City show why they’re title favorites after beating Arsenal: 3 things we learned

City may be aiming for a Champions League title this season, but they showed the Premier League why they’re favorites to win the league again.

Arsenal and City played their first game of the 2018-19 season, a match that ended 2-0. Raheem Sterling opened City’s account on the year with an early goal and Bernardo Silva doubled the lead after a cut back from Benjamin Mendy in the second half. Arsenal had a few good chances to strike back in both halves but never really forced Ederson into a superb save.

City looked shaky playing out of the back at times, but that will likely work itself out as the season goes on. Arsenal weren’t dire by any means, and some of their new signings played well, but they clearly were second best on the day. Here’s three things we learned from Sunday’s match.

Arsenal’s defense is still a problem

Arsenal surrendered 51 goals last season, the most among the top six by a large amount. With each passing match, it became more and more clear that something had to change. Whether it was Petr Cech, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Granit Xhaka or someone else thrown into the fire, Arsenal were getting overrun against better competition.

On Sunday, Arsenal showed why they’re still in need of a major rebuild. On the first goal of the game, Sterling ran past Bellerin and Guendouzi with ease and fired a shot on goal that, upon replay, looked like a save Cech could’ve made, had he even attempted to make one. Arsenal couldn’t keep up with City’s pace down the wings or the overlapping runs from their fullbacks, and when the Gunners attacked, they left acres of space for a counter, something City should’ve had more success from.

Their defense still isn’t complete, as Laurent Koscielny is still months away from a return, Nacho Monreal just returned to training and Sead Kolasinac suffered an injury in preseason. However, Emery bought Sokratis Papastathopoulos and picked up Stephan Lichtsteiner for free over the summer to qualm some of these worries. It will take a while for the defense to gel under new management.

The defense wasn’t helped by Emery deciding to throw 19-year-old Matteo Guendouzi into the wolves against the best team in the league along side a lumbering Granit Xhaka. Their partnership likely won’t last long, as Lucas Torreira was bought in the summer to be that defensive midfielder to free up the likes of Xhaka, Ramsey and Ozil. However, Arsenal need to get comfortable quick if they want to have a shot at Champions League play next season.

Manchester City: Still good

Raheem Sterling smashed home City’s first goal of the new season, and it was almost too easy. The English attacker cut in from the top of the box onto his right foot, glided past Guendouzi and buried the shot in the 14th minute to open the scoring.

Bernardo Silva thrashed home a ball from Mendy in the second half to double the lead after Sergio Aguero missed a one-on-one with the keeper just moments earlier. That’s how scary this team is. They were the better side all game, won 2-0, and still could’ve played much better.

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City have an embarrassing amount of attacking players at their disposal with the addition of Riyad Mahrez. Kevin de Bruyne, who lead the Premier League in assists last season, came off the bench, as did Gabriel Jesus and Leroy Sane. David Silva is nursing an injury. Guardiola could pick a new starting midfield every match if he wanted and they wouldn’t be weakened in any way.

City will be focused on winning the Champions League this season but that doesn’t mean they’re taking the Premier League lightly. They showed exactly why they’re favorites to win again, even if there were a few kinks to iron out in the back. City’s next six matches are against this year’s and last year’s newly promoted sides, so they’ll again get off to a hot start that they’ll ride into the winter calendar.

Emery had a clear plan, but it didn’t quite work

Arsenal supporters are used to seeing a similar system in every match under Arsene Wenger. He preferred beautiful attacking play, creative runs and passes and a free-flowing style. Emery, by all accounts, is the polar opposite. He spends hours studying film, finding tendencies and weaknesses in their opposition and uses his tactics to exploit them.

Against City, it was clear Emery had a plan of attack, but City are simply too talented and have a better understanding of Guardiola’s system than Arsenal does with Emery. That’s to be expected, though.

In terms of tactics, it was obvious that Emery knew what he wanted. Aaron Ramsey was playing uber high up the pitch, often in front of Aubameyang and starting most of the pressing in City’s half. Ozil, Aubameyang andHenrikh Mkhitaryan joined Ramsey when City attempted to play out of the back. There were more than a few times that almost paid off. Ederson was uncharacteristically sloppy with his distribution, and Arsenal created a couple of scoring opportunities from it.

Arsenal also attempted, to no great avail, to play from the back. City pressed them high when they tried, and the Gunners gave it away too often. A change at keeper could help matters, as Cech isn’t the best with his feet, and new signing Bernd Leno fits that style better.

Opening your season against City is a tough task for any team, let alone one who is under new management for the first time in 22 years. Emery had ideas, and some of them worked, but ultimately it didn’t pay off. Arsenal looked promising in the second half, especially once Torreira came on for Xhaka, and they’ll hope that works better against Chelsea next week.