Arsenal showed their title credentials by holding reigning champions Manchester City to a 0-0 draw on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium, allowing Liverpool to take top spot on a pivotal day in the Premier League’s three-way title race.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, in the hunt for their first league title in 20 years, are second in the table on 65 points with nine games remaining, while City are third with 64.
Liverpool, on 67 points, claimed the lead with their 2-1 comeback victory over Brighton & Hove Albion earlier on Sunday.
City dominated possession, coming at Arsenal in waves.
But the visitors frustrated Pep Guardiola’s men, including league-leading scorer Erling Haaland, with a textbook defensive display to extend their unbeaten league run to nine games.
Guardiola says that with the current form of Arsenal and Liverpool he knows winning the EPL is not an easy task.
“So, I understand completely for the sense from the beginning, no? Like we won five Premier Leagues in six years, you have to win from 10 points in front. But when you see Liverpool play, I said, ‘we cannot take 10 points in front.’ When I see Arsenal play, we cannot take 16 points in front because they are really good. Juergen (Klopp) and Mikel (Arteta) with the teams are exceptional.”
Arteta praised the defensive effort of his team.
“Yeah, it was a really…a thrilling game, a really tough match, a very demanding opponent. But I think we competed really, really well. I think defensively we were outstanding. We had to go and put them under pressure higher up the pitch. I think we were really good and created a lot of difficulties and when they are that good that they get you in this low block and it’s very difficult to get out of that, they drop a lot of players and I think we prevent them the spaces really well and that’s the difficulty.”
