With Manchester City showing no signs of dropping off, Arsenal’s win could be more valuable than just three points
t’s still very early; the picture hasn’t cleared yet. Is what we are seeing happenstance or part of a pattern? Just one of those things or a definite flaw? A fluke or an identifiable characteristic? That’s one of the reasons there’s been so much talk about the chaos at Chelsea: the current shenanigans follow two years of chaos at Chelsea; it’s probably safe to think that the ongoing sense of chaos is real and aIt’s also why Manchester City’s win away at Chelsea last week felt so ominous.
Last season Arsenal lost twice to Aston Villa. When Unai Emery’s team won 2-0 at the Emirates in April, the initiative in the title race passed to City. The season before last, Arsenal won 4-2 at Villa with two injury-time goals but it was such a fraught affair that it suggested the title charge was unsustainable. That’s whyIt could easily have gone the other way. With the score at 0-0, Ollie Watkins missed a glorious chance and was then denied by a brilliant David Raya save .
After Manchester United’s defeat at Brighton, their manager, Erik ten Hag, spoke of the need to be clinical in both boxes. This was the sort of thing he meant. This was essentially an even game: the xG had Villa winning 1.2-0.9. But Trossard took his chance, and Watkins took neither of his, on one case thwarted by an exceptional save. The question then is whether that was essentially random, or whether such things are replicable.
The problem for them is that City, having won at Chelsea and then dismissed Ipswich with an almost casual brutality, are already two points up on their equivalent fixtures from last season, and looking remorseless. This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond.
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