Arteta must seize the day against City or risk seeing rivals surge further ahead

A goalless draw at the Etihad last season cast Arsenal as frontrunners but they need to better balance aggression with defence

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta speak ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium Picture: Martin Rickett/PA Wire. 

It is the nature of the modern Premier League, in which 90 points has come to feel like a basic minimum to win the title, that analysis of how the league was won tends to focus on where it was lost. Manchester City’s excellence has become so relentless that the assumption is they will surpass 90 points. The question is less about anything they have done than whether other teams could have done anything to overhaul that total.

In that context, the mind goes back to the final day of March last season, and Arsenal’s trip to Manchester City. Liverpool had beaten Brighton earlier in the day, giving them a three-point lead over Arsenal and four over City, having played a game more. Arsenal were content to frustrate City, drawing 0-0.