Manchester City’s title hopes suffered a huge blow after a shock 2-0 defeat by Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium left them five points behind Chelsea. Their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, admitted the trip to Stamford Bridge in a fortnight is now pivotal.
The champions surrendered a 14-game unbeaten run following Santi Cazorla’s 24th-minute penalty and Olivier Giroud’s 67th-minute header which gave Arsenal a first league win at City since October 2010.
With Pellegrini’s side hosting Middlesbrough in Saturday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie, their next league game is at Chelsea on 31 January. Having reduced a deficit to José Mourinho’s side that was nine points at one stage this season, the manager accepts that City dare not lose at Chelsea if they want to have the best chance of again catching them.
“We still have to play against Chelsea so it will be a very decisive game. We will try to win that game to close that gap again. The game we must play at Stamford Bridge is a very important game. We must close the gap to two points. I hope we are going to recover and play the way we are playing so far,” Pellegrini said, before conceding his side had lacked the flair to break Arsenal down. “With the ball we didn’t have clear ideas. I think we didn’t play a good game. We ran a lot, had a lot of possession but we didn’t have creative ideas to try and find the space against a team that defend very well. Running a lot and working a lot, we weren’t creative today.”
Vincent Kompany, making a first appearance since 13 December after injury, conceded the penalty for a clumsy challenge on Nacho Monreal. While his manager did not believe Mike Dean, the referee, should have given the spot-kick, stating that Monreal took a “dive”, Pellegrini did criticise his captain.
“I think it was not a penalty. The movement of Kompany allows him [Monreal] to dive. I am not saying it was a bad mistake of the referee. The penalty changed the game but it was not the reason we lost. I think it was a very important action [moment] because we were nervous after the goal. But I don’t want to have the excuse that the referee whistled for Arsenal.
“There are two principal reasons [why we lost]: one was the penalty, which changed the game. And we were not creative. We didn’t have the ideas to cause damage in their defence. Without creativity it is difficult to score goals. It was a mix of both. Arsenal defended well and we ran and worked but we couldn’t create chances.”
City have failed to win the three league games this season in which Yaya Touré has not figured. The Ivorian is away on Africa Cup of Nations duty but Pellegrini refused to cite this as a reason why his side lost to Arsenal. “I think Yaya is a very important player. Maybe at the beginning of the season, when we were not playing well, you say Yaya should be out of the team but I never have excuses. We play other games without Yaya and can win also. I never have excuses with one player or two players why we don’t win,” he said.
While City flew to Abu Dhabi for a warm-weather break immediately after the game, Arsène Wenger’s team are only a point from Manchester United in fourth place. “The five months in front are very important in the lifespan of our team. They will determine our season,” Wenger said. “Time will tell. What is for sure is that it increases the amount of belief and confidence. The difference [now] is that first of all we have injured players back that were out for a long time and as well we know it is a very important period. The confidence of the team is high and some players are in good form.
“When we scored the first goal it was easier for us to control. We looked always dangerous when we won the ball. We had good solidarity and compactness. The regret is we didn’t always take advantage of the situations we created in the final third. We had opportunities to score more goals.”The Arsenal midfielder, Aaron Ramsey, added: “We felt like in the past we were too open but today we definitely defended as a team and did not give any room in the middle for David Silva to get into those little pockets he loves. We forced them wide and we dealt with it. And obviously we took advantage of our chances going forward.”
