There are certain sport fixtures that carry with them the weight of history, of tradition, of rivalry, and of intense, often irrational emotions, including unavoidable hurt. For someone initiated into football during the peak of the Sir Alex and Arsene years, it was Arsenal versus Manchester United. Even now, it’s the win I want most—yes, ahead of Spurs!
So when I sat down to write this, my first Alternative Match Report in four not about the above, I was surprised to discover that Arsenal versus Manchester City, while a fairly new “rivalry” (one that has perhaps gained more credibility after last season), was entwined with more personal football memories in its early years than I’d realised, including my first-ever live match (a sunny April 2009 day in north London with a 2-0 win for us) and my first away match later that year (an actual men vs boys Carling Cup quarter finals fixture at the then-Eastlands which we lost 3-0).
But I’ll be honest. Before Sunday, whenever I thought back to the last time we’d beaten Manchester City in the league, my immediate memories always took me to January 2015, which is when I had to remind myself that it was in fact eleven months later nearly to the day. This away victory is dominant in my mind despite me being on an unavoidable plane during it because it was a welcome surprise. By then, Arsenal’s shaky, and often altogether embarrassing, away form against the top 6 was already an open wound. So the emphatic nature of the unexpected shutout, the well-organised defensive performance and, especially, the Santi Cazorla masterclass indelibly stamped itself on my footballing subconscious.
Fast forward eight years and treble-winners Manchester City are a ruthless machine helmed by Pep Guardiola; arguably the best team in the world. Arsenal, while title contenders yet again, are in a very different stage of their project in comparison, even to their own old selves. The second-youngest team in the league managed by the youngest manager, a club renewed, re-energised, inspired, with a loud home and away support basking in a collective belonging that had been missing for a long time, after many bumpy, hopeless seasons. But, and this cannot be ignored, they are also the ascendant team that competed and lost out on the league to City last season, eventually by a big margin thanks to a late-stage collapse, which included two losses to the eventual champions.
As mentioned earlier, the latter half of Wenger’s tenure was marred by painful, and often big, defeats to top-six opposition. Arsenal were, not incorrectly, labelled soft and naive when it came to game management in these fixtures, and ever since Mikel Arteta took over in December 2019, he has worked on steadily transforming all aspects of a club deeply adrift at the time of his arrival.