City beat Arsenal at the Emirates to signal intent for title defense News

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City beat Arsenal at the Emirates to signal intent for title defense

By Daily Sports on August 13, 2018

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says his side will get even better as they deservedly beat Arsenal on the opening day of the Premier League season.

The Gunners were playing their first competitive game without Arsene Wenger in charge since 1996 but were well beaten by the defending champions.

Raheem Sterling put City ahead in the 14th minute when he got the ball on the corner of the box, cut beyond two players and rifled home from 20 yards.

Riyad Mahrez went close to scoring on his league debut for City when his free-kick was saved by Petr Cech, who denied Aymeric Laporte from the follow-up.

It was always going to be a tough first game for Unai Emery at Arsenal and they had few clear-cut chances - with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and substitute Alexandre Lacazette shooting wide from outside the box.

City were brilliant in parts - and controlled in others - and killed off the game when Benjamin Mendy, who assisted both goals, pulled the ball back for Bernardo Silva to blast in a second.

"We have a lot of players with a lack of condition but we are more than two seasons together and know what to do," Guardiola told BBC Sport. "We made a good performance in general and day by day we will get better and better.

"I am privileged to be manager of Manchester City. They have given me a fantastic squad. I cannot complain for one minute."

It would be unfair to judge Arsenal - or Emery, who replaced legendary manager Wenger this summer - based on a performance against the country's outstanding team. The Spaniard failed to beat Guardiola in their first 10 meetings in La Liga and Europe and was never likely to end that run at the Emirates.

Arsenal started off brightly for the first five minutes and ended the first half strongly, with Aubameyang firing wide from 20 yards and Henrikh Mkhitaryan shooting into the side netting.

Two players made debuts from the start - experienced Greek centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, a signing from Borussia Dortmund, and teenage holding midfielder Guendouzi, who was playing in France's second division with Lorient last season.

Guendouzi showed some good moments with tackles and passes although was beaten for Sterling's opener and allowed Aguero in for the one-on-one chance he should have finished.

He is likely to have a big role under Emery this season and when Lucas Torreira came on for his second-half debut, it was fellow defensive midfielder Granit Xhaka and not Guendouzi replaced.

"It's his first match here in the Premier League. He has personality and quality and if he is on the pitch he is improving very quickly," Emery told BBC Match of the Day.

Cech started in goal, instead of £19m summer signing Bernd Leno and justified his place with good stops from Bernardo, Sterling, Aguero and De Bruyne and especially the double save to deny Mahrez and Laporte.

With Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac injured, Emery had suggested he could play forward Danny Welbeck at left-back - but Ainsley Maitland-Niles, usually a midfielder, got the nod instead.

The 20-year-old was given a torrid time by Mahrez and especially Kyle Walker, and ended up going off after 35 minutes when he hurt himself while stopping another Walker run.

Veteran Swiss right-back Stephan Lichsteiner came on for his debut on the left side in his place.

There were clear signs that Arsenal - who played a 4-2-3-1 - need more time to get used to the new system or gel with the fresh faces - with Ramsey - who only completed seven passes - Aubameyang and Ozil all playing the ball into empty space in the second half.

When City goalkeeper Ederson gifted Arsenal a late chance, Ozil mis-controlled the ball back to the goalkeeper.

"The result was 2-0 but I think on the pitch over the 90 minutes we were getting better," Emery said.

"The first half we didn't play like we wanted. We spoke at half-time about taking more responsibility for the second half, to do a little more. We wanted to build with the ball and break their lines. I think in the second half we played more like we want."

The former Sevilla and Paris St-Germain boss enjoyed the Emirates atmosphere. "We wanted to start here with our supporters. We wanted to show our performance but it is clear against Manchester City we could not give them this win. But I think here we are going to feel very well."

Story (Apart from headline) sourced from BBC.Photo shows Man City's Raheem Sterling scoring against Arsenal

Source Daily Sports

Posted August 13, 2018