Man City close gap on leaders Chelsea

Man City have beaten Arsenal 2-1 to climb to second in the Premier League table.

Theo Walcott gave the Gunners the lead in the opening minutes, a lead which they held to half-time, before a Leroy Sane strike levelled matters after the break for City.

The winner came from Raheem Sterling as he worked a goal from an acute angle following a Kevin de Bruyne assist.

The thoroughly deserved win was the first time since 2012 that City had turned around a first-half deficit to win a tie, and showed a steel that they will need if they are to challenge Chelsea for the league; Pep Guardiola's side currently sit seven points behind the league leaders. The Gunners stay fourth, two points behind City.

Five minutes was all in took to break the deadlock with Arsenal the team to do it. Hector Bellerin burst forward for the Gunners, feeding Alexis Sanchez to take a touch and feed on between Pablo Zabaleta and Nicolas Otamendi to meet the onrushing Walcott to claim and with enough time to settle and select his spot past Claudio Bravo in goal.

City almost responded with immediate effect as De Bruyne whipped a cross from left to right into the Gunners box where Sterling met the ball with a diving header, directing the effort just wide from a few yards out.

De Bruyne has been City’s most dangerous and creative player all season and it was once more the Belgian that was producing for the Manchester side. He had a pop on goal himself after 20 minutes when some daylight opened up in front of him only to see his effort go over the bar from about 25 yards out.

Replicating Arsenal’s blistering start to the first half, City sparked early on in the second. Sterling and David Silva exchanged passes in the middle of the park before the latter chipped ahead for Sane to beat the offside trap, collect, and slot home past Petr Cech.

The goal put a pep in the step in Guardiola’s team as they found a confidence in their play in attack with Sane almost bagging a second when played in on the left of the box with only a strong Cech hand preventing a second.

The Gunners energy levels were beginning to flag and Arsene Wenger called Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain into the fray for Alex Iwobi as he looked for some impetus going forward.

De Bruyne continued to create and oh so nearly gave City the lead as his deflected shot was headed for the left corner before Cech got down to push away.

The momentum was with City and they got the goal they deserved. De Bruyne sprayed a superb cross from left to right to find Sterling, the England international cutting inside Nacho Monreal and fired home at the near post past Cech.

De Bruyne almost created a third as he once more cut down the right, crossing for subsitute Jesus Navas to flick on with the ball crashing against the bar and heading wide.

A rare break forward for Arsenal followed soon after as Mesut Ozil dinked a ball to Walcott on the edge of the box, where he attempted to lob Bravo but got his angles just wrong with the ball nestling on the roof of the net. It summed up a second half of suprising insipidness from Arsenal as they threw away a lead and dwindled away three points.

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