Man City 0-0 Arsenal: Player ratings as top of the table clash ends in stalemate
Manchester City and Arsenal played out a bore draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, allowing Liverpool to take control of the Premier League title race.
The 0-0 draw ensures that Liverpool end Easter Sunday with a two point lead ahead of second place Arsenal and three ahead of third place Man City, having beaten Brighton and Hove Albion earlier in the day at Anfield.
Here’s how the rather dour game of football played out at the Etihad.
How the game unfolded
The first chance of the game would fall to ex-Man City man Gabriel Jesus, who after controlling a dinked Ben White cross at the back post, fluffed his lines by scuffing his subsequent volleyed effort wide of the post.
After that missed chance, City were able to pin Arsenal back into their own defensive third for much of the rest of the first half. For all their possession and territorial dominance though, David Raya remained basically untested throughout the half.
Aside from City tapping the ball around in front of the Arsenal defence, the only other notable occurrence of the first half proved to be an injury suffered by Nathan Ake. The talented defender was force doff inside the opening 25 minutes with an apparent muscle injury, being replaced by the young Rico Lewis on the right of City’s back four.
It would take Man City until the second minute of the second half to finally come close to opening the scoring, when Mateo Kovacic saw a curling effort from outside of the box whiz just past the post.
The substitutions made by Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola on the hour make gave a clear indication of how the remaining 30 minutes at the Etihad were due to play out – Guardiola bringing on Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku while Arteta brought on Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu.
Following these subs, City expectedly continued to dominate proceedings, but continued to do without creating anything in front of goal. A combination of Arsenal’s solid defensive shape and City’s utter toothlessness in the final third ensured that Raya remained untested.
GK: Stefan Ortega – 5/10 – Largely a spectator on Sunday.
RB: Manuel Akanji – 6/10 – Jesus didn’t cause him too many problems.
CB: Ruben Dias – 6/10 – The Portuguese star’s distribution was solid, completing well over 90% of his passes from out of the defensive third.
CB: Nathan Ake – N/A – Went off injured early on.
LB: Josko Gvardiol – 6/10 – Showed a few moments of quality in the final third, and coped well with Saka.
DM: Rodri – 8/10 – Utterly dominated the midfield, making light work of Delan Rice, Jorginho and Martin Odegaard. The Spain international completed 105 passes and won a whopping 14 duels.
RM: Bernardo Silva – 5/10 – Some nice touches but didn’t create much.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne – 5/10 – The Belgian’s delivery was surprisingly wayward all day.
CM: Mateo Kovacic – 5/10 – Had one notable pop at goal early in the second half, but didn’t do much else.
LM: Phil Foden – 5/10 – Didn’t pose any semblance of a threat to Arsenal’s backline.
ST: Erling Haaland – 4/10 – Pocketed by William Saliba on the day.
Substitutes
SUB: Rico Lewis (’25 for Ake) – 5/10
SUB: Jeremy Doku (60′ for Foden) – 5/10
SUB: Jack Grealish (60′ for Kovacic) – 5/10
Manager – Pep Guardiola – 6/10 – His team dominated but lacked any semblance of cutting edge in the final third.
GK: David Raya – 6/10 – For all of City’s possession, Raya was rarely forced into action.
RB: Ben White – 6/10 – Actually the most eye-catching Arsenal player in the final third in the first half. Defended well in the second.
CB: William Saliba – 8/10 – Fantastic performance up against the best striker in the Premier League, winning seven duels, making four blocks and recovering possession eight times.
CB: Gabriel Magalhaes – 7/10 – Like his defensive partner, Gabriel was fantastic. Headed away basically every single cross that was looped into the box.
LB: Jakub Kiwior – 4/10 – Struggled a bit out on the left, looked a bit out of his depth at times.
CM: Martin Odegaard – 5/10 – Very sloppy on the rare occasion he got his foot on his ball. A few too many wayward through balls throughout.
CM: Declan Rice – 6/10 – Battled hard in the middle but was ultimately out-duelled by the brilliant Rodri.
CM: Jorginho – 5/10 – Worked hard in the middle of the park, but couldn’t really get his foot on the ball.
RW: Bukayo Saka – 5/10 – Forced to do more defending than he was perhaps hoping to on Sunday.
ST: Kai Havertz – 4/10 – Did he touch the ball at all? Not sure.
LW: Gabriel Jesus – 4/10 – On the rare occasion in which Arsenal got forward, Jesus usually scuppered the chance of scoring.
SUB: Takehiro Tomiyasu (65′ for Kiwior) – 6/10
SUB: Thomas Partey (65′ for Jorginho) – 6/10
SUB: Leandro Trossard (71′ for Jesus) – 5/10
SUB: Gabriel Martinelli (77′ for Saka) – 5/10
Manager – Mikel Arteta – 7/10 – Stopped the rot at Etihad with a defensively sound performance.