1-3 Arsenal Manchester City: Champions return to the top of the Premier League with a crucial win over title rivals, with goals from De Bruyne, Grealish, and Haaland punishing the Gunners' errors.

 

1-3 Arsenal Manchester City: Champions return to the top of the Premier League with a crucial win over title rivals, thanks to goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Jack Grealish, and Erling Haaland punishing the Gunners' errors.

Manchester City has risen to the top of the Premier League after a crucial 3-1 win over Arsenal.

After an error by Takehiro Tomiyasu, Kevin De Bruyne put City ahead, before Bukayo Saka scored a penalty.

Erling Haaland scored his 32nd goal of the season after Jack Grealish's deflected strike put City ahead.

Pep Guardiola savored the names as he read them out a few days ago. It was a list of clubs that tried to drive Manchester City out of the Premier League three years ago, when the club was facing Uefa charges of financial wrongdoing. Guardiola mentioned Arsenal as the sixth club, but he and City went after them first.

It may have been unseasonably warm 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 shoved Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on the touchline - but City's retaliation, sealed by Erling Haaland's 26th league goal of the season, was cold.

It seems like only a blink of an eye has passed since Arsenal led the Premier League by eight points, but City's tumultuous, breathtaking 3-1 victory at the Emirates vaulted them above them. Arsenal, once so confident and fluent, is beset by doubts. They have not won any of their last three league games, and despite having a game in hand on City, they must still travel to the Etihad at the end of April.

City are playing like a team propelled 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. Arsenal suffered a crushing psychological blow as a result of this defeat. It meant that City had now won each of the previous 11 league meetings between the two teams. They will now be heavy favorites to win their third consecutive championship.

There have been times in recent weeks when the weight of history and the agony of nearly two decades of missed opportunities seemed to be crushing Arsenal. There has been so much upheaval since the Invincibles' last title in 2003-04, so much heartbreak in parting ways with Arsene Wenger, the modern club's father, that the unexpected joy of this season's title tilt seemed almost too good to be true.

 Manchester City climbed to the top of the Premier League with a 3-1 victory, with Jack Grealish (C) scoring.

Erling Haaland put Man City out of sight with his third goal, and Kevin De Bruyne also scored.

Arsenal has lost control of the Premier League title race and must now find a way to compete with Manchester City.

Most people expected Arsenal to falter and the Manchester City machine to breeze past them. Arsenal appeared to believe the same thing.

They were the first to blink when Arteta fielded a weakened team against City in the FA Cup three weeks ago, as if to protect himself from going toe-to-toe with the champions. Arsenal was defeated, and they have not won since. It exacerbated their inferiority complex regarding City. The outcome from last night felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Arsenal were dealt a blow before the game when Thomas Partey was ruled out due to injury, but his replacement, Jorginho, gave the home side their first chance after ten minutes when he intercepted a pass from Kevin de Bruyne. Jorginho sent Eddie Nketiah into the inside right channel with a clipped ball, and it took a fine sliding block from Ruben Dias to stop the danger.

City created their own opportunity two minutes later. Riyad Mahrez twisted and turned inside the Arsenal box before clipping a deft flighted pass to the back post. Erling Haaland, who had passed a late fitness test, ghosted on to it at the back post and hooked it across goal instead of shooting. There was no one to apply the finishing touch.

When Oleksandr Zinchenko curled a cross into the area, Nketiah rose unmarked between Nathan Ake and Bernardo Silva, who was playing at left back, and Arsenal should have taken the lead midway through the half. Silva looked up at Nketiah as he leapt, but Nketiah could only steer his header wide from the edge of the six yard box. Arsenal would soon come to regret his wastefulness.

City had taken the lead a minute later. Takehiro Tomiyasu, who was preferred over Ben White at right back, attempted to clean up a poor defensive header from William Saliba by passing the ball back to Aaron Ramsdale. But he hit the ball woefully short, and he watched De Bruyne run on to it with his mouth agape in horror.

Coming in for Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu played a backpass to the keeper, unaware of De Bruyne's presence.

De Bruyne (right) expertly finished chipping Aaron Ramsdale to fully utilize the gift given to him.

Aaron Ramsdale's expression said it all after Arsenal gave Man City the lead in the biggest game of the season.

Man City, on the other hand, gave Arsenal a chance to equalize when Ederson came off his line and fouled Eddie Nketiah.

