Arsenal 5-1 Man City: Gunners stamp their authority with statement win over champions

Ciaran McCarthy
Thomas Partey, Declan Rice, Arsenal, February 2025
Thomas Partey and Declan Rice celebrate a goal for Arsenal

Arsenal defeated Manchester City in statement fashion to stamp their authority on the league and cut the gap to leaders Liverpool back to six points.

The Gunners’ rampant second-half performance gave showed City they will no longer fold to their pressure. Mikel Arteta’s side lumped in four goals with no response to extend the scoreline to 5-1.

In the first half, Arsenal had shot out of the blocks, two men pressuring Manuel Akanji to steal the ball, which was slotted across to Martin Odegaard for a tap in.

They were on top going into half time, and though Erling Haaland snapped back from nowhere with a rising header to level the scores in the 55th minute, honours were even for no more than a minute, when City gave up possession and a deflected Thomas Partey shot found the back of the net.

Myles Lewis-Skelly then went on a mazy run from left-back six minutes later, jinked inside onto his weak foot and bagged his first senior goal, taking the chance as if he were entirely used to bursting up the field and netting against the biggest side in the country – celebrating like it, too.

Kai Havertz made up for a bad first-half miss with around 15 minutes remaining, cutting back in the box and leathering across goal past Stefan Ortega, before Ethan Nwaneri netted a curling stunner to highlight his own maturity just before the final whistle.

After the match, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “It is a great day for us, especially with the necessity that we had to win the game. The manner that we have done it I am really pleased.

“We had to suffer and in moments we needed a bit of luck, and we had it. They hold you very deep and in those moments you have to suffer and as I said, there were moments that we were lucky. Overall, we scored some beautiful goals and the team showed a high competitive level.”

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