North vs South

Friday 27th January 2023: FA Cup 4th Round: Etihad Stadium: Manchester City vs Arsenal

City had already defeated one big London team in the Third Round they should hardly have been quaking at the thought of hosting another capital team in the Fourth Round. Sure this London team were the Gunners, the only team above them in the league table.

They were also fresh off back to back wins against Tottenham and Manchester United, the same United that had recently beaten City 2-1 in the derby. Oh and Arsenal are managed by Mikel Arteta, who had been Pep Guardiola’s assistant at City and thus had an encyclopaedic knowledge of their tactics.

Of course none of this mattered to Man City, after all they were at home and can beat anyone there, except Brentford (2-1, Saturday 12th November 2022, see ‘Pure Insanity At The Etihad).

For my part I was intrigued to see who would win this showdown between the best teams in the country. One from Manchester, the other the Kings of North London, a real North vs South showdown.

Arsenal kicked us off, with the young Matt Turner in goal, and decided that the psychical game was the key to stopping City’s silky skills tearing them apart. Within 2 minutes Haaland had already been thrown to the ground by Rob Holding and it seemed the Norwegian genius would have to get used to that treatment as the ref just let it go.

Both teams decided that the best defence was an overwhelming offence and they each came close to breaking the deadlock within the first 5 minutes. First the hosts slipped a great ball through to Bernardo Silva, but he ballooned his effort over the bar with only Turner to beat. Then it was the visitors turn to waste a great opportunity, Bukayo Saka inches away from connecting with a tantalising cross to the back post.

With both teams steaming forward at 1,000mph at every opportunity it was inevitable that the mistakes would creep in soon. They took just 10 minutes to rear their ugly head when Stefan Ortega, in the City goal, sent a goal kick sailing into the stride of Saka 20 yards from goal. The collective sigh of relief when Saka was unable to punish this with a clinical finish gave me goosebumps.

Neither set of supporters needed to worry much about seeing the opposition ripple their net though as, despite the intricate and inspired build-up play, both sets of strikers had left their shooting boots at home. The way both teams built from the back or hit their opponents on the break at breakneck speed could be made into instructional videos on how to do it. The work of the strikers into videos of everything not to do with the goal at your mercy.

The lack of goals was not for a lack of effort of brilliance in either team’s play, Ilkay Gundogan and Leandro Trossard being the main tormentors of the opposition for City and Arsenal respectively. The game had everything except a decent finisher, if either team could find it they would be home and dry.

Arsenal went searching for this elusive goal in the second half by removing Trossard from the fray in the 66th minute and Bukayo Saka in the 74th, their two most threatening players so far. Sending on Oleksandr Zinchencko and Martin Odegaard in the search for goals was a strange call from Arteta, a defender and a creative midfielder are not the natural places to turn especially when you’ve just gone behind.

With both team’s strikers misfiring in front of goal it fell to Nathan Ake to break the deadlock for the hosts. He surged onto the ball as it cannoned back off the left post and drove his shot across the body of Turner and in off the base of the right post to cue euphoria in the home ends. It was the first moment of true quality in either penalty area all match and it would also be the last.

Having taken the lead City were content to sit back and protect their lead against a dangerous set of Gunners. Unfortunately for the fans who had travelled all this way north of the capital the guns continued to misfire, despite setting siege to the host’s goal for much of the remainder of the match. It was actually City who came closest to providing another goal, through World Cup winner Julian Alvarez. The Argentine launched a solo sortie into Arsenal territory and smashed the ball towards goal from 30yards. He seared Turner’s hands, but without a teammate gambling for a simple tap-in City’s lead remained just the singular goal.

It would remain so till the final whistle as Alvarez’s hail mary shot was the only decent goal threat from either team between Ake’s goal and the ref calling time. Most of the home fans had called time on their attendance before Alvarez went for the spectacular though. The home stands were more sparsely populated than the Gobi desert at full-time.

City won the battle for the North as they march onto probable FA Cup success, but as I write it is their visitors from the South still lead in their league battle. City won this battle, but Arsenal may yet win the war.