How Arsenal’s controlled emotion beat Manchester City – and proved they have grown

The clock was on 85 minutes when the ball went out of play next to Mikel Arteta. As he prepared to supervise the throw-in, he took a moment to turn to the supporters behind him and whirl his arms, exhorting more from them. Come on. Energy. Now is the time.

The crowd responded with a visceral roar. 

With their next attack, Gabriel Martinelli’s drive glanced off Nathan Ake’s face and in. In that moment of gasping, giddy exhilaration, everybody understood the deeper meaning as Arsenal set themselves up to conquer Manchester City at last. Such a long, long time coming. 

This was a performance in which Arsenal grew up. A team that has been criticised for being too emotional, for not mastering pressure situations, for tripping themselves up with unforced errors, constructed this victory on a base of conservative, considered control. Of course there was emotion — plenty of it, by the end — but it was controlled emotion. There is a significant difference. 

Arsenal’s players made sure to bide their time. They had to maintain extreme focus and confidence, and then, from there, choose their moments to move up a gear, sometimes even frustrating the crowd’s urges for them to be more adventurous. Such an approach was understandable. They have been schooled by City so often, so maintaining collective discipline was a key principle.

In that regard, there were immense contributions from William Saliba, Gabriel and Declan Rice — three totems who ensured it was a fruitless afternoon for Erling Haaland (individual xG: 0.00). It needed all of them to be top-class.

It felt so different to the way Haaland tormented Arsenal when Rob Holding was filling in last season and there was no Saliba and, of course, no Rice yet. 

Arteta’s men were on top of their game technically, tactically and psychologically — as they had to be. It was a far cry from last season’s chorus on the subject of Arsenal being an emotional — or more pertinently, over-emotional — team. 

As Arsenal great and now TV analyst Thierry Henry put it at the time, “You can’t be too emotional about it. You can feel the emotion coming, but don’t be emotional. You can feel it — but don’t become it.”

That’s fascinating, because expecting players in the heat of the moment to have the self-awareness to pump the brakes at a certain point, particularly against the toughest opponents, is tremendously difficult.

It also recognises that a certain amount of emotion is needed.

Sport is not robotic. It is unpredictable, its moods within the confines of one match are changeable and capricious. It relies on so many intangibles — adrenaline, concentration, resilience, self-belief, expression, control, spontaneity. How the hell, in real-time, does an individual keep track of all those things? 

Besides, excessive emotion is not always a bad thing. Just last week in the Champions League, Newcastle’s mania and adrenaline-spiking game were huge factors in that memorable win over Paris Saint-Germain. Arsenal themselves felt it at hyped-up Lens the previous evening. Liverpool’s Kloppist emotion has been central to their era of high competitiveness. Tottenham are riding the crest of an Ange-shaped wave of new possibility. 

Emotion can be incredible fuel. But it can also catch fire and burn the good things to a cinder. Overall, against City, Arsenal found the sweet spot of controlled emotion. After a sketchy opening 10 minutes, they got much closer to it than normal in games of this magnitude.

“They (City) are constantly asking questions and provoking you and the crowd want you to go and go and go,” Arteta said. “With what they do, then we don’t go and the crowd react. We have to manage that. Emotionally, it’s not easy to chase 15 or 20 passes, but you need to be able to do that. Then you need to have the courage to play, because with this team, you can’t just give the ball to them every single time. The players were excellent. 

“We beat the best team in the world. We did it in a great way because there were moments when we had to suffer and moments when we showed real desire, determination and belief to beat them.” 

Across the pitch, Arsenal wanted to stick to the plan.

David Raya took some stick for taking an interminable amount of time (and risks) over his kicks but Arteta was delighted as it was what he wanted — to get set before playing the ball out. Martin Odegaard led the press with exceptional commitment. Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah tried to harass City whenever possible. 

The substitutions — not always Arsenal’s strong point — worked to perfection. The four second-half replacements all played a part in the goal: Thomas Partey’s lofted ball, Takehiro Tomiyasu making a centre-forward’s run, Kai Havertz’s hold-up and lay-off, and Martinelli’s strike. 

It was pleasing for Arsenal they could achieve a memorable win without Bukayo Saka, and they will hope he can be fully fit when the Premier League resumes away to Chelsea on October 21. 

On the occasions Arsenal have dropped points this season, they have been downhearted, such is the pressure that they feel about trying to keep pace with Pep Guardiola’s standard-bearers. They have felt a Manchester City complex. Much as they want to concentrate on themselves, keeping up with the perennial champions has been in their thoughts. It’s human nature.

Now they have a positive experience to help them to feel differently about these particular opponents. 

We learned something about Arsenal in this match. They also learned that they can pull off top results when they can balance out their desperate desire to do well with finely tuned concentration and commitment. 

A psychological barrier lifted?

“It was something we needed to go through,” Arteta said. “To beat them, we have to lose against them — probably the way we lost at the Etihad (4-1 in April). The team showed a real maturity today, that comes from experiences. Sometimes you need that to become a better team.”

(Top photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)