London, Feb 3: After a recent uplift in their results, the pain returned for Manchester City in the Premier League.
Premier League
City conceded a goal inside two minutes and was overwhelmed in the second half in a 5-1 loss at Arsenal, which trimmed the gap to leader Liverpool to six points on Sunday.
The chances of City winning a fifth straight Premier League title are surely over – the champions are 15 points behind Liverpool with 14 matches remaining – and they must have felt humiliated by the end of the game at Emirates that again demonstrated the new-found hostility between Arsenal and City.
City arrived having won six of its last eight games in all competitions but all is still not right with Pep Guardiola’s team, which let in a sloppy opener when Manuel Akanji was dispossessed near his own area and Martin Odegaard scored.
Haaland was goaded after that goal by Gabriel in a hangover from the spiky 2-2 draw between the teams in September but responded by equalising in the 55th.
Arsenal went back in front in the 57th through Thomas Partey’s deflected shot and there were further goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri as City fell apart in a similar fashion to the 4-2 loss at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League last month.
Arsenal revelled in the win.
Lewis-Skelly, an 18-year-old defender, marked his goal by sitting down, crossing his legs and delivering a “Zen” celebration – .
Arsenal was alone in second place, three points above Nottingham Forest and nine above fourth-placed City.
Gabriel and teenager Lewis-Skelly goad Haaland
Haaland experienced an uncomfortable return match against Arsenal, with two opponents – including a teenager – teasing him after goals and the crowd at Emirates Stadium reminding the striker of his provocative comments in the teams’ last meeting.
Resentment clearly lingered more than four months after a 2-2 draw between the teams at City’s Etihad Stadium in their first meeting, which ended with Haaland throwing the ball at Arsenal defender Gabriel after a late equaliser and telling Arsenal manager Arteta to “stay humble, eh?” It came back to bite Haaland on Sunday.
Gabriel didn’t waste his chance to get his own back on Haaland, celebrating in the face of his rival immediately after Odegaard gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead inside two minutes.
Midway through the second half – and after Haaland had equalised for City – Lewis-Skelly scored to put Arsenal 3-1 up and marked the goal by sitting down, crossing his legs and delivering a “Zen” celebration, one often used by Haaland
In that 2-2 game in September, Haaland used words that appeared to belittle Lewis-Skelly during a confrontation early in the match.
The 18-year-old Lewis-Skelly, who plays at left back, was only available for Sunday’s game after having a red card controversially awarded against Wolverhampton last weekend rescinded.
The Premier League didn’t hesitate to flag up the needle that still clearly existed between the teams.
On its official X site followed by more than 45 million people, the Premier League posted a picture of the incident between Gabriel and Haaland alongside the words: “The latest chapter in the long-running Erling Haaland vs. Gabriel series.”
In one second-half incident after Gabriel won a free kick, he grabbed the shorts of Haaland then refused to accept the hand of the City striker, who was attempting to help the Brazilian up.
Minutes later, Haaland approached Gabriel and pointed to the Premier League badge on his jersey, likely indicating that he and City have won the title and Gabriel hasn’t.
Later, one Arsenal fan was seen holding up a sign with the words “Stay humble, eh?” And when the final whistle sounded, Arsenal played Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” loudly around the stadium.
“This is a thing that’s been building up over a certain amount of time,” Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said. “With the Etihad at the start of the season and everything that went on there, you do have that fire in your stomach.” (AP)