All or nothing ?

CHENNAI: It has almost been a decade since the Premier League has seen such a thrilling climax. Two teams – Arsenal and Manchester City – are chasing the ultimate high, and the story will conclude at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Arsenal are currently on 70 points from 32 games, with the hosts City on 64 points from 31 games. Purely from a form guide, and numbers, you would assume that the Gunners are the favourites, but it is rarely the case when it comes to these two sides.

Pep Guardiola is no normal manager; he is, in fact, one of those super managers who has changed football’s outlook. Up against him is his protege, Mikel Arteta. Arteta became the architect for the power-packed Gunners, and he has brought them back to the arena, packed with pennants.

Arteta and Guardiola, however, are not the same sides of the coin but two very holistically different sides of it one likes to keep pushing forward and the other likes his defenders guarding the fort. In a day and age where flashy football has become the trend, and in some cases, the norm, Arteta has kept his mantra utterly simple: ‘Good defence and timely goals will always bring good results’.

But there is also this trend about Arsenal, they start strong before they taper off. A few weeks ago, Arteta’s men were alive in all competitions, and perhaps were outright favourites to win a few too, including the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, before they saw their silverware hopes vanish.

If it was Southampton who brought their downfall in the FA Cup, it was Guardiola’s men who tore the defense apart in the EFL Cup final.

Put into context, the clash against City on Sunday becomes all the more important, not just for Arsenal’s trophy cabinet but for the identity that Arteta has built all these years. Arsenal are still unbeaten in the Champions League, and they still are the favourites to win the Premier League for the first time in over two decades, but that’s like praising a buffet even before it has been cooked.

The Gunners don’t have an Erling Haaland, they don’t have someone who can run defence ragged like Antoine Semenyo but they have an underlying belief and unity that has been undeterred.

That belief stems from their water-tight defence, which has only conceded 24 goals the lowest for any team in the Premier League, and 0.72 goals per 90 minutes the fewest in Europe’s top five leagues.

The duo of William Saliba and Gabriel at the back have certainly built up a tidy fort, which has prevented a lot of fearful attacks. Combine that with the two deep-lying midfielders in Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi, and Arsenal have a solid back six, which can hold attacks for weeks.

On the counterattack, they always have the brilliance of Rice, Eberechi Eze and Kai Havertz, with their big signing, Viktor Gyokeres, ready to pounce upon the opportunities from the bench. What sets Arsenal apart from most of the European giants is how they handle corners: they swarm the opposition box and create opportunities out of nowhere, and it can cause a few worries to City, who has always been vulnerable to such attacks.

If there’s one thing Arteta has identified over the years, unlike other managers, it is how to get the best out of his team against City, with an unbeaten record over the past five Premier League clashes between the two sides. The underlying narrative, however, remains the same: if Arsenal win, they can rewrite history, but if they end up losing, it will be a meme-fest.