Merson Says: Man City now fully aware of threat posed by Arsenal

Sky Sports‘ Paul Merson is back with his latest column, reflecting on Man City’s pulsating 2-2 draw with Arsenal and the threat the Gunners now pose to the Premier League champions…

‘Arsenal have shown how far they’ve come’

After the game on Sunday, travelling home, I had a bit of a recap of the game after allowing the dust to settle a bit.

You have to remember, Arsenal go 1-0 down. They haven’t beaten Man City away since I don’t know when. After conceding the early goal, usually for Arsenal at City that would have been three or four.

That’s how much Arsenal have come on in the last few years.

They show so much fight and resilience to come back and they eventually go 2-1 up.

In the end, Leandro Trossard’s sending-off kills the game.

I believe Man City would have had better chances to score and win the game 11 vs 11. But also, Arsenal would have been more of a threat with their full complement. They were right in the game and going toe-to-toe with City before the sending-off.

But after digesting the game a little, if you’re Arsenal, you go 1-0 down, you come back and get to 2-1 up, and then with 10 players, you hold on until the very last kick of the game but still get a draw. For me, that’s how much they’ve improved.

Three years ago, that game ends up 4-0.

‘City full aware of threat posed by Arsenal’

Arsenal have a togetherness and you have to have a togetherness to win leagues. They have got that in abundance and so do Manchester City. I think Liverpool have it as well but – and I don’t want to pick on one team – I don’t see that at Manchester United, for example.

It’s what you need to win league trophies, and Arsenal are firmly in the running this season.

They are a huge threat to Man City and don’t City know it. Pep Guardiola would have loved to have won that game on Sunday and put five points between them and the Gunners

It was a massive week for Arsenal and they have come through it with a win at Spurs and a point at City. Then there’s the injury to Rodri. He’s the best in the business, without a doubt. He will be missed. There’s also Liverpool. With the draw at the Etihad and their win against Bournemouth, they are still right there.

I think we’ll see Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool fighting it out all season, all the way to the end. But the key will be Arsenal and Liverpool keeping all their players fit. Man City have proved they can have a couple of players missing and they will still have easy games where they rack up big wins. I’m not so sure it is as easy for Liverpool and Arsenal. That’s the difference between them and everybody else.

‘Credit has to go to Arteta and Edu’

A few years ago, Arsenal would not have been able to cope with the niggle and physicality in that game.

They were getting beat by threes and fours at Man City. To be honest, they were going to a lot of places and getting beat easily. They were getting beat fives and sixes by Chelsea and Liverpool.

That’s not happening anymore, and you have to give so much credit to Mikel Arteta and Edu.

Edu’s played in the Premier League, so has Arteta. Together, they know what is needed in the Premier League and they’ve got that now with the spine of the team.

The goalkeeper is absolutely top draw. Don’t get me wrong, I thought Aaron Ramsdale was a good goalkeeper, but David Raya is exceptional.

You look down the spine of the team and it is so strong. If they had an Erling Haaland, imagine what they’d be like. Gabriel and William Saliba are incredible and there’s Declan Rice and Thomas Partey in front of them.

Jurrien Timber has come in and been amazing, and fair play to Riccardo Calafiori because when he gets beat for the goal, you fear it’s going to be a long, long afternoon for him at the Etihad, but he turned it around with a good performance and the goal.

Arsenal do their homework now.

A lot of clubs don’t get their recruitment right but Arsenal are getting theirs right all the time.

Edu is the equivalent to David Dein now at the club. When Arsene Wenger had Dein by his side, the quality of player they had coming in was frightening. You can reel the names off for fun and it’s the same at the club now with Edu.

There just seems to be a togetherness with Edu and Arteta that is working for the club. They’re singing off the same hymn sheet and that is helped by their Premier League experience. They know what they are looking for in a player to come in and play in the Premier League because it’s a hard league, a relentless league

Every game is a hard game and there are no gimmes. So, week in, week out, you have to have something about you as a player and Edu, who needs to take a lot of credit, and Arteta know that.

‘I couldn’t believe Man City’s approach’

Honestly, playing and setting up as Arsenal did in the second half isn’t difficult at all, especially with the way Man City played.

I couldn’t believe Man City at times. I was mind-blown by the way Man City approached it, if I’m being honest.

The way of beating a team set up like Arsenal were is with overlaps. You’ve got to get behind the defenders. As soon as they did get behind on a couple of occasions, they had more success. With the goal, with the corner, Jack Grealish gets it quick, then they’re all tracking back. Apart from the goal, Arsenal never really had to do that once.

Arsenal just wrote off their attack. Their mindset was we’re never going to have a shot so we’re just going to sit behind the ball and play that way. It was the absolute opposite to what Tottenham did against Chelsea a couple of years ago.

Spurs played on the halfway line with nine men and said Chelsea are going to score a goal so we might as well have a go. Arsenal had that lead at the Etihad and it was like, no, we’re going to sit there.

Man City didn’t have a void of ideas. They didn’t have any ideas. They just played into Arsenal’s hands with Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias touching the ball more times than anybody else in the second half, and a lot of that was Arsenal’s doing.

So, it was clever by Arsenal, but it could have been better by Man City. But Arsenal were great because there’s no team like Man City in the world. So, to keep them to hardly anything was amazing, really.

‘Rodri set to be a huge miss for City’

I love watching Rodri play. He’s an amazing player.

There will be plenty who sit and watch him and think, I could do that role. On the surface, it can look like a simple role.

But nobody does it like Rodri. He’s going to be a massive miss for City because he’s the player that knits it all together for them.

You can have all the players and talent around your team that you want but you’ve got to have someone in the team that is going to help bring it all together, and Rodri does that.

Mateo Kovacic is a different player. He’s a good player but he runs with the ball a lot. He’s good at it too but when he runs with it, that means he’s coming out of position. Then, on a quick counterattack, he’s out of position.

So, Rodri is going to be a huge miss.

‘Still City’s title to lose’

With that in mind and Sunday’s result, Arsenal will be right up there come the end of the season but I still can’t see past Man City.

You’ve just got to look at the substitutions they’re making. Jack Grealish comes on for Jeremy Doku. Phil Foden comes on. There’s no Kevin De Bruyne. John Stones comes off the bench and scores the goal.

On Sunday, Arsenal brought on Myles Lewis-Skelley. He’s doing great and looks a good prospect coming through the ranks, but he’s just a young kid making his debut.

It’s just a different world and that is the difference between City and the rest.