MAYEGUN 1

Pep Guardiola proved yesterday that Mikel Arteta’s 'Perfect System' has a fatal flaw. Here’s how: - City abandoned their usual central overloads. Instead, Pep set a flexible 3-2-5. The plan was to stretch Arsenal wide crush their man marking and dominate space. - In the first 20 minutes, 56% of attacks came down the left, 37% down the right. Only 7% centrally which is interesting. Arsenal’s midfield was bypassed entirely. City dictated where the game happened. - James Trafford held the build up. Khusanov, Ake and Nunes formed a shifting back three. Rodri frequently dropped swapping vertically with Nunes. This killed Havertz’s pressing triggers and let City own territory. - On the right, Semenyo stayed wide as a pin. Cherki rotated around him forcing Arsenal’s compact block out of shape. This created space on the left for Doku in 1v1s against Ben White. - Nico O’Reilly pushed high like a shadow striker. When Kepa fumbled Bernardo Silva’s cross, O’Reilly ghosted in to score. Minutes later, Nunes delivered and O’Reilly was there again. Clinical. - Off the ball, City pressed like a symphony. Haaland and Cherki blocked central progress. Doku pinned the right. Semenyo smothered Declan Rice whenever he tried to switch play. Arsenal had no easy outlet. - When Arsenal tried direct balls for Gyokeres, Khusanov neutralized him. Rodri-Nunes-Ake formed a counter pressing wall cutting off second balls. Arsenal could not recover possession meaningfully. This 2-0 against is a proof of Guardiola’s tactical genius where he discarded the season long plan for a final perfectly executing a new system and mathematically controlling Arsenal’s every move. 💙

The first trophy we're lifting next season is the Carabao Cup✅