A monologue from the Citizens ruined at the end: the hosts hit the Blues’ wall and let themselves reach 1-1 at the last gasp, nullifying Reijnders’ goal. The draw smacks of doom: Arsenal now have a two-game lead over their pursuers. In the other equal shows between Liverpool and Fulham, Brentford flies.
The goal that puts the Premier League firmly back in Arsenal’s hands comes in the 94th minute of a match that the league leaders are watching on TV. Manchester City has the second leg victory against Chelsea at -4, a 1-0 which is also too narrow for what we saw on the pitch. What happens, however, is that Guardiola’s team has never managed to close it out and that the Blues still want to try. So Gusto escapes to O’Reilly on the right and puts it in the centre, Fernandez finds himself a ball at the far post on which Donnarumma performs a half-miracle, but not even the national team goalkeeper can do anything on the rebound. And so that 1-0 that would have kept the race for the Premier League alive turns into a 1-1 that makes Arsenal happy, who now lead with 6 points ahead of both City and Aston Villa. Given the Gunners’ show of strength in the last week (Aston Villa demolished and personality victory at Bournemouth) and the 4 points that Guardiola’s team left to Arteta’s in the same period, that +6 smacks of an investiture.
the keys
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City were guilty of not closing it, the first Chelsea after Maresca (here is the background to his farewell) the merit of not giving up, despite being put down for a good part of the match. The insult for Pep was the 1-1 in the 94th minute, in one of his team’s rare defensive amnesias; the damage, however, was the injuries to Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias (especially the Croatian’s injury doesn’t bode well) which forced him to improvise the defense towards the end. Not even Rodri who finally shows flashes of that class that for over a year, since the terrible injury shortly before being named Ballon d’Or, can serve as consolation, just as yet another positive performance from Tijjani Reijnders, author of the home team’s more than deserved lead in the 42nd minute, is not enough. For the finale, Chelsea kept the personality that they had shown this season with all the greats: until Enzo Fernandez’s goal they had been put down as had rarely happened to them in a big match this season (5 of the eight total shots came from the 85th minute onwards), with flops from Estevão, Cole Palmer and João Pedro symptomatic of a disoriented team to which interim manager Calum McFarlane, recruited from the Under 21s, struggled to give a direction. Until the 94th minute, that cross from Gusto, that strike from Fernandez that put the Premier League back in the hands of the Gunners.
the others
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Liverpool with Federico Chiesa on the bench until the 86th minute despite Slot only having one other striker available, Cody Gakpo, was joined in the 97th minute at 2-2 by Fulham, after having found the advantage with Gakpo in the 94th minute. The Reds are at their 9th consecutive useful result, but with the second draw in a row they rise to 34 points. Manchester United have 31 after being held to a 1-1 draw at Leeds with Joshua Zirkzee inspiring Matheus Cunha’s equaliser. At the end of the match, a cryptic message from Ruben Amorim: “I’m here to be United’s manager, not simply the coach.” Important clouds are gathering over the Red Devils and the future of their coach. Sunderland rises to 31 with a 1-1 comeback against Tottenham, a fourth consecutive draw for the always surprising newly promoted Le Bris. Brentford also has 30 points after the sensational 4-2 away to Everton highlighted by Thiago’s hat-trick: for Kayode and his teammates, officially in the Europe zone, fifth useful result in a row. Newcastle rises to 29 points after the nice 2-0 over Palace: the Eagles are stuck on 27 points after the fourth defeat in the last 5 games.
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