Seasons can pivot on moments. A sudden flash of something that transforms the picture. It’s only February and heaven knows what is coming over the next four months, but if Arsenal were looking for a moment to pin their 2024-25 campaign on, Myles Lewis-Skelly got hold of the ball up the pitch against Manchester City yesterday and decided, there and then, to seize it.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had been talking about him adding more threat in the final third with his staff. Lewis-Skelly duly sauntered into the City box, feinted his way onto his wrong foot, and clipped in a beauty. It was a moment that sizzled around the Emirates Stadium.
The place erupted.
A kid, their kid, taking it to the defending, four-in-a-row Premier League champions. It was about so much: trying to win against City, loving the boys developed at their academy in Hale End, keeping up the Premier League chase as best they can, healing a few old wounds. A lot of feeling was wrapped up in that goal.
At times this winter, Arsenal have looked so weary. But for the final half-hour against City, the confidence was flowing, the adrenaline was firing, and every player in a red and white shirt wanted to express themselves on the ball.
It defined how an Arsenal team who had been cautious for much of the first half yesterday could grab the rewards of a more assertive game plan: be brave, be optimistic, attack with belief. Once they backed themselves to do those things, they racked up a scoreline for the ages.
By the time Kai Havertz slammed in a cathartic fourth and Ethan Nwaneri added a showstopper of a fifth, Arsenal had reached that rare state of never wanting a big game to end.
They played as if they felt they owed City some punishment. There was pent-up emotion from the scars of recent battles, and it all came tumbling out.
At the end, Arsenal old boys Ian Wright and Freddie Ljungberg were serenaded by the fans as they did their post-match turns on TV by the side of the pitch, and it was poignant to be reminded of another occasion when Ljungberg was the man in the Emirates’ home dugout, against this opposition, and reflect on how far Arsenal have come.
In December 2019, Ljungberg was interim manager for a game against City that was bitterly painful for Arsenal. In freezing conditions, in front of a sparse crowd (though Arsenal announced that 60,000 were there) during a dismal and unsettled period for the club, it was a non-contest. Arsenal looked incapable of laying a glove anywhere near even a space recently vacated by a City player, who were 3-0 up by half-time. It felt as if City almost pitied Arsenal during the second half as they eased off.
In the away dugout that night was Arteta, still Pep Guardiola’s assistant then. It would be his final league match in that capacity. Within days, he was appointed as the new, young, untried head coach (and now manager) of former club Arsenal with his work ethic, his ambitions and his non-negotiables.
How far have Arsenal come?
Arteta pondered that thoughtfully after yesterday’s win.
“I think your emotional state, to work at this level, is crucial,” he said. “It’s how you feel about yourself, how you feel about the team. The confidence, the trust in your ability, and how you are looking at your opposition. That took some years as well and a lot of good decisions, but it’s down to the players. When they play with that tenacity, it’s because they believe they can win and can go face to face with the opposition. That’s the best thing.”
This was a triumph born out of forcing the issue.
Arsenal did it in different ways.
In the first half, it was about waiting to pounce, picking the moment to press City into mistakes. That gave them the boost of an early lead as Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice pressured the first of multiple errors out of the visitors and smuggled the ball in a flash through to Havertz. Intriguingly, rather than shoot for goal himself, he elected to pass the responsibility on to Martin Odegaard, who finished calmly.
But Arsenal were not ready yet to go for the jugular and they let City back into it.
On New Year’s Day in 2022, also at the Emirates, Arsenal took the game to Guardiola’s side for the first time under Arteta, went 1-0 up and played their hearts out. But they came unstuck as Gabriel was sent off and Rodri snaffled a late winner to leave them proud of their progress but ultimately beaten.
The season after, during Arsenal’s first title attempt under Arteta, City flexed their muscles and inflicted an intimidating and damaging defeat on them. The 4-1 thumping in Manchester in late April changed that campaign for both teams. At the end, after shaking out his ponytail, Haaland scored with his locks long and free, like the old muscular superhero He-Man. It emphasised the sense of champions vs challengers, and City came out swinging and punched Arsenal out.
How far have Arsenal come?
After City applied the pressure yesterday and Haaland nodded in an equaliser, they had it in them to react quickly. Thomas Partey took the initiative when he gathered up a loose pass and shot in from distance. On a day of significant moments, that was vital.
The Havertz question felt heavy in the first half as the German squandered a chance to make it 2-0 when the game was tight. The idea that Arsenal might not strengthen in the transfer market during this window, when Havertz holds so much onus for manning the front line all the time, remains a live issue.
It is a fascination that Arsenal might plough on for the next few weeks with only the front men they used during this match — Havertz, Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, Nwaneri and, briefly, Raheem Sterling — until Bukayo Saka comes back from his hamstring injury. It’s a risk all right. But Arteta is committed to his players and backs them. When they find their rhythm, they are capable of great things.
Another triggering memory? Drawing 2-2 up in Manchester earlier this season with 10 men after Trossard was sent off in first-half stoppage time for kicking the ball away hurt Arsenal. They felt so close to a signature victory, but were denied dramatically by a late equaliser. Then they were told by Haaland to “stay humble”.
How far have Arsenal come?
That they were able to serve up a humiliation to a team who have tormented them at times is a result for now, and possibly beyond. Arsenal might have their issues, and might not be perfect, but psychologically this gives them a new edge to lean on when they need it.
Arteta was considered enough to admit that “a lot of things have to go your way to win in that manner. For the players to believe that we can compete against anybody on our day when we play at that level, individually and collectively, I think it’s going to be very helpful for the future.”
(Top photo: Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
