Arsenal

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It was hardly surprising that it was a set-piece that gave Arsenal the lead against Manchester City. Everyone knows how dangerous they are now, particularly at corners, but because they are so good at them, they are still very difficult to stop.

As a player, I always knew there would always be opportunities in these situations, if not for me then for one of my team-mates.

My old Newcastle boss Bobby Robson would tell us "there is always one dope who falls asleep" and we would try to pick out the opposition player who would be slow to react or forget his job.

That is not what happened against City, though, whether for Arsenal's first corner against them - when Gabriel escaped Jeremy Doku and headed over - or for the next one, where he got away from Kyle Walker and powered the ball into the net.

Instead, while everyone knew what Gabriel was doing and where he wanted to go, his sensational movement meant they could not stop him, and he was also only one part of Arsenal's plan.

So many things had to happen, in a certain order and in the space of a couple of seconds, for the ball to end up in the net and I know from experience they are not easy to put together. You have to work extremely hard at all of them to make them work.

Firstly you need a precise delivery, which is what Bukayo Saka provided here, then you have to execute the block, with four Arsenal players coming in from the back post and standing in the middle of the goal, in front of Ederson, to impede him and to nudge other defenders out of the way too.

Gabriel has to time his run perfectly and come through all of that crowd and then, if he does get on the end of the cross, execute his finish correctly too. He did not quite manage it with his first go, but he made no mistake a few minutes later.

Read more analysis from Shearer here

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The panel on BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast spoke at length about Manchester City's 2-2 draw with Arsenal and the result's implications on the rest of the Premier League season.

Former Aston Villa and West Ham midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker: "When you look at Arsenal play, there's a great unity and atmosphere that Mikel Arteta has created and a great culture he's setting.

"They were without their most influential and creative player in Martin Odegaard, so to be minutes away from pulling out an amazing result but still coming out with a point, with the team you're probably going to be competing the most against, they've got a tremendous amount of positives.

"If you look at the reaction after the game, they really still believe and they know they're in this title race with a lot of twists and turns to come as the season progresses."

Ex-England goalkeeper Paul Robinson: "We say it at the beginning of most seasons now - anyone who finishes above Manchester City will win the league, and I think that's going to be the case again. They set the benchmark.

"It's up to Arsenal to do better than they did last year. Liverpool have started well and I wouldn't write them off, but the top three are pretty much in the order we would expect. It's up to somebody to disrupt the Manchester City juggernaut."

Listen to more reaction on BBC Sounds

Highlights and analysis from Sunday's two Premier League fixtures, plus the best of the action from the rest of the weekend.

If you missed Match of the Day 2, catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

And you can watch Saturday's Match of the Day here.

Listen back to the weekend's full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth

• Crystal Palace 0-0 Man Utd

• Brighton 2-2 Nottingham Forest

• Man City 2-2 Arsenal

One story naturally dominates the back pages of Monday's newspapers - the fallout from Manchester City's 2-2 draw with Premier League title rivals Arsenal on Sunday.

Here are a selection:

Image source, The Sun

Image source, The Times

Image source, The Daily Telegraph

Image source, The Mail

Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham are all interested in Sporting and Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres, 26. (Teamtalk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip column

Simon Stone
Chief football news reporter at the Etihad Stadium

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Mikel Arteta quite correctly said that he doesn't know what the score would have been at the Etihad Stadium had Leandro Trossard not been sent off in the first half.

Just because Arsenal were leading at the time, and survived all of the second half and eight minutes of injury-time without him, it doesn't mean they would have won it with him.

Yet that is what the gut reaction will feel like. There will be a sense of injustice at the manner of Trossard's early exit, justified or not, and that is quite normal too.

But the fact that Arsenal got so close to ending Manchester City's long unbeaten home record - and went so long without conceding against the champions despite being a man down - bodes well for the future.

Arsenal may not encounter this set of circumstances again, but they will have adversity to overcome this season. What happened this afternoon will stand them in good stead for the challenges that lie ahead.

Pride and frustration can be easy bedfellows on the return trip back to London.

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Fresh after scoring in his first Premier League start, Riccardo Calafiori has been speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "I am so happy to have scored and I am a bit disappointed that we didn't win.

"It was so tough. We reacted really good and the second half was extremely tough - more mentally than physically."

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been speaking to BBC Match of the Day after the game: "I am so proud of the team. We played the game in a difficult context, playing against the best team in the world.

"After what happened when we went 2-1 up, it was a different story. I prefer not to make any comment about that [Leandro Trossard's red card].

"Obviously, it is already a miracle that we had played 56 minutes at the Etihad with 10 men [without conceding]. It is unbelievable what we have done.

"It is obvious what happened when they made that decision, but it doesn't deserve my comment. I don't want to ruin anything else off the pitch."

Image source, Getty Images

Since Mikel Arteta's first game in charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the Gunners have seen 17 players red carded in the Premier League - at least four more than any other club. It was Leandro Trossard's first red card in 175 appearances in the competition.

Riccardo Calafiori was only the second player to score a goal from outside the box on his first Premier League start for Arsenal, after Fabio Vieira against Brentford in September 2022. Calafiori's goal was from Arsenal's first shot of the match.

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Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

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Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League matches this season, against a variety of guests.

For week five, he takes on singer-songwriter and West Ham fan James Smith whose debut album, Common People, is out now.

Manchester City host Arsenal on Sunday at 16:30 BST.

