Arsenal actually started well in this match; and Mikel Arteta's 4-5-1 formation seemed to be doing the trick; with Bernd Leno in inspired form; keeping the City attackers at bay. But then David Luiz came up with a calamitous piece of defending; failing to clear Kevin de Bruyne's through ball; for Raheem Sterling to latch on and power in his first goal of 2020.
It came at a bad time as well; just before the stroke of half-time; when Arsenal thought they had done enough to stay level at the break. Luiz was in fact omitted from the starting line-up; and only came on as a replacement for the injured Pablo Mari; and again he was at fault early in the second half. From a rather innocuous long ball from Ederson; Riyad Mahrez suddenly broke clear; and again Luiz's positioning was off; forcing him into a typical body pull; subsequent penalty and red card.
With that; Arsenal's morale went down; and it wasn't the greatest surprise in the world when substitute Phil Foden scored City's third after Sergio Aguero's shot was brilliantly saved onto the post by Leno. To complete an awful night for centre-backs; young Eric Garcia was unfortunately pole-axed by Ederson; when rushing out to clear a through-ball; we hope the young man will be OK. It was just about the only blot on the copybook; on a fine night for Pep Guardiola's men.
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