Extended HLs: Man City v. Arsenal Matchweek 33
Relive full-match highlights from the potential title decider at the Etihad between Manchester City and Arsenal in Matchweek 33.
Video Transcript
This game is the biggest game we think we've ever done on NBC.
Alan Shearer, Theo Walcott, alongside Tim Howard, and the two Robbies.
Alan, let me start with you.
Kai Havertz over Victor Gykeres, good decision?
Yeah, I understand that, 'cause Arsenal are gonna, gonna have to hold that ball up, and that's not one of, Victor's strengths.
When the ball goes into Havertz, he's gonna have to hold it up and bring people into the game, and I think that's one of the main reasons he's in there.
When you look at the rest of the team, you've got degaard, you've got Eze.
Do you get the sense they're not gonna go for it, go for it, go for it a little bit?
I hope so, because that will be great for the neutral and great for all us watching here, and we want, we want goals.
But I suspect Arsenal will try and sit tight, and try and be patient, and try and hit them on the break.
I don't see Arsenal changing that much.
I do agree.
However, I feel like Arsenal need to be different today.
They can't be predictable, and I feel like that's how they're gonna get the result.
Because the amount of pressure that Man City will have today, they're gonna have the ball.
You need to be able to actually be positive when you have it, because they will just starve you of the ball.
They're that good at it.
However, you know, I agree with the guys on comms.
The fact that they're gonna have to come at them, it will open up, and this is where we wanna see that freedom element of the players that we missed recently.
We have weak sunshine in Manchester.
We have a full house of 54,000 people.
And it is Arsenal who get this potential title decider underway.
Both sides happily in their traditional colors.
Manchester City so strong at home.
One defeat in their last 21 in the Premier League here.
Arsenal unbeaten in eight away.
City very much looking forward to this, Graham, or so.
Arsenal, though, have given off the impression that maybe they've been dreading it.
Doku.
O'Riley, Haaland.
The block was by Gabriel.
Hits the inside of the post and bounces straight back into a grateful goalkeeper's arms.
Well, the VAR today is John Brooks, and he's had a look at the potential handball by Gabriel and says no.
Yeah, he just, just leans into it, and his arms are by his side.
I think he's just about got away with that one.
There's, it's the lean into it, tries to put his chest on it.
It does hit the top of his arm off the inside of the bo- the post, and Raya absolutely delighted with the bounce of that ball.
Rodri.
Xavi dribbling through and scoring brilliantly and beautifully for Manchester City.
The little genius from France coming into his own at the business end of the league campaign.
He is capable of producing magic.
Yeah, the, I mean, the skill on the ball was brilliant enough, but it was his positioning.
He just stood in some space.
If you're standing in space and you're a good player, you don't have to move out of it.
Just wait for the ball to come to you.
That's the genius bit as well as the run.
Oh!
Oh, oh!
At the other end, Donnarumma is caught out.
Havertz is there to profit, and Arsenal in an instant are level.
One of the world's very best goalkeepers left with egg on his face.
And Xavi's goal, brilliant though it was, is immediately canceled out.
Well, I take back what I said about the goal for Manchester City settling them down.
Any of us might foresaw- an error of that magnitude.
Here is Haaland.
Too much on the pass for Semenyo.
O'Riley.
Doku.
Erling Haaland.
zge is in a bit of trouble.
Haaland.
Khusanov.
And get his head up.
One center-back to the other.
Decent ball.
City been trying to whip the crowd up over there.
Gabriel Silva's corner hanging.
And here's Khusanov, and Haaland.
Struck the- Arsenal just couldn't get it clear.
Looked like he struck the outside of the post there, Haaland.
They were quick to react here from this vicious inswinger.
He's really blocked in there, isn't he, Raya?
Khusanov first to it.
There's one block, and then outside of the post.
Not sure who makes the first block here from the Khusanov shot.
Rodri.
Some pass, some take, but then it runs away off his right boot.
Not as adhesive as he needed.
He wasn't really expecting this ball.
This is the Rodri one.
Inside the full-back.
See how wide he is.
Ukatye too wide.
Just frees up that space.
Semenyo stays out of it until the ball's hit, and then he runs into it.
Eze gives it away.
Doku.Have to say, Havertz does brilliantly to control the ball.
He was under a huge amount of pressure, but then for his teammate to give it away in that situation, it's another letoff for City.
Martinelli.
And Khusanov seeing off Havertz, who feels he should have got something.
Yeah.
That's good defending.
Only in the last few weeks have we started to see the real Rodri again.
