Manchester City beat Leeds in the Premier League to return to within five points of Arsenal, and are now set on closing down that gap.
Manchester City players and their manager were obviously delighted with beating Leeds on Wednesday night, but there appeared to be something else bothering them throughout the evening in Yorkshire.
After defeat by Brentford in November, in the last game before the World Cup, and two subsequent wins for Arsenal, City had slipped eight points behind the Gunners. And the travelling squad were all too aware of it.
Before the game, both Rodri and Pep Guardiola spoke of the need to close that gap, and the challenges that an eight-point difference presents. At full time, with the deficit back to five points, Arsenal was again the focus in post-match interviews.
“We had a good feeling vs Liverpool, now in the Premier League we want to do the same,” said Rodri pre-match. “We had a great first leg [of the season] and now we have to have a second run to open more the gap.”
His manager concurred, saying: “I had the feeling that if Arsenal play the way they’ve been playing all season, just lose one game, draw another, they have to be there.
“The reality is eight points [to Arsenal] is a lot, we have two games in hand [over Newcastle]. We know if we want to be there we have to win games otherwise it will not be possible to catch them.”
Even before arriving at Elland Road, captain Ilkay Gundogan posed the idea of a ‘big run’ in an interview with Arab News , suggesting that the whole squad believe they must replicate their long winning runs of previous seasons to stand a chance of winning the title.
Gundogan had said: “We have done really well in recent years in the second part of the season. The target is the same and hopefully, we can go on a run. The competition, especially in the Premier League, seems to be bigger than ever.”
City made it back-to-back wins after the World Cup with a hard-fought triumph at Leeds, and the post-match message was the same as before kick-off.
Two-goal striker Erling Haaland had two gripes on his mind when speaking to Amazon Prime – one being that he could have had three more goals, and the other being Arsenal: “I said inside, I could have scored five. But we win, that’s the most important. thing. Arsenal, we have to hunt them. I could have scored more but that’s life.”
Rodri expanded on his previous comments, setting out plainly that a winning run is the main target for City in the coming weeks.
“It’s massive,” he said. “To start and get three points, the feeling is to go on a run. We want to achieve again the Premier League, we have to achieve 90 plus points. That’s what we’re going to do, try to win every single game.”
And that’s a perfectly fine ambition to have, but Guardiola knows the reality is not as simple. His banter with Amazon presenter Gabby Logan emphasised that Arsenal only have four fixtures in January, with one an FA Cup clash at Oxford. City have six, and could have nine if they progress in the FA Cup and Carabao Cups.
On the one hand, Arsenal must play Brighton away, followed by third-placed Newcastle, then a trip to Tottenham and a home game with Manchester United in their next four games. But City’s fixture list is hardly appealing, with Chelsea and Spurs both coming up twice, along with United and a long cup trip to Southampton. If they can get through those games unbeaten, let alone on a winning run, they’ll have done brilliantly.
Whether a run is possible or not will become apparent over the coming weeks. What is clear, however, is that the World Cup break has forced City to take Arsenal seriously as title contenders – with Guardiola noting their hunger for a title after so long without one.
That isn’t to say Guardiola didn’t view Arsenal as rivals before, as he has been correcting anyone focussing on Liverpool by reminding them that Arsenal have led the table from the start. He will similarly view Newcastle as contenders owing to their place just behind his side.
But those reminders might have been more focussed on what Arsenal had done so far. Now, the narrative is about what Arsenal can continue to do, and how City go about overtaking them before the end of the season.
It appears that the World Cup break has focussed City’s collective minds, and they know they must lean on their recent experience to put pressure on Arsenal the only way they know how – to just keep winning. A title race with Arsenal might not have been the one City were expecting, but it looks like they are ready to embrace it and see just how well the Gunners react to the City machine revving up in their rear-view mirror.
Source: manchestereveningnews.com
