It's Guardiola, not money, that gives City the real edge
Martin Samuel
It seems contrary, when a £100 million forward scores the winning goal, to suggest Manchester City are not top because of the money. Of course, the money is a factor. It was Erling Haaland who scrambled Gabriel's brains into a series of second-half mistakes, it was Jack Grealish whose low shot defeated Aaron Ramsdale to drag Arsenal kicking and screaming from the summit.
Yet that isn't all of it, in so many ways. Not even half of it, really. There are a lot of expensively assembled teams in this league, and across Europe, a lot of coaches who can chequebook their way out when trouble arises. Few set up at Arsenal the way Pep Guardiola did. Few would detail a player of Bernardo Silva's height and skillset to play left back against Bukayo Saka, the most prolific young goalscorer in Arsenal's history.
Well, left back and then some, this being Guardiola. Left back and central midfield when in possession; left back and joining up with the forwards when the moment is right. Left back and let's face it you wouldn't really have been surprised had he ended up on the scoresheet. That kind of left back. A Guardiola left back. There is no one quite like him.
And, worryingly, for the team formerly known as the league leaders, this isn't even Manchester City at their best. They can do more than this we all know that. Arsenal had the better of the first half. An hour in and there was still a huge amount of hope inside the Emirates Stadium that this could be the night they had all been waiting for.
True, elements of good fortune could be claimed. The penalty award that brought Arsenal back into the game when it appeared Ederson, the goalkeeper, had done everything to make himself harmless, save disappear in a puff of smoke. The shoe size or two that Haaland was offside before being manhandled by Gabriel in the penalty area. Luck favoured the league leaders.
Yet there is still so much to like about this Arsenal side; not least that they have made the Emirates Stadium sound as its architects must have imagined it: boisterous, confident, raucous, a place fit and proper for a team with the potential to be champions. It has rarely felt like that until this season, sadly. Even when Arsenal were Champions League fixtures under Arsène Wenger it always seemed that Arsenal missed Highbury; that they were better at the old place, all intimacy and glorious, invincible ghosts. The Emirates turned in troubled times too, and there were plenty of them. The year, 2004, next to the Premier League trophy in the roll of honour around the perimeter existed not so much as source of pride but as a dreadful reminder of what had been lost.
And this team have changed that.
They have made 60,000 not just dream but believe and that was certainly the mood for much of the game. Then City stole it away. Their second-half display was that of players who knew the course and distance, and a manager who had the utmost faith in them. The Emirates did not turn, but nor did it reply once the third went in and Haaland claimed his 26th league goal of the season. He had been superb all night: just a big, ugly handful for any defender venturing near him, turning Gabriel, teasing, bruising. The first billion-dollar baby in the making? He's a way off that yet, but the goal that sealed the game and a performance that helped City to dominate the half showed why some think one day it will be achieved.
But back to Guardiola. There was a moment in the first half when Kyle Walker took a fall on to his back from height after an aerial tussle and lay stricken on the pitch. He was clearly going to need treatment for a short time. Guardiola used that moment to give an impromptu coaching session. He summoned Silva, Nathan Aké, Ilkay Gundogan. He moved his hands swiftly as if shadow boxing, indicating when one needed to drop in, when one needed to step out. At one stage, a member of the group must have repeated his instructions. "No, no, no," said Guardiola professional lip-readers not needed here and proceeded to go through the lesson again. Quite probably he expanded on those instructions in the 15 half-time minutes and City were simply better after that.
And yes, money buys talent, and talent makes a coach's job easier. Yet the fact also remains that the more time City's players have spent with Guardiola, the better and stronger they have become. Grealish is a better player now than when he left Aston Villa. Aké looks world-class. Kevin De Bruyne was immense, again. The fear is that having gloried in this title race for so long, we may now be looking at a procession into spring. Guardiola will fancy the return when these teams meet at the Etihad, and there is a growing feeling that Arsenal's blip is becoming more of a drama, bordering on crisis. It is four games without a win in all competitions and while two of those matches have been against City, both have ended in defeat.
The Emirates wasn't angry at the end, just quiet and resigned. They came to see the champions and they probably did, but not the champions they had hoped for. Money helps, but it's not the only reason City have made this competition their own.
