Arsenal: Raya, Mosquera, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Eze, Madueke, Havertz

Subs: Kepa, White, Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus, Gyokeres, Dowman

Arsenal saw their lead at the top of the Premier League reduced to just three points after losing 2-1 to Manchester City on Sunday, despite a first half goal from Kai Havertz.

Mikel Arteta made two changes from the side that drew against Sporting midweek, with Martin Odegaard and Havertz starting ahead of Gabriel Martinelli and Viktor Gyokeres.

Bukayo Saka, Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber all failed to overcome their injuries and missed out on the matchday squad, although Noni Madueke shook off a heavy kick to play.

FIRST HALF

It was a bad start for Arsenal who were under pressure from the first minute, with a mix up between David Raya and Gabriel handing City encouragement, before Rayan Cherki hit the post after his goalbound effort deflected off Gabriel and straight back to the goalkeeper.

Replays showed the Brazilian did well to divert the ball onto the post with his shoulder but there was certainly an element of luck in how it bounced straight back to Raya.

But Arsenal responded with some moments of their own, with Noni Madueke whipping in a dangerous corner that was cleared before Cristhian Mosquera headed over (from the resulting corner) when he maybe could have done better.

It was a frantic opening 15 minutes from both teams with the game being played at a striking pace, but Arteta’s men did settle after that early scare and were finding some joy pressing City.

Just as Arsenal were getting a foothold in the game, Cherki put City ahead with a goal that typified all of his technical brilliance, showing great feet to dance inside Gabriel and Declan Rice before slotting the ball into the bottom corner through the legs of William Saliba. 1-0.

That felt like the early goal City were hoping for and drawing first blood pumped more than enough energy into the stadium for a second.

But that lead lasted all of two minutes when some casual play from Gigi Donnarumma allowed Havertz to press with intention and divert his late clearance straight into the City net. It was a goal that came from nowhere but the German was rewarded for his hard work in getting to the giant goalkeeper. 1-1.

City continued to threaten down their left hand side and Mosquera was struggling against the pace and trickery of Doku, who got behind him again after a nice one-two with O’Reilly but Haaland miscued his cutback. Mosquera was eventually booked after 36 minutes for his third foul of the game.

With half time approaching, there were two huge defensive interventions that probably denied goals – first from Khusanov to get ahead of Havertz who was wide open in front of goal, and then from Hincapie who did brilliantly well to race across and block from Semenyo after Gabriel was caught out of position.

Referee Anthony Taylor eventually blew his whistle and that concluded a frantic, high-quality first half of football where Arsenal acquitted themselves well – but City showed their quality on more than one occasion with so much danger in the final third of the pitch.

SECOND HALF

Arteta reacted at half time by bringing on Gabriel Martinelli for Madueke, but the Brazilian gifted City a chance to transition with his basically first touch which Gabriel did well to defend, before Haaland hit the post from the resulting corner after Martinelli was caught again by Khusanov.

City started the second half well and Arsenal were guilty of dallying on the ball too often, with Eze playing Gabriel into trouble before getting caught on the ball which gave Doku a chance to shoot – but his effort was straight at Raya.

There were shades of the League Cup final with the Gunners simply unable to keep up physically, although they were close to getting Havertz in behind but Khusanov was alert to his run (even if the contact was questionable as last man).

Arsenal suddenly burst into life and had a golden chance to take the lead when Eze found Odegaard running through space in midfield, who laid the ball to Havertz but his strike was smothered by Donnarumma with Martinelli unable to convert the rebound.

In virtually the next attack, Arsenal worked the ball around nicely again with Odegaard finding Eze on the edge of the box, who spun and fired off a left-footed strike with little backlift that hit the inside of the post and bounced across the goalline.

Obviously, those missed chances would come back and hurt Arteta’s men when poor defending in transition saw O’Reilly and Doku combine to create an opening for Haaland who got ahead of Gabriel and squeezed an effort past Raya. 2-1.

There were still 25 minutes on the clock by that point but Arsenal looked shocked and were preparing substitutions to try and claw something back from the game.

As they were preparing those changes, a deep free kick from Odegaard found Gabriel totally unmarked at the back post and his header was deflected onto the post by O’Reilly before Havertz saw his follow-up blocked by Khusanov with Donnarumma helpless on the ground.

With each passing minute this felt like it wasn’t going to be Arsenal’s day with those sorts of bounces definitely against them. Ben White and Leandro Trossard were soon introduced for Mosquera and Eze, with Viktor Gyokeres also brought on with minutes remaining.

After another gripping battle with Haaland, Gabriel was lucky not to be sent off after going head-to-head with the Norwegian and definitely trying to headbutt him, but he didn’t quite connect and thankfully – Haaland didn’t make a meal of the contact. He should have been sent off anyway and was lucky not to have been.

City were doing a good job of breaking up the final stages, making substitutions, going down, keeping the ball in difficult areas, but Arsenal kept going and were trying to create the one opening they would need to steal a result from the game.

That moment did eventually arrive in the 94th minute when Trossard found space on the right and sent in a perfect cross towards Havertz, who met the ball cleanly but headed over from six yards out with the goal gaping.

Arteta dropped to his knees on the touchline – as did every Arsenal fan in the away end – and that was probably that after a totally draining clash.

Seven minutes were up and Anthony Taylor blew his final whistle, sparking wild City celebrations, with Arsenal left to lick their wounds ahead of a huge run-in which is now basically a straight shootout with their title rivals.

The Gunners probably did enough to get something from this game and created some good opportunities, but creating opportunities and taking them is another thing and something which has often eluded this group at key moments.

City have the opportunity to go top when they face Burnley on Wednesday, with Arsenal hosting Newcastle in their next league fixture.