<\/p>\n
After 12 successive league defeats at the hands of Pep Guardiola\u2019s men, the Gunners enjoyed a moment of sweet redemption at the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n
With just four minutes left, Martinelli\u2019s shot took a hefty deflection off City defender Nathan Ake, sparking wild celebrations as Arsenal clinched a top-flight success against the treble winners for the first time since December 2015.<\/p>\n
Arsenal had beaten City on penalties in the Community Shield in August, but that victory in the curtain-raiser to the domestic season could not be taken as seriously as this potentially crucial result.<\/p>\n
It lifted unbeaten Arsenal two points above third-placed City into second place, leaving them behind leaders Tottenham on goals scored.<\/p>\n
For the first time since December 2018, City have lost successive league games following their 2-1 defeat at Wolves last weekend.<\/p>\n
Add in a League Cup loss against Newcastle and City have been beaten in three of their last four games.<\/p>\n
It is a rare sign of vulnerability from a team who started their bid for a fourth successive title by winning the first six games of the season.<\/p>\n
Few will expect City to surrender without a fight, but Guardiola has issues to solve as he looks to reinvigorate a squad that may have lost a little hunger after their treble triumph.<\/p>\n
There is no lack of appetite for silverware among Arsenal as they try to erase the bitter taste of blowing an eight-point lead late in the season to finish five points behind City in second place.<\/p>\n
Guardiola said this week that Arsenal \u201care back\u201d as long-term challengers to City\u2019s domestic supremacy thanks to the astute guidance of his former assistant Arteta.<\/p>\n
For once, Guardiola lost the tactical duel with his protege as Arteta\u2019s substitutions proved decisive and gave the title race an early plot twist.<\/p>\n
City nearly took the lead inside five minutes when Josko Gvardiol\u2019s lunging effort was headed off the line by Declan Rice after Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya misjudged a cross.<\/p>\n
With Arsenal failing to clear the danger after that narrow escape, City\u2019s Nathan Ake should scored from close range, but the defender wastefully fired over.<\/p>\n
For the second time in the opening 20 minutes, Raya almost gifted City a goal as he took too long to deal with Gabriel\u2019s back-pass, allowing Julian Alvarez to close the \u2019keeper down and deflect his panicked clearance inches wide.<\/p>\n
Eddie Nketiah tried to ease Arsenal\u2019s stress when he cut inside the City area and curled wide of the far post.<\/p>\n
Frantically waving his arms to the crowd, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard raised the decibel levels before Mateo Kovacic brought the atmosphere to boiling point.<\/p>\n
Crunching through the back of Odegaard\u2019s ankle, Kovacic earned a booking after a VAR check for a potential red card.<\/p>\n
If Arteta felt aggrieved that Kovacic wasn\u2019t sent off for that challenge, the Gunners boss was apoplectic moments later after the Croatian avoided a second yellow card after chopping down Rice.<\/p>\n
Following their tepid first half, Arsenal were the more forceful side after the break.<\/p>\n
Martinelli, a half-time substitute, forced Ederson to save at his near post after sprinting onto Rice\u2019s pass.<\/p>\n
Frustrated by City\u2019s disjointed display, Guardiola sent on John Stones, Jeremy Doku and Matheus Nunes, but the changes failed to produce the desired impact.<\/p>\n
But Arteta countered by introducing Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz in a move that proved a masterstroke.<\/p>\n
City looked content for a point as the half wore on with few chances, but Arsenal kept pressing and finally made the breakthrough in the 86th minute.<\/p>\n
Partey\u2019s long pass reached Havertz and he laid the ball off to Martinelli on the edge of the area, where the Brazilian smashed a fierce strike that took a wicked deflection off Ake as it flashed past the wrong-footed Ederson.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After 12 successive league defeats at the hands of Pep Guardiola\u2019s men, the Gunners enjoyed a moment of sweet redemption at the Emirates Stadium. With just four minutes left, Martinelli\u2019s shot took a hefty deflection off City defender Nathan Ake, sparking wild celebrations as Arsenal clinched a top-flight success against the treble winners for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/082340105e9bcb5.jpg?r=234213","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}