Arsene Wenger used to defy disparity at Arsenal - but Manchester City provided emphatic show of money over metrics

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James Olley6 November 2017

Arsene Wenger bemoaned the officiating, but this was a day when the key decisions Arsenal have made as a club in recent times were put under the microscope.

The Gunners boss had legitimate grievances given there was an element of doubt over the severity of Nacho Monreal's challenge on Raheem Sterling which prompted referee Michael Oliver to award a 50th-minute penalty.

More obviously, Manchester City's third goal scored by Gabriel Jesus - which killed the game as a contest during Arsenal's best period - was assisted by David Silva from an offside position.

Yet to focus on those two moments in isolation would be to ignore the bigger picture that City were palpably the better team, and that superiority came as a result of the markedly different trajectories these two clubs are on at present.

City are eight points clear at the top of the Premier League courtesy of some effervescent football, the brainchild of the world's most desirable manager.

It is also. of course, the product of hundreds of millions of pounds invested to assemble a squad laden with options in every area.

Wenger rarely wastes an opportunity to highlight the financial largesse while lauding Arsenal's more ethical and sustainable approach.

Chief executive Ivan Gazidis described it last month in terms of "objective metrics" - essentially an equation which calculates Premier League points by expenditure - and claimed "Arsenal has probably been, of the big clubs certainly, the most consistently over-performing team over time".

In Pictures | Manchester City vs Arsenal | 05/11/2017

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It didn't feel like it yesterday. This was an emphatic show of money over metrics. It is admirable that Arsenal pursue a pragmatic fiscal policy and there is plenty not to like about City's oil-fuelled, fast-tracked pursuit of the game's biggest prizes.

But in Alisher Usmanov, Arsenal have a shareholder willing to pursue a more aggressive transfer policy - perhaps by raising additional funds through a rights issue - to help the Gunners compete in an arms race only partly tempered by Uefa's Financial Fair Play regulations.

Upon its inception, the Gunners hoped FFP would level the playing field but it remains imbalanced with Wenger, a long-time advocate, recently admitting his disillusionment that "we have created rules that cannot be respected".

Regardless, Wenger was once a manager who could defy such disparity and mastermind greatness. He was awarded a new two-year contract predicated upon the belief, contrary to recent evidence, that he was still capable of that.

Yet those in Etihad Stadium yesterday witnessed only one team who looked progressive and innovative. This didn't even feel like a particularly big game for City.

The atmosphere was curiously subdued but then again they are used to seeing City win here. In fact these days, they win everywhere. Fifteen consecutive wins in all competitions and they could even afford a degree of profligacy in the final third against Arsenal.

REUTERS

Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero had given City a 2-0 lead before Arsenal produced a credible response, having the deficit through substitute Alexandre Lacazette to trigger a dangerous period ended by Jesus' intervention.

Wenger's call not to start his £52.7million club-record striker in a game of few chances for the visitors was baffling. It should be another decision he reflects on with greater concentration that anything Oliver did.

There was an inevitability about the outcome which does not reflect well on Arsenal. Every team resides in City's slipstream at the moment - something that can of course change in the months ahead - but few would commit themselves to the opinion Arsenal are capable of overhauling a 12-point deficit, even in early November.

In Pictures | Arsene Wenger's 22 years at Arsenal

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You wonder what Alexis Sanchez made of it all. A frustrated, isolated lone striker during the first half, Sanchez frequently threw his arms up in frustration at a lack of support.

Guardiola, rather mischievously, singled out Sanchez as a "top, top, world class player" with City highly likely to revive their interest in January after failing with a £60million move in the summer.

Wenger made headlines of his own by focusing on an opposing player in a much less flattering manner.

"I believe it was no penalty," said Wenger. "We know that Raheem Sterling dives well, he does it very well.

"The third goal was offside. The third was the killer and it is by coincidence that mistakes always go for the home team, as we know."

It is the internal decision-making Arsenal should ponder with greater purpose.