Thomas Partey’s Arsenal suffers title blow after damaging defeat to Manchester City

Thomas Partey played full throttle as Arsenal were battered 4-1 in the Premier League’s top-of-the-table clash against Manchester City.

The Gunners were simply no match for Pep Guardiola’s side, who dominated the game from start to finish on Wednesday evening.

A brace from Kevin De Bruyne was added to by goals from John Stones and Erling Haaland as the hosts cruised to victory at the Etihad Stadium.

De Bruyne opened the scoring after just seven minutes when he latched on to a great through ball from Haaland before smashing the ball past Aaron Ramsdale at his near post.

Manchester City doubled their lead right before halftime when Stones headed De Bruyne’s free-kick into the net, with the goal confirmed following VAR review after initially being ruled out for offside.

Arsenal got better after the half-time break and began to enjoy a bit of possession but any hope of a comeback was ended in the 54th minute when De Bruyne made it 3-0 after again combining with Haaland.

Rob Holding pulled one back for Mike Arteta’s side late in the game but there was still time for Haaland to go from provider to scorer as Manchester City wrapped up a comfortable win over their rivals.

Arsenal may have gone into the game with a five-point lead, but they now lead Guardiola’s side by just two points.

Also, the Cityzens have two games in hand which, if they win, they’ll move four points clear of the Gunners.

Meanwhile, Arteta admitted Manchester City were the better team and said his side could’ve lost the game by a bigger margin.

“The analysis is clear: the better team won the game,” the Arsenal boss said in his post-match press conference.

“They were probably at their best, especially in the first half, and we were nowhere near our level.

“When that happens, the gap becomes too big and in the first 30 minutes we didn’t do all the basic things that you have to do against an exceptional team, in terms of competing, winning duels and understanding what the game requires. We got punished and we could have been punished even more,” he added.

Arsenal’s next Premier League game is against Chelsea.

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