Manchester City and Arsenal tied in one of the key matches of the English Championship

In perhaps the main match of the end of the English Championship, two contenders for gold – Manchester City and Arsenal – played to a draw – 0:0. And this result was in favor of the third contender – Liverpool, which now single-handedly leads the “golden race”, albeit with a microscopic margin from its pursuers.

Closer to the break, a whole series of similar comments appeared in the comments under the broadcast of the Manchester match on the BBC website. “Listen, where is the promised blockbuster?” “Why are we looking so sad?” “Are these really Manchester City and Arsenal?”

Well, yes, that was them, two outstanding clubs with rosters stuffed to the gills with talent. But, apparently, it was worth not complaining that they weren’t putting on a show, but looking for something extraordinary in this game. Moreover, it was there. It was not for nothing that experts – for example, the great goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel – unlike non-professional fans, admired the football going on that evening, easily finding something interesting and special in it. In the end, really, have we ever seen Arsenal like this? “Arsenal”, which, ten minutes after the start of the match, is inferior in percentage of ball possession to the opponent by half, but soon decides that this is not enough, and further reduces its share, sitting very deep back, while surprisingly not making a depressing impression with its formal passivity .

And a version of why everything was so strange came to mind without difficulty. April last year. The “golden race” of the previous championship is in full swing, in which not three, as now, but two clubs participate. They are just meeting each other. And Arsenal, trying to play away against Manchester City the way they are used to – that is, beautifully, actively – ends up with a 1:4 score. And that’s it, the race is over. Arsenal, which had just set the tone in it, is falling down. Good coaches – and Mikel Arteta is one of the good ones – don’t forget this. Lessons are learned from this. In order not to repeat this, we are ready to make any sacrifices, say, stylistic: to hell with the attack, it’s better to torment opponents in the rear, partisan style.

And it worked out amazingly for Arsenal. Before the break, Manchester City had no chance, not counting the corner that almost turned fatal for the Londoners. Goalkeeper David Raya must have been amazed that he took the ball so easily. Nathan Ake, who soon left the field due to injury, hit his header from the goal line, and in principle he hit it correctly – not straight, but downwards, under the rebound. But Raya was lucky.

Otherwise, this first half was a triumph of Arsenal’s strategy, which in the middle of it even checked whether the Manchester team was tired enough of rolling the ball, overcoming multi-layered redoubts, and itself snapped back with a couple of attacks. In one of them, Kai Havertz showed that the desire to bite the guests had not gone away: he fought for the ball until the end, so much so that he almost put Raya out of action.

And after the break, Gabriel Jesus could connect with a deadly cross. And this was a hint that the game would definitely become more fun. Moreover, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola sent the right players off the bench into battle. Who better than Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doc to shake up the situation – with dribbling, jerking?

But no, there was no way to shake it. What was happening on the field could be judged even by the mood of the Manchester stands. He behaved more and more quietly, it seems, also tired of this eternal struggle between a sharpened scythe and a strong cobblestone. So tired that a yellow card, which Gabriel Jesus earned, turned out to be a good reason for celebration. In such a match, she was a small success.

It only added a little spice at the end. Moreover, the most obvious opportunity was not with the hosts, but with the guests. Martin Odegaard made the perfect pass to Leandro Trossard, who was accelerating on the left flank. The moment, in theory, was great. But – only if Trossard had not hesitated for a moment. And the moment was enough for him to have no other options but to strike from a position that, whatever one may say, no longer looked like it would be lethal. Manchester goalkeeper Stefan Ortega survived. As well as the score, which few people apparently managed to guess.

And this draw was almost tantamount to a win for the third participant in the “golden race” – Liverpool. On the same day, the Liverpool team beat Brighton at home – 2:1, despite conceding an early goal. And now, nine rounds before the finish of the championship, they are its sole leaders, breaking away from Arsenal, which was level with them, by two points. Manchester City are still one point behind.

Alexey Dospehov