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After Manchester City’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the English Premier League on Sunday, a video emerged of Gunners midfielder Declan Rice sitting on the turf at the Etihad Stadium.
Is Arsenal’s goose cooked?
“It’s not done,” says Rice, before receiving a conciliatory tap on the back of his head from Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard.
Rice was presumably referring to the Premier League title race, rather than a chicken he had put in the oven earlier that day. And he is right, of course, though not about the chicken which would be well and truly inedible if left cooking for that long.
Arsenal have led the Premier League table for most of the season, and still hold a three point advantage over Pep Guardiola’s City at the top.
That will disappear if City win their game in hand against relegation-doomed Burnley on Wednesday evening, but it will still be all to play for with five games to go.
Arsenal, however, are not just dealing with the pressure of winning the title this season. When the Gunners last won the Premier League, Thabo Mbeki was only five years into his presidency and Usher was top of the US Billboard charts.
That was 2004, when Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ went unbeaten through the entire Premier League season.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal do look, right now, do be sinking under the pressure of breaking that drought. The home defeat to Bournemouth a week before the City game was probably their worst performance of the season.
The Gunners actually battled well against City and were unlucky when Eberechi Eze’s shot came back off the inside of the post at 1-1. But they still lost.
City momentum
The momentum is with Guardiola’s City, who have a knack of finding their best form in April and May. City have been by far the best team in England in the Guardiola era, winning six of the last eight Premier League titles.
They know how to get the job done. The current Arsenal generation do not. Sat on the pitch at the Etihad, Rice’s body language told a different story to his words. It’s not done, but if Arsenal aren’t careful, it soon could be.
