Arsenal hammer Man City 5-1 to keep pace with Liverpool
On Sunday, Arsenal secured a commanding 5-1 win over defending champions Manchester City at the Emirates, maintaining their pursuit of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
In the battle between the sides that have finished in the top for the past two seasons, the Gunners prevailed to move within six points of leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
Arsenal were gifted the perfect start inside two minutes as Manuel Akanji lost possession and Kai Havertz squared for Martin Odegaard to open the scoring.
Havertz exposed Arsenal’s lack of a clinical goalscorer when he wasted a glorious chance to double the lead.
That could have proved costly when Erling Haaland headed in his 250th career club goal early in the second half to bring City level.
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But the defending champions are a pale shadow of their former selves this season and conceded within 105 seconds of the restart when Thomas Partey’s shot deflected in off John Stones.
Myles Lewis-Skelly would have been suspended if his controversial red card in a 1-0 win at Wolves last weekend had not been overturned.
The 18-year-old made the most of that reprieve by curling in Arsenal’s third for his first goal for the club.
Haaland had told Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to “stay humble” after a bad-tempered clash between the sides ended 2-2 in September.
And Lewis-Skelly celebrated his big moment by mimicking Haaland’s trademark meditation celebration.
Havertz fired low and hard into the far corner with City cut open at will by the Arsenal counter-attack.
And another Arsenal teenager rounded off the rout when Ethan Nwaneri curled home in stoppage time.
Defeat leaves City still in fourth but now 15 points off the top and realistically dethroned after four consecutive seasons as champions.
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