Erling Haaland‘s second-half winner gave Manchester City a huge boost in the Premier League title race on Sunday afternoon as Pep Guardiola’s side beat Arsenal 2-1 at the Etihad.
The Norwegian striker rattled home a pull-back from Nico O’Reilly in the 65th minute to claim all three points and move City to within three of the north London club.
Haaland’s goal gave City the lead for the second time in the game after Kai Havertz had pressed Gianluigi Donnarumma into a mistake and diverted the Italian’s clearance into the net to equalise in the 18th minute.
It was the perfect reply after Rayan Cherki had danced through the Arsenal defense to open the scoring two minutes before.
Gabriel and Eberechi Eze both hit the post for Arsenal in their search for a second equaliser, before Havertz had an excellent chance to save the day when he got on the end of a cross by Leandro Trossard, but his header went just over, sending manager Mikel Arteta to his knees on the touchline.
The home side’s victory leaves Arsenal on 70 points with five games remaining, while City sit on 67 with an extra game to play, meaning that it is essentially a straight shootout from now on.
With trips to Everton and Bournemouth still to come, City arguably have the slightly harder set of fixtures.
Couple that with the fact that they still have to play an extra game, and the race is far from over for Arsenal.
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However, with Arteta’s side having now lost both of their last two games, the momentum is very much with City.
Guardiola’s team are back in action on Wednesday night when they travel to Burnley. Given the form and quality of both teams, it is likely that they will end the day top of the Premier League table — even a 1-0 win would put them level on points with Arsenal and ahead on goals scored.
That result would undoubtedly heap even more pressure on their rivals, who host Newcastle United on Saturday in a fixture which has seen Arteta’s side struggle in recent years.
On paper, Arsenal’s other fixtures are relatively straightforward — they host Fulham and Burnley either side of a trip to West Ham, before playing Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on the final day of the season.
But given Arsenal’s three consecutive second-placed finishes in the last three Premier League seasons, it would take nerves of steel — a quality which has often deserted them at the business end of seasons — for Arteta’s side to better City’s results during the run-in.
The Premier League title race looks likely to go to the last day of the season. But, for the first time in months, City are the favourites.