Rice does well to get rid to Eze.
Here's degaard through the middle, and now it's Kai Havertz.
Still not away.
Donnarumma has earned his money in that moment.
And Arsenal players hold their heads.
With the right back, Semenyo.
Haaland.
Bernardo Silva.
It's a goal kick.
Does feel like the season's on a knife edge, doesn't it?
It just feels like it's gonna go one way or the other.
You're absolutely right.
And both teams are giving everything s- match, Arsenal in terms of defensively, they're working so hard.
They're right on the edge, and they still had enough in them to create a couple of chances, this being the standout one there.
Brilliant movement, Eze.
And as you say, Lee, hardly any back lift at all.
Doku.
O'Reilly.
Haaland!
How significant a moment is that in the title chase?
Arsenal forlorn, Manchester City exuberant.
And they needed one chance, one chance to fall to their talismanic striker, and he's put them ahead.
And their talismanic striker is at it again, wrestling with Gabriel.
His shirt hanging loose now as a result of that tussle.
One shirt tore, the other one didn't.
So Erling Haaland has made the critical breakthrough, and therein lies another difference between these teams because Haaland on his own has scored half as many Premier League goals again as Jakare, Havertz, and Jesus combined.
Given away to Bernardo Silva.
Here's Rodri.
And that's deflected en route for a corner.
They've decided that taking someone's shirt off their back is, is okay.
Gabriel Martinelli.
First involvement for Ben White.
And Bernardo Silva is the last man back.
Was that a hand?
It looked like a hand.
Yeah, it was.
And Bernardo Silva is engulfed by teammates.
That is grains of Man of the Match just running 50 yards with a, a player who's quicker than him and he still gets to the ball.
There's a little arm from Havertz just there, just to try and get it away from the, the brilliant Bernardo Silva.
He really is.
Since he's been at Manchester City.
Joining a long line of flair players here beloved by the supporters.
At the Fan Fest happening in Tampa, it's a Tampa resident is one of that number down the years, Rodney Marsh.
Back in the '70s here, a great favorite.
Now it's kicking off.
The first flashpoint with stakes so high.
It's in the here and now.
Yellow cards for the two central combatants today, Gabriel and Haaland.
Yeah, he's, he's a bit, a bit lucky there.
If he'd just Separation, a little bit of separation there from Haaland, and that would be deemed as a headbutt.
It's a pushing, but I tell you, he's very lucky to get away with that.
That's right on the edge.
Anthony Taylor has booked Pep Guardiola for his petulant response.
degaard.
O'Reilly wanting it to run.
He's been exceptional, hasn't he, O'Reilly?
Yeah, he has.
He really has.
He's got a great physicality about him.
He's a big lad, isn't he?
But he's agile and mobile, quick, great in both boxes.
Excellent one-v-one defending there, again using his strength.
Hope he hasn't booked his summer holidays yet.
We know where he's going.
Absolutely.
Martinelli.
degaard.
And there was Bernardo Silva again.
The left back they start.
degaard.
Gabriel was lurking.
It's a corner.
That's a massively important challenge by Nunes there.
Guardiola frantically beckoning down below us at the moment, standing well outside his technical area.
Trossard.
Good chance.
Havertz couldn't direct the header.
You get a chance, the championship is kind of on the line just there.
Got to score.
Have to score.
It's, it's absolutely on a plate for him.
He gets up well, just underneath it a little bit.
It's the chance of the game.
And he's been replaced by Alfred decentralizing within- Such angst Archer.
Such tension, and such disappointment for Arteta when he turned away and saw only the top of the net grazed, rather than the main part of it bulging.
It's far from over, but the title race tilts in Manchester City's favor.
A huge win.
And if you look at the top of the table now, the gap that a week ago could have been 12 points is now just three.
And if Manchester City win at relegation-bound Burnley on Wednesday, they will be top of the table.
Havertz aghast, not just at the defeat, but at his failure to rescue the Gunners in the final minute of stoppage time.
But Manchester City have stepped forward, Donnarumma the most relieved man amongst their ranks.
And Manchester City are closing in on Arsenal.
The momentum with them, the force with them.
One defeat in 20 in the Premier League, unbeaten in 10.
Arsenal have now lost four of their last six games, having only lost two of their previous 46.
So a day, Rebecca, of grinding tension in England's northwest.
Arsenal came here as leaders.
They depart as leaders, but the question is, for how much longer?
City can go top on Wednesday.
Today, they've won the summit meeting.
City, two.
Arsenal, one.
