The stats make for grim reading and the eye test does not add much in mitigation: Manchester City were uninspiring against Arsenal, registering their fewest shots in a Premier League game since 2010 (four, one on target).
The fact that star striker Erling Haaland registered an expected goals (xG) of 0.00 is another eye-catching stat that will travel quickly on social media.
Here is another one: City have lost each of the three games without Rodri, who has now fully served a costly ban for violent conduct against Nottingham Forest.
And here is another: City have lost two Premier League games in a row for the first time since December 2018 (which, if anything, highlights how good they have been for so long). Those defeats came at a time when Fernandinho was injured, highlighting something else: they looked lost without him at first but learned to thrive when he also missed the end of the campaign; they won the league.
So statistics can sometimes paint a picture different to reality. The reality of City’s performance on Sunday does not dramatically differ from the numbers: they were blunt. But it is at least possible to understand why they were so blunt.
The short answer, like those Fernandinho-less defeats in 2018-19, is Rodri’s absence. The slightly longer version is Pep Guardiola’s interpretation of how to cover for Rodri’s absence.
“The fact that we didn’t have Rodri, I wanted to put more protection with the ball, players who are really good with the ball, Bernardo (Silva), Kova (Mateo Kovacic) and Rico (Lewis), and have players in the middle who have the ability to turn and attack (Julian Alvarez and Phil Foden) and that was the reason we were not so wide,” Guardiola explained afterwards.
Gabriel Martinelli’s late deflected winner (Ryan Pierse via Getty Images)
In short, they aimed for a tight game and a tight game is what they got.
Fans of xG might note that City actually accrued a higher figure than Arsenal (0.55 to 0.41), which should not be taken as any kind of proof that the visitors should have won, simply that it was an even and fairly blunt match overall.
Funnily enough, funnelling everything through the middle was essentially what Guardiola did in Rodri’s 2019-20 debut season, back when he was new and needed extra protection.
That year, Guardiola dropped Ilkay Gundogan back next to the Spaniard, made his wingers cut inside and dialled back their attacking threat, making City harder to counter-attack against. It often worked, and Guardiola felt it was the best solution available to him, but it was not pretty to watch.
City have been breathtaking since then (that was the last time they did not win the league) but it can still be the case that their performances are hard to love even for their own fans, and even when they get a better result than they did in north London on Sunday.
Guardiola touched on this subject in midweek, when City showed that they have not become a bad team overnight by beating RB Leipzig 3-1 in the Champions League group stage. In his analysis of that game, he referred back to their 1-1 draw at the same stadium in the same competition’s knockout phase in February.
“They are so fast,” he said of the German side. “That’s why we wanted (to stop that), like we tried to do here last season in the last 16, when the people were so annoyed and asked why we didn’t play quicker.”
That was the night when Guardiola told his players on the pitch to go over and celebrate a job well done with the travelling supporters when, seemingly, even the players did not like what they had done: “They were heads down. People don’t like it, it doesn’t matter. They played the game they should play.” City won the second leg 7-0.
So the aim is sometimes to keep things tight, to prioritise solidity and stability over attacking threat.
It was an unhappy afternoon for Guardiola (Ian Kington/AFP via Getty Images)
City, then, never set out for this match to be a chance-creating extravaganza.
Given Arsenal were missing Bukayo Saka and, initially, Gabriel Martinelli they were hardly in a position to force the issue either and it is no surprise that it was an even game without much goalmouth action.
Martinelli’s introduction at half-time added some impetus, and he is credited with the winner, but the heavy deflection his shot took off Nathan Ake means greater meaning can be attributed to a game that was heading for a drab 0-0 result.
This does not mean that City played well. The game plan may have been to keep it tight, and tight it was, but the little details they relied on to make the difference in their favour were not there.
“We were looking to find more players in the middle, especially Julian and the other ones, but they (Arsenal) defended really well,” Guardiola said. “They did incredible high pressing. It’s difficult to do it because (goalkeeper David) Raya can play short and long, it’s not easy to control these long balls.”
Kovacic, who should surely have been sent off in the first half for two late lunges, also struggled in possession, and Lewis, more so than Alvarez, was one of those who City struggled to get into the game.
And when City cannot pick through the tight spaces in the thick of the action and cannot find their playmakers towards the final third, it is no wonder Haaland had 0.00 xG — a fancy way of saying he had zero shots and zero service.
Premier League table
Position| Club | Played| Won| Drawn| Lost | GD| Points
—|—|—|—|—|—|—|—
1
Tottenham
8
6
2
0
10
20
2
Arsenal
8
6
2
0
10
20
3
Man City
8
6
0
2
11
18
4
Liverpool
8
5
2
1
9
17
5
Aston Villa
8
5
1
2
7
16
6
Brighton
8
5
1
2
5
16
7
West Ham
8
4
2
2
3
14
8
Newcastle
8
4
1
3
11
13
Haaland’s poor performances are usually measured in terms of how many touches he has, but all that ever means is that his team-mates have (usually) failed to provide him with chances to score. In recent weeks, he has been given chances but has missed them, and that is the greater worry for him personally, but on Sunday he was a victim of City’s struggles, not the cause.
So City struggled to click as they normally do, they did not create opportunities even within the constraints of being asked to keep the game tight, and ultimately they lost a match that gave their opponents a huge boost in their aims for the season.
On this evidence, City cannot afford to be without Rodri for many more games this season, but perhaps previous evidence suggests that they will come up with a solution eventually.
It might not always be pretty to watch, but it normally ends better than it did on Sunday.
GO DEEPER
Rodri: I have to talk to the club and the coach… playing 60-something games is not healthy
(Top photo: Alex Pantling via Getty Images)