Man City players rushed to referee Anthony Taylor to protest the decision, but it was not overturned.

Saka had to wait a long time before tucking the ball into the back of the net to tie the game at one.

Arsenal players rushed to celebrate with Saka, but the game slipped away from them in the second half.

Ramsdale was in no man's land on the outskirts of his area when De Bruyne lobbed it over him in a lazy arc with his left foot. It landed just inside the post and went over. The UAE was stunned to silence. Martin Odegaard tried to reassure Tomiyasu by lifting his chin with his palm.

Arsenal attempted to respond. Saka dallied on the ball for too long, and Ake blocked his shot. On the sidelines, Arteta morphed into the prowling, howling, incandescent, aggrieved, angry man we've come to expect.

Every decision appears to him to be an injustice at times. If City believes the world is against them, Arteta appears to believe the world is also against Arsenal.

The Emirates crowd became agitated as well. They grew increasingly enraged by City's waste of time, but five minutes before halftime, they forgot about it.

As he rushed out to meet him, Nketiah ran on to a lofted ball into the box and prodded a shot past Ederson, who had already been booked for his part in City's delaying tactics.

The ball was hooked off the line by Ake, but Ederson collided with Nketiah as he attempted to block it, and referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot. The city was perplexed and enraged, but the decision stood firm.

In the second half, Kevin De Bruyne shoved former Manchester City assistant manager Mikel Arteta.

Arteta had kicked the ball away from De Bruyne to delay a throw-in for the visiting side, which irritated him.

When Gabriel was found to have fouled, City assumed they would receive their own penalty. Haaland, Erling

Gabriel was given a yellow card, but the penalty and card were reversed when it was discovered that Haaland was actually offside.

However, City quickly regained the lead after Grealish's shot was deflected into the net by Tomiyasu.

Haaland's 32nd goal of the season in all competitions put City out of reach, capping off a barren run by his standards.

Saka took the kick and sent Ederson the wrong way after a long, nerve-racking wait. Arsenal were tied. The Emirates erupted.

End-to-end, unrelenting, unforgiving, and full of boldness and ambition, it was a fantastic match. It appeared to be a match between the top two teams in the country. Rodri's header flicked up off Ake's boot and hit the face of the bar late in the first half as City came close to retaking the lead. It looped up into the air, and Ramsdale gratefully slammed it into touch with both gloves.

Ten minutes into the second half, City thought they had a penalty of their own when Haaland and Gabriel wrestled each other as Haaland ran on to a pass from Kyle Walker. Haaland stepped in front of Gabriel, and Gabriel knocked him down. Mr Taylor indicated the spot, but VAR ruled that Haaland was offside. It took an eternity to make a decision. After the weekend's officiating disaster, now was not the time to make another mistake.

The game kept pitching and yawning. Nketiah came within inches of putting Arsenal ahead when he reached out to touch in a Tomiyasu cross, but it eluded him. Jorginho then kicked off the line a minute later. A minute later, Zinchenko passed the ball to Silva on the edge of the box, and Ramsdale saved well from Haaland. It was both brilliant and exhausting.

Neither team deserved to lose, but Grealish's goal was enough to win the game. City worked the ball from Haaland to Ilkay Gundogan on the edge of the box after Gabriel lost possession in his own half. Gundogan allowed the ball to run to Grealish, who swept it past Ramsdale thanks to a slight but crucial deflection from poor Tomiyasu.

Eight minutes from time, another quick interchange of passes between Gundogan and De Bruyne moved the ball to Haaland six yards out, putting City out of reach. Haaland poked the ball past Ramsdale after taking a touch.

Ederson falls to his knees to celebrate Haaland's goal, which puts City ahead of their opponents.

Thomas Partey traveled to London but was left out of Arsenal's squad due to a muscular injury.

MATCH FACTS & STATS

Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu (White 83), Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka (Vieira 83), Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli (Trossard 76)

Unused subs: Tierney, Kiwior, Holding, Nelson, Turner, Cozier-Duberry

Goal: Saka 42 

Booked: Tomiyasu, Nketiah

Man City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Ake, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Mahrez (Akanji 61), De Bruyne (Phillips 87), Gundogan, Grealish (Foden 77), Haaland 

Unused subs: Laporte, Ortega, Alvarez, Gomez, Palmer, Lewis

Goal: De Bruyne 24, Grealish 72, Haaland 82

Booked: Walker, Ederson, Silva, Grealish