Straight
In England this week there was talk of the need and desire to win. It was uncovered by Pep Guardiola, a carpanta of success who, in his time, also felt saturated with fame. “I won four consecutive leagues as a player in Spain and the fifth wasn’t the same, neither was the sixth. I wasn’t hungry anymore. Caviar how good I am… Madrid beat me. We’ll go down in the history books for what we did but it’s in the past.” Manchester City have won four of the last five Premier Leagues. He’s also won four League Cups and a Cup with the Catalan coach and sometimes it seems , as if he is only seduced by the upcoming Champions League challenge.
3
Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba, Ben White (Takehiro Tomiyasu, min 45), Zinchenko, Gabriel, Xhaka, Thomas, Odegaard (Robert Holding, min 93), Martinelli (Trossard, min 82), Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka
2
De Gea, Varane (Alejandro Garnacho, min 91), Shaw, Wan-Bissaka, Lisandro Martínez, Bruno Fernandes, Rashford, McTominay, Antony (Fred, min 70), Eriksen and Wouter Weghorst
Gates 0-1 min 17: Raschford. 1-1 min. 23: Eddie Nketiah. 2-1 min. 52: Bukayo-Saka. 2-2 mins. 58: Lisandro Martinez. 3-2 mins. 89: Eddie Nketiah.
referee AnthonyTaylor
Yellow cards Ben White (min. 18), Antony (min. 47) and Shaw (min. 83)
Guardiola is aroused with a healthy envy as he sees how leaders Arsenal, who he is chasing in the domestic league, are doing. “You have everything.” And it’s about football, but above all about passion. “The way they celebrate the goals, the way they speak, the way they look at each other. That’s football and we don’t have that right now,” regrets the award-winning coach.
City decided their clash against Wolverhampton (3-0) with three goals from Haaland, but the breakout is in the Emirates, a stadium where Arsenal have yet to win a premier. The last alirón, that of the invincible, was celebrated in Highbury, so north London has more bologna than caviar. And the entrails are removed. The best Manchester United of recent years, the most solid and best collectivist, scored two goals against the leaders in his fiefdom, but fell (3-2) against a rival full of football and panache who was feverish in his game.
On that occasion, the team that Mikel Arteta had built got up to bounce back from a superb Rashford goal that rewarded United after a start to the game they had already shown subdued. So far in the league only the team from Old Trafford had beaten Arsenal. But there was no doubt. What pushed them to come back, even win, about an hour after Lisandro leveled the game by two, Guardiola had already realized before the game.
Arsenal devoured the game, grabbing Manchester by the chest and shaking them until Nketiah’s late goal came, which had already opened the scoring before Saka turned it over. The leaders remain five points clear of Manchester City with a game in hand and most importantly defuse the threat from United, who are 11 points behind.
Of course, there are devourers at the Etihad too. It’s all over the top for Haaland, who has scored 25 goals in the league so far, two more than the top scorers in the last three leagues, which aren’t exactly any: Vardy, Kane and, tied on points last season, Salah and Son.
Manchester City unhurriedly solved their home game against Wolverhampton, looking for the goal and not finding it because they barely scored 12 goals in 20 games, but after Julen Lopetegui’s arrival at the board they had managed to become strong defensively. All those improvements paled in front of Haaland, who, with the break in between, barely needed thirteen minutes of play to score three goals.
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