Sutton's prediction: 2-1

Arsenal got a lot of praise for the way they shut out City here for a draw last season, but they then lost the title race by two points.

Of course that left them open to anyone who wanted to be 'Captain Hindsight' - like I did when I turned the result around and used it to question the Gunners.

Yes, that criticism was harsh but we are talking about the fine margins between finishing first and second.

Inter Milan showed on Wednesday that you can hurt City at the same time as keeping them quiet and they were very brave with the way they were playing out. They surprised me actually, because they beat City's press very easily.

I don't like to back against Arsenal because, defensively, they are so strong. They have also won all but one of their 11 away Premier League games in 2024 - the exception being that draw at the Etihad in March - and have kept nine clean sheets.

That is incredible and, if they wanted to, they could cause City problems on the counter-attack too, the same way Inter did.

I was at that game and thought City were well below their best. Erling Haaland was quiet and Kevin de Bruyne might not be fit to face the Gunners after getting injured before half-time.

Still, it is almost two years since City failed to score in two successive games - October 2022, when they drew 0-0 in Copenhagen in the Champions League and then lost at Anfield in the Premier League. I am expecting a reaction, and I don't think they will be as flat as they were on Wednesday.

James's prediction: 3-1

What a game this will be. It is going to be close, but you just can't stop Haaland at the moment. He will be the difference because I just don't think Arsenal have really got a goalscorer.

Read their full predictions and have your own say here

Former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas believes the current Arsenal team "always manage to control games", paying tribute to how well the side is set up.

Speaking on BBC's Planet Premier League podcast, Fabregas said: "They are a very well balanced team. Everyone knows their job.

"Teams have a lot of trouble penetrating them and being incisive between the lines because they always try to have a block of players. You know you cannot really go through them - this gives them a lot of time to get into the right positions.

"They are not invincible in the terms that yes, they do concede sometimes. But, they always manage to control games - this is very, very important in the Premier League."

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha joined Fabregas on the podcast and pondered if Gabriel and William Saliba were the best centre-back pairing in the league.

"If you make it really Premier League focused, they've been really consistent in the fact they have been available next to each other for the duration of the last two seasons," Onuoha said.

"Arsenal last year had the best defensive record both in terms of goals conceded and xG. They've also got that sort of old school in them - where they come up for set pieces and they're really massive. And they're not shy."

Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds

Former Premier League midfielder Michael Brown does not believe Manchester City v Arsenal is a title decider this early into the season, but expects it to be "fascinating".

Speaking on BBC iPlayer's The Football News Show, he said: "When City played at the weekend and Arsenal had to go to their rivals Spurs to get a result, I think the pressure was higher.

"If Arsenal were coming into this game on the back of losing that one, the pressure would be greater because of the gap of points. It was a really impressive, dogged performance for Arsenal and I think the pressure is on City.

"They have started very well but this is a different game. This is an Arsenal side that will come and test them. We always expect something different. Fascinating game.

"It's a wonderful occasion - a real big game - and everybody is looking forward to it. I don't think it is title deciding right now, but it can give either team a big psychological lift."

When it comes to this fixture at the moment, you always have to say it is a bigger game for Arsenal than for Manchester City.

City have won the title for the past four years, but psychologically if Arsenal win this game, while I do not think it is going to determine if Arsenal win the league this time, it does give them that psychological edge of getting those points against their title rivals away from home.

If the Gunners were to win, then that means they would have already got wins away to Aston Villa, Tottenham and the title holders, which would be a big boost mentally. You look at last season and what happened against Villa late in the campaign, that was probably the game that cost them the title in the end.

Even if they were to get three points on Sunday, Arteta will not be naive to think this will be the defining game of the campaign. He knows the qualities of Manchester City and they are a team that you know you can never write off because they have done it so many times.

They have those experiences in the bag that Arsenal don't have right now. But you do feel the Gunners are closer to the title than they have ever been before and if you were to pick a season that they did it, it would be this one.

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Image source, Getty Images

Arsenal earned four points against Manchester City in the Premier League last season, double the amount they had from their previous 15 league meetings with City (W0 D2 L13).

Image source, Getty Images

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is urging his team to find more consistency as they prepare to travel to Manchester City on Sunday (kick-off 16:30 BST).

The Gunners have scored once in their past two matches - a 1-0 victory at Tottenham and a 0-0 draw at Atalanta - with that goal coming through centre-back Gabriel, via a corner.

"Yes, we want to improve in certain areas but in order to do that it’s important that we have to be much, much better," Arteta said.

"We never got distances or the right relationships [against Atalanta], or put the ball in areas where they really suffer. We need to be a lot more consistent if we want the team to flow.

"For sure, we will prepare to try and win. That’s been the message already. In order to do that there are going to be things that we have to do much better than against Atalanta.

"There are some things that we have done exceptionally well and we are going to have to do them again. Because we all know we need a big performance to beat them."

Despite the perceived lack of bite up top, Arteta is pleased with the resilience his side has shown at the start of the 2024-25 season, particularly his centre-back pair of Gabriel and William Saliba.

"They are in a great moment and have been very, very consistent for the past two seasons together," he added.

"There is an unbelievable chemistry there and you can sense it. They gave us a lot against Atalanta - I thought they were both exceptional.

"When you see the stats and the number of goals that [Erling Haaland] scores then you can tell that he is one of the main sources. We need to stop him from scoring."