Guardiola’s team are sluggish and have won only three of their last six in the league. This is not the kind of surge you expect from them at this point in the season
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta with Leandro Trossard following the match between Manchester City and Arsenal at Etihad Stadium, Manchester, on Sunday. Photograph: Michael Regan/Getty Images
Grealish wasn’t the only one feeling that way after 90 minutes of City v Arsenal, in which Arteta and Guardiola served up their latest helping of hyper-systematised, state-of-the-art shit on a stick.Ken Early: FAI inertia may yet net John O’Shea the Ireland jobKen Early: John O’Shea steps up to fill the void as sense of drift persists
The first was the Community Shield, won by Arsenal on penalties after a turgid 1-1 draw. The first 45 minutes of that were an almost surreal spectacle as City stood around at the back baiting the press and Arsenal stubbornly refused to comply, resulting in a bizarre kind of null outcome, a non-match.
It was pretty much all anyone had to cheer in what was one of the most stagnant halves of football of the season. It’s so rare to see players take on their opponents one-on-one, but when it does happen it’s in the defensive rather than the attacking third. Until Jeremy Doku appeared in the second half hardly anybody in the game even tried to beat an opponent in an attacking area.
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