, being there all the time except last season, it shows what we are… »
A questioning which is bearing fruit and which comes at the right time, one week before the clash against Arsenal, where the fate of the end of the season could well be decided. If the Gunners do not lose at the Etihad, they will have their destiny in their hands, and a flawless performance until the end will allow them to lift the title in a few weeks. But a victory for City would completely reignite the suspense, especially since the Mancuniens have a match in hand to play, against Bournemouth, and it is therefore not impossible to imagine the Skyblues regain the Premier League throne before long.
…and it’s cloudy at Arsenal
The atmosphere was quite different on Saturday in London, where Mikel Arteta seemed to suffer the blow after the setback against Bournemouth. « Now it all depends on how we react. We will have to show even more combativeness. We will have to be very, very strong and determined to approach the next matches in a different way than today, especially when the match did not go in our favor. There were things very basic that we did extremely poorlyhe declared, before responding to criticism of Arsenal’s ability not to collapse at the end of the season. We can’t control that. What we can control is our performance, what we have done over the last nine months. So, everything that is said when you suffer a defeat at home, you have to accept it. It all depends on how we get back up. Today it’s painful, it’s a terrible feeling, but tomorrow will be another day. If someone had told me in August that we would be in this position today in April, I’m sure we all would have signed right away. »
On a run of three defeats in the last four games, Arsenal have their heads in the bag, and even the victory in Lisbon on Tuesday didn’t have much positive, apart from the result. The attack is at half mast, and, more worrying, the defense, usually the strong link of this team, is much less sovereign than usual. Not necessarily the best possible news when facing Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki.
Mikel Arteta to Kepa’s rescue
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