It was the 48TH meeting overall in the English Premier League for Manchester City and Arsenal as they did battle at Emirates Stadium. Arsenal may have the overall lead in the series (23 Wins, 14 Losses, & 10 Draws), but it was Manchester City who were coming in hot with 17 straight victories without a loss or tie in all competitions and they definitely used this momentum in their favor right from the opening whistle. All it took for Manchester City was 76 seconds to strike first blood against the shell shocked Gunners when a nice pass from Algerian international Riyad Mahrez found Raheem Sterling who headed the ball to the near post for his ninth overall goal in the premier league. Manchester City would keep the pressure on Arsenal's defense for a bit more before the Gunners finally woke up and started bringing some pressure of their own. Unfortunately for the Gunners, nothing would come out of any of their promising chances that they had in the first half as Manchester City took the 1 to 0 lead into halftime. A lot is on the line for Manchester City as they try to keep their distance from Leicester City (who have 49 points) and cross town rivals Manchester United (47 points with a game to play).
The second half featured much of the same kind of play with both sides creating chances and both failing to reach the back of the net. One thing is for sure and that is the game started to get a little more chipper than the first half as each side acquired two yellow cards a piece with most coming in the first ten minutes of the half. Despite giving up the first goal, German International and Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno did his best to keep Arsenal in the game with some incredible saves including one against İlkay Gündoğan who shot from 20 yards away, but was able to get the ball to curl ever so delicately that it looked as if it had a chance to go in, but Leno made the incredible save. Despite all of the efforts, the whistle would blow and Manchester City would record their 18TH straight win in all competitions. It was also their eighth straight victory against Arsenal (Their longest streak since 1973) and it was also Arsenal's fourth straight loss without scoring a goal against a team which was the first time in the team's history that it happened. It is not a pretty site for Arsenal who have only mustered one win in their last six games so something needs to give for the Gunners otherwise we can expect a lot of pink slips. My player of the game award is going to go to Raheem Sterling who as we said scored his ninth overall goal and was an absolute workhorse all game long.
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