Arsenal 1-4 Manchester City- Second half blitz sees City advance

Arsenal was thumped 4-1 by Manchester City as their EFL Cup campaign came to a dramatic end on Tuesday night.

Gabriel Martinelli returned to the starting line-up with Alexandre Lacazette, Cedric, and Gabriel all returning for the clash.

Manchester City dominated the opening exchanges with Arsenal barely having a touch of the ball in the first two minutes as City passed it around with ease.

Arsenal were again asleep at the back with barely two minutes on the clock when Zinchenko’s cross found Gabriel Jesus unmarked as the Brazilian headed home. Gunners keeper Alex Runarsson would feel that he should have done better with the cross.

City continued to control possession with Arsenal not offering much in the game at all, despite having more possession. City had another chance to make it 2-0 when Ameryic Laporte had his header glance just wide of the upright.

Just after the half-hour mark Arsenal was level. After some great work from Gabriel Martinelli, who supplied back to back high-quality crosses. Alexandre Lacazette who was the captain on the night latched onto Martinelli’s cross and headed home to bring his side level.

After drawing level, Arsenal’s confidence grew as they pressed forward and with five minutes remaining in the half, City was denied the chance to go ahead.

After some near build-up play, the ball bounced to Gabriel Jesus inside the box who was one on one with Runarsson and the Icelandic keeper rushed out and make a superb save to deny the Brazilian and to keep scores level heading into the break.

It was an uneventful start to the second half with Gabriel Martinelli trying to continue after he sustained a heavy knock, however, he was replaced just minutes into the half by Nicolas Pepe.

Just ten minutes into the half Arsenal found themselves behind again after a Riyad Mahrez free-kick went straight through the hands of Gunners keeper Alex Runarsson who had a horror night between the posts.

The goal sucked any confidence Arsenal had gathered and just five minutes later City was through again. A sweeping move started with Fernandinho who then played in Phil Foden who cleverly chipped Runarsson as City doubled their lead.

Arsenal seemingly lost all hope for a positive result and the pain only got worse. A clever corner routine by City ended with Foden again clipping a neat ball into the box where Aymeric Laporte headed home another as City’s lead grew to three goals.

With the game well and truly over, the game petered out with Arsenal rarely showing signs of an attacking impetus.

 Their only real effort came five minutes from time when Florin Balogun drove at the City defence and then played the ball to Pepe who then shot wide as Arsenal slumped to yet another defeat to heap further pressure on Mikel Arteta.

Takeaways

Several senior players are not good enough

This is something that most people already knew however this result only magnified it. Shkodran Mustafi, who has already stated he has no desire to sign a new contract yet was given a start over William Saliba and even Pablo Mari in what was another poor team selection from Mikel Arteta.

Mo Elneny, Dani Ceballos, Cedric are all clearly not at the level required to be an Arsenal player with Florin Balogun, Emile Smith Rowe, and Nicolas Pepe all coming on as substitutes, many feel the younger brigade deserved a chance over the more senior players.

The decision to sell Emiliano Martinez is backfiring

Some will say that it is too early to judge the Icelandic keeper however it was clearly a horrible outing between the posts. Numerous passes went astray and some questionable decisions with the ball coming in and his howler which gifted Riyad Mahrez a goal after the ball slipped through his fingers signalled the start of Arsenal’s downfall on the night.

Time to give the young stars their chance, enough is enough for underperforming senior players.

It has been clear for quite some time that the so-called “established” players like Willian, Ceballos and Granit Xhaka just to name a few have been rewarded after constant poor performances with more game time.

The time has come to give the younger players their opportunity because Balogun and Smith Rowe were a burst of energy to the side when they came on and offered far more to the side than many others.

It was another poor performance from a poor Arsenal side. Questions will again be raised regarding Mikel Arteta’s team selection with his continued need to select players who have given constant bad performances while the club’s youth rot on the bench.

Up next is Chelsea and surely the time has come to unleash the youth, what have Arsenal got to lose?