There may be treble ahead
This win was primarily a message to the Premier League, that there is no team good enough to take the title away from Manchester City, but don't underestimate the effect it will have on the rest of Europe as well.
Pep Guardiola will continue to rile at talk of a treble, but who can stop this team? The title is surely sewn up after this statement. The FA Cup final poses obvious difficulties. In Europe? Real Madrid lost 4-2 to City Football Group club Girona on Tuesday. Twenty-four hours later they would have watched this masterclass through gritted teeth.
There is still plenty of work to be done to win the treble, but the question has to be whether City and Guardiola will ever get a better chance? They have only one injury in the squad, a settled system, an unstoppable striker and frightening momentum.
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If City are to win the treble then there are 11 games to go. Eleven games to scale these heights, maybe less if the title is done and dusted before the final. Make no mistake, this is achievable for City. They have never got this close before. They might never get a better chance.
Guardiola distanced himself from talk of the treble after the FA Cup semi-final win on Saturday. He said he was "not at all" excited, that it was "far, far away".
"How many times in this amazing country have trebles been done? How many years? How many teams?," he said. “It is one. Once. Our neighbours did it in how many centuries?"
Don't be surprised if in six-and-a-half weeks there are two teams have done the treble.
City's intensity
Back in November, before the World Cup had begun and when we could only speculate about how it would affect players, Guardiola suggested that we'd only get the answers to that question in April and May.
The players in Qatar maintained their intensity through November and December and stepped straight back on to the Premier League carousel. The workload was immense but they could keep going when the domestic season resumed at Christmas and just try to keep enough in the tank.
There have been times this season when City have looked underwhelming, when they've been inconsistent and not dominated games the way we know they can. But in recent weeks they have raised their intensity to a new level. Against Bayern Munich it was impressive, at the Etihad on Wednesday it was ferocious.
Guardiola knew that this was when some teams might begin to wilt, this was when players would need to be at their optimum. When Tottenham struggled in the first half of the season it was suggested it was part of Antonio Conte's masterplan, to make sure his team could come on strong in spring. It turned out they just weren't very good.
But maybe Guardiola has had that plan all along. There's probably a bit of a happy coincidence about all of this. City have found a system that works and their run of performances has delivered them more confidence. They've looked more intense than their rivals recently, however. They've looked more aggressive. Arsenal just couldn't live with that at the Etihad.
Haaland's assists
When Guardiola has been asked about Erling Haaland this season he has often said his one aim is for the striker to better at being involved in the build-up play when they finish working together. Well that didn't take long.
Maybe Haaland can get better still, but he's now provided three assists in his last five games and they have all been excellent. His chip for Bernardo Silva to score against Bayern Munich was sublime. His hold-up play to deliver for Kevin De Bruyne in the first half against Arsenal was brutal. The timing of his pass to the same player for the third goal was perfect.
Not only has Haaland scored 49 times this season, but he's beginning to turn more of a provider as well. The way he bullied Rob Holding to keep possession against Arsenal was excellent. He could have provided De Bruyne with another assist.
Defensive set-up
Guardiola said in his broadcast interviews before the match that Kyle Walker would play "inside", but that didn't really explain his role. It left things open to interpretation, which might have been the idea.
When the teams set up it was clear Walker was at right-back and this was a more conventional back four, with Manuel Akanji at left-back. It also meant less midfield work for John Stones, who remained alongside Ruben Dias, rather than pushing up when City had the ball.
It went from a 3-2 in the build-up to a 2-3 at times, with Walker and Akanji the ones to step forward a line. Stones has been outstanding in his midfield role recently, but it shows how valuable Nathan Ake is to City's ability to play that system. It also felt like a pretty tough call on Aymeric Laporte, who had seemed the most obvious replacement.
Guardiola's nerves
On the eve of this game Guardiola had spoken impressively about how nerves would grip him in the build-up to kick-off and how that is actually fine, that is okay to admit you're nervous or scared. It was interesting but also a good message to get across.
Nerves come out in different ways with different people, but if this was Guardiola at his most nervous then it made him manic. He watched the opening stages of this game with remarkable intensity.
He was furious at Michael Oliver for denying City a second-minute penalty (it was a clear pen) then even more apoplectic when Bernardo was penalised for a foul on Xhaka. Guardiola's fury spilt over onto the pitch with that decision.
He had a robust discussion with Ederson about his distribution in the first 10 minutes and then waved furiously at his defence to push up when Arsenal went backwards with their play. When he wasn't gesturing on the touchline he was doing his best impression of Marcelo Bielsa and sitting on a drinks container to watch the action.
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