The win means Liverpool can't win the league on Sunday at home to rivals Everton, but they will win it if they beat Crystal Palace next Wednesday.
This was the first Premier League match in over 3 months, with England's top football competition being the third of the top five leagues to return. There were signs that the long hiatus had taken its toll when Xhaka was stretchered off early on before Mari was injured just over 10 minutes later.
Mari's replacement was his compatriot Luiz, who has been linked with a move to his ex-side Benfica when his current Arsenal deal expires this summer. With just over 30 minutes played, Leno made a string of fine saves for the Gunners, saving Sterling's effort before he made a lovely reflex save from Silva's snapshot. Mahrez was next to try his luck but again the German was equal to it. Sterling almost made it 1-0 when he tried to chip the Arsenal keeper instead of side-footing it past him. 9th place Arsenal would have been chuffed to go in at the break level, but David Luiz had other plans.
The ball was played over the top, it came to Luiz who made a dog's dinner of the clearance, it hit off his thigh and came to Sterling who fired it past Leno. There was nothing the ex-Bayer Leverkusen player could do about that one.
5 minutes after the break, Luiz was again to blame. Mahrez was through on goal and the experienced defender pulled him down in the box. A clear penalty and a red card for the Brazilian's troubles. De Bruyne was tasked with converting the penalty and made no mistake, sending Leno the wrong way.
The hosts made use of the advantage to bring on Foden and Bernardo Silva. Not bad when you can afford to bring players of that caliber of the bench. Shots from De Bruyne and Gundogan were saved by Leno who was undoubtedly the Gunners' man of the match.
The game was halted for 11 minutes when City's young Spanish CB, Erik Garcia, suffered a horror injury when he and Ederson ran into reach other. Despite originally not moving, the City player then moved his legs showing signs that he was at least conscious. He was then stretchered off and is hopefully not out for a long time.
The 11 minutes meant there was time for City to grab another and they did just that when Aguero and Sterling had some lovely link-up play, the Argentine's shot was saved on to the post and the rebound fell to Foden who scored to inflict Arsenal's second 3-0 defeat to City this season. City should be home and dry with regards to Champions League qualification (if their appeal is successful), while the Gunners face a battle to make the Europa League.
June 17, 2020