ARSENAL, FIRM TITLE CONTENDERS

Someone said pre-match that he expects Manchester City to have a slight advantage over Arsenal, inshort he expected a City victory. After the match I wrote this to him– "Well it didn't go as you thought. But that makes two of us, it didn't also go as I thought. Howbeit I stand on the opposite end."
With this I send greetings to folks like @typebox and @belemo, I think you can smile.

What do I mean?

Aiit, I watched Brighton against Liverpool on Saturday and could easily tell that Liverpool will equalise and should win the game. Why? By the way what a well taken goal by an Arsenal Alumni, Danny Welbeck for Brighton.

You could see the spaces Brighton were leaving, spaces between the midfield and the defence. You could see the central defenders were suspect. My mind instantly went to Arsenal and it was such a jolly good thought that precipitated out– look, in Arsenal it's like an abomination to see things like leaving spaces for opponents to exploit, it's such a disciplined side without the ball.

So I was expecting a win from the Gunners. I used to tell people that the loses Arteta experienced against City years back was not caused by poor personnel but poor mentality towards City. It was a mind thing.

This team has now come of age against City, because I noticed a proper mental shift had taken place since last season. That's why I was expecting a victory.

The Match

As for the match, it was an interesting game of chess, as they nullified each other. From the word go, firstly I recognised that new mentality I spoke of above and I believed much more. Well, it was two contrasting styles, yet both teams comfortable on the ball. Arsenal pressed up high then sat deep when the high press is avoided by City, so purposely ceding possession to City. In the end the scoreline couldn't separate both sides.

A couple of years back I would have celebrated this draw, but now the reality of where Arsenal's development is, is that this is not such a big thing. Even listening to the manager and some players speak after the match, you hear them express the fact that they are not totally happy with a draw.

It is not for nothing that Gary Neville named Saliba the man of the match. It is no secret that he is so important to the success of this Arsenal side.

Saliba won possession more times than any other player on that pitch yesterday and sometimes in his characteristic seemingly effortless style, and often following it up with an extra touch amid the storm to find a team-mate. Oh my!

Conclusion

Well generally, Arteta has gradually improved Arsenal's record against the traditional Big Six top clubs of the EPL. City had the best record last season, taking 21 points, with the Gunners second on 19. But this draw extends a significant decline in City's record against these top clubs.

I end with part of Arteta's comments after the game, which depicts the kind of mentality I expect from the team–

"We are improving, we are competing better and we are understanding how to compete in these games. There's another step to make to win championships and that's that you have to win. Today we were able to draw and we have to improve a lot still to win."

This certainly isn't the Arsenal that began to loose an 8-point lead about this time last year.

THIS IS ARSENAL!

cheers