It felt like the night Manchester City’s hopes of catching Arsenal in the Premier League title race were extinguished.
Pep Guardiola’s team began the evening at West Ham 10 points adrift of their London rivals, courtesy of the latter’s dramatic late win over Everton, but despite taking the lead through Bernardo Silva, Konstantinos Mavropanos headed in an equaliser just four minutes later, and City could not find another response.
Guardiola had told reporters before the game that “if we drop points it will be over”, and there is no doubt that a first title since 2004 is now firmly within Arsenal’s grasp.
Our writers analyse the big talking points.
Is the title now Arsenal’s?
There is a lot of football to be played yet, but it does look increasingly unlikely that City are going to overhaul Arsenal, even if they do play the north Londoners at home next month.
After Arsenal got a dramatic late win in the slightly earlier kick-off, City just had to win at the London Stadium, but despite pushing and pushing throughout the second half, making a variety of tactical changes to try to open up their hosts and hitting the crossbar late on, they could not find a winner.
Their night was summed up when Marc Guehi spooned a chance over from six yards deep into stoppage time, after Mavropanos had blocked on the line from Nico O’Reilly.
Pep Guardiola, banned from the touchline, spent most of the evening on his phone to his coaches (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
The points gap is now nine, with City having a game in hand. If they were to win that game in hand and beat Arsenal, then the gap would be only three, but the problem with that thinking is that there are a lot of other matches to be played and City’s stuttering form does not suggest that they have enough victories in them, even if Arsenal do drop points as they most likely will somewhere along the line.
There are ups and downs to come but City’s task became significantly harder here.
Sam Lee
Why did Haaland struggle again?
West Ham have historically been Erling Haaland’s favourite English opponent, with the striker scoring 11 times in seven games against them. But he failed to score for the fourth game in succession across all competitions.
City’s initial set-up to start the game saw Haaland share striking responsibilities with Omar Marmoush in a 4-2-2-2 formation. The narrow set up did not work against West Ham’s organised 5-4-1 out of possession, with City slow on the ball until the move that led to Bernardo’s opener.
City shifted to a flatter 4-4-2 in the second half, pushing Haaland from the right to the left up front. Antoine Semenyo, having played behind the front two in the first half, moved to the left wing. On occasion, the formation allowed Haaland to drop deep and link up play too, but it still did not get him too many chances to trouble Mads Hermansen.
Haaland is thwarted again at the London Stadium (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Rayan Cherki’s introduction meant Haaland could go back to playing off the defender’s shoulder. Cherki almost instantly set up the Norway international for a chance in behind, which Hermansen saved well.
Another substitute Jeremy Doku also set Haaland up later in the half with a cutback from the left but he snatched at the chance and sent it wide.
Late in the game, he seemed to hurt himself attacking a cross, labouring to get up. After failing to get a decent connection on another cross, he slapped the turf, summing up a night of frustration that he and City have experienced too often for their own good this season.
Did Silva mean his goal?
Bernardo may have told somebody —allegedly Phil Foden, according to broadcaster TNT Sport — that he meant his impudent dink for City’s first goal, but his body language betrays him.
The little sheepish smirk that followed is not the expression of a man who has pulled off a piece of inspired brilliance by design.
The goal came after City’s first passage of play with a bit of zip to it, and it got Bernardo into the perfect position near the byline to stand up a cross to the far post for Erling Haaland — another bit of body language: when he looked up to pick a target, he only had eyes for Haaland.
It seemed like a classic case of Silva not wrapping his foot around the ball properly, meaning it came off at a different angle and outfoxed Mads Hermansen in goal, looping into the far corner despite the best efforts of El Hadji Malick Diouf on the line.
Sam Lee
What next for City?
Tuesday, March 17: Real Madrid (Home), Champions League round of 16 second leg, 8pm UK, 4pm ET
