Arsenal suffered a major blow in the Premier League title race with Manchester City leapfrogging them in the table following a well-deserved 3-1 victory at Emirates Stadium. Second half goals from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland sealed the victory after Bukayo Saka had cancelled out Keven De Bruyne's opener.
Heading into the clash, City moved to just three points behind Arsenal after beating Aston Villa the day after the Gunners were taken to a draw in controversial circumstances by Brentford. A better goal difference for the reigning champions meant a victory would take them to the summit of the Premier League for the first time this season and that is exactly what was achieved.
Mikel Arteta's side are now four games in all competitions without a victory and their unbeaten streak in the league on home soil is no longer. There is no time to dwell though as Arsenal face a difficult fixture away to Aston Villa, who have former manager Unai Emery at the helm, on Saturday.
READ MORE: What Pep Guardiola did to Gabriel Jesus at full-time whistle of Arsenal vs Manchester City
With that said, football.london has rounded up all the reaction from the national media following arguably the biggest game of the season so far.
The Guardian
Here it is then: Total Erling. Wherever this current iteration of Manchester City may end up, this was a night when the texture of Pep Guardiola’s team seemed to shift decisively, to take on new forms and new shapes.
Erling Haaland came to the Emirates Stadium with 25 Premier League goals this season. He left with 26, and with a sense, too, of finding his own new gears, of leading City’s attack in every moment of the game rather than wandering around finishing its sentences.
Haaland was a scalpel as well as a bludgeon. He ran through and indeed over the red shirts; but also moved sweetly and cleverly off the ball, producing a performance of all-round central attacking craft in the biggest game of the Premier League season to date.
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The Telegraph
Arsenal came out of the weekend’s draw against Brentford nursing a sense of grievance over the shocking Var decision which led to the equaliser but can have no complaint here. City arrived and in a dominant second-half performance not just claimed the precious win but quietened the Arsenal crowd who have been such a driving force but, like the players, seemed to lose a little heart.
It is now four games without a win for Arsenal and two of them have been defeats to City who knocked them out of the FA Cup in the first game of a sequence which is now feeling like a deep psychological blow. Remarkably Arsenal have lost their last 11 league games against City.
City even survived another unnecessary tinkering from Pep Guardiola who is often guilty of over-thinking his tactics in big games. Horrible, he called it but once he addressed that they went for the jugular and, for Arsenal, this was bloody.
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Mail Online
A few days ago, Pep Guardiola savoured the names as he read them out. It was a list of the clubs who had tried to force Manchester City into the wilderness three years ago when City were facing Uefa charges of financial wrong-doing. Arsenal were the sixth club Guardiola mentioned but he and City came for them first.
It may have been unseasonably mild in north London and this may have been a brilliant game of football played in the white heat of competition that boiled over several times – not least when Kevin de Bruyne gave Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta a hefty shove on the touchline - but City’s revenge, sealed by Erling Haaland’s 26th league goal of the season, was cold.
It seems only the blink of an eye has passed since Arsenal were eight points ahead at the top of the Premier League but this tumultuous, breathtaking 3-1 victory at the Emirates took City above them. Arsenal, once so fluent and so confident, are beset by doubts. They have not won any of their last three league games and even though they still have a game in hand on City, they still have to visit the Etihad at the end of April.
Fired by resentment that the rest of the Premier League – and the rest of the world – is against them after they were charged with 115 financial breaches last week, City are playing like a team propelled by anger as well as sublime talent. This was a crushing psychological blow for Arsenal. It meant City have now won each of the last 11 league encounters between the two teams. They will now be firm favourites to win their third title in a row.
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