Manchester City rout 10-man Arsenal in 5-0 victory

The misery continues to pile on for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal as they lost their 3rd consecutive game of the Premier League season in humiliating fashion at the Etihad. It was a five-star performance from Manchester City as they ran riot to win 5-0 against a depleted Gunners side. Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres made it 2-0 in the opening 12 minutes before Granit Xhaka’s sending off in the 35th minute sealed the result with City cruising to a 5-0 victory to win their second game of the Premier League season.

With three losses out of three games, this has been the worst start for the Gunners in the league since 1954-55, and the pressure is mounting on Mikel Arteta to deliver at Arsenal as the results continue to worsen. The Spaniard made four changes to the team that lost to Chelsea last weekend and opted to start with a back-five to deal with the array of attacking talent in the Manchester City ranks.

Unfortunately, the changes were to no avail as Arsenal conceded inside five minutes with Gabriel Jesus floating a cross to the back post that was headed in by Ilkay Gundogan to give City the lead. Arsenal’s problems went from bad to worse moments later as the Gunners failed to deal with a simple free-kick into the penalty box with Ferran Torres doubling City’s lead in the 12th minute.

Arsenal were left with a mountain to climb at 2-0 down, but their fate was sealed after referee Martin Atkinson sent off Granit Xhaka in the 35th minute for an overzealous two-footed tackle on Ruben Dias. It was simply damage limitation for Mikel Arteta’s men from that moment onwards, but City continued to dazzle and added a third before the break with Jack Grealish skipping past few defenders before setting up Gabriel Jesus.

The second half was even more of a procession for Manchester City which saw them dominate more than 90% of the ball as Arsenal were simply playing for full-time. Rodri added a fourth in the 53rd minute with a laser-like shot into the bottom corner before Ferran Torres strengthened his case to be Manchester City’s first-choice centre-forward with his second goal of the game six minutes before the final whistle.

This was Manchester City’s second consecutive 5-0 home victory in the league, and despite their recent failings in the transfer market and failure to sign Harry Kane, the reigning champions are still one of the favourites to win the title. Arsenal, on the other hand, are yet to get off the mark in this Premier League season as the scrutiny on Mikel Arteta increases with every defeat.