Are Arsenal Bottling It Once Again In The Title Race After The 2 – 1 Loss To Manchester City?

Arsene Wenger

Any Gunners fan will tell you that every time that Wenger’s team puts themselves in a dominant position in the EPL, their team bottles it. Arsenal had the chance at the weekend to stake their claims as genuine title contenders on Sunday and after starting well, they blew it. Instead of finishing the weekend in second place the team is now just a single point in front of North London rivals Spurs in fifth place. Their odds at most of the top bookmakers have lengthened to win the EPL after losing to Man City. If you still fancy backing them you can find the best promotions at and compare footy promo offers.

Arsenal started off the match extremely well and to begin with, it looked like Pep Guardiola would be the one with egg on his face after the weekend. Theo Walcott ripped apart the Man City defense with ease after only five minutes of play. It is not the first time that the Blues have had major problems at the back and is something that the new manager will be working on hard in training to resolve it. If they do not tighten up their defenses they will struggle to win the EPL this campaign and may even miss out on a top-four finish due to the league being so tight this season.

What will annoy Gunners fans most after the defeat is the fact that Walcott’s goal after five minutes was their teams last shot on goal. To not have a single goal attempt on target for 85 minutes plus stoppages is extremely embarrassing and in the second half they were completely dominated by the Blues.

City made the breakthrough in the 47 minute through Leroy Sané. It was his first goal for the club and it was scored at the perfect time as it gave his team the confidence to push further forward and dominate the whole of the second half. It was Raheem Sterling who won the games for the Blues in the 71st minute with a nice finish inside the goals near post. The win helps City to move up to second in the EPL and it ended a run of not winning games after going behind at half-time which stretches back to 2012.

One of the key tactical changes that altered the game’s outcome dramatically was Guardiola change the positions of Sterling and Kevin de Bruyne. For the second half, the new manager put Sterling through the middle and De Bruyne out wide. If he had not made the changes than Sterling would not have been able to cut inside to his favored foot to score the goal.

It was the second time in a week that the Gunners have gone in front only to end up losing the game which has greatly dented their title chances. Instead of being hot on the tales of leaders Chelsea they are now a single point above Tottenham in fifth. In the second half of matches, Arsenal has bottled it and not come out aggressive along with dominate they have gone into their shells. It is something that has been repeatedly happening and unless Wenger can change the team’s mentalities, he may well be out of a job at the end of the season.

 

 

 

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