Man City 1-0 Arsenal: Nathan Ake scores the only goal to knock the Gunners out of the FA Cup

From Pep Guardiola there was a small fist bump at the end, a handshake with his friend and rival Mikel Arteta and then he went through the tunnel. That, in essence, is what satisfaction looks like.

Manchester City will play better than this for the rest of the season. They will have to if they want to win anything. But Guardiola is currently a coach trying to help his team improve. He is trying to help them find the confidence without which nothing remarkable can ever be accomplished.

So that’s why this win was important. Not only because he takes City further in a competition that Guardiola values. Not just because it was against Arsenal, the only team above them in the Premier League. But also because he knows that he can take another step towards greater fluidity, more goals, more effective football.

This was very much a tepid soccer game. Those looking for hints of what may happen when City and Arteta’s Arsenal meet twice in the Premier League, in February and April, will have been disappointed and foolish to expect that in the first place.

A Friday night cup match at the end of a month that has already featured a great deal of football was no preparation for two league games which, by their very definition, will be more intense, more feisty, more, well, important. No, this was never going to be that.

So we didn’t really have much of a football game until City scored on 64 minutes. Then suddenly it was more competitive, faster and more urgent.

Arsenal, encouraged by some substitutions, found a little more than what they have shown us in the League and came strong at the end. But ultimately this was a game resolved by a change made by the team in blue.

Julián Álvarez showed with the colors of Argentina during the World Cup what he is capable of. At City, the presence of Erling Haaland ahead of him in the order makes it more difficult.

But here the young striker was sent off in the 58th minute and a contribution just six minutes later helped turn around a game that was hanging in the balance in the way of his team.

Urgency. It can work wonders for a side, and indeed for a game. This was what Alvarez brought here. Taking possession 30 yards from goal, he decided to do what few had done so far in the game.

He took a chance. After wresting the ball from his feet, he fired a powerful low cross shot into the right post of Arsenal substitute goalkeeper Matt Turner. He immediately cheered the home crowd on and when Jack Grealish picked up the rebound Arsenal were still in trouble.

Grealish did not have his best night overall, but here he showed intelligence and presence of mind to take his time, attract two Arsenal players and then free up possession in the space left behind. The night’s left-back Nathan Ake probably wouldn’t have been Guardiola’s ideal recipient, but the Dutchman showed some composure and sidekicked the ball to the far post, where he slipped into the corner.

A goal against Arsenal will always be a goal against Arsenal, even more so when the London club is top of the league. So City celebrated with some enthusiasm and then proceeded to defend their lead with a similar amount of vigour.

At the beginning of the game, Arteta’s team had been slightly superior. With key attacking weapons like Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard on the bench, there was an opportunity for new signing Leandro Trossard and the Belgian stood out from the start. A cross gave Takehiro Tomiyasu a chance and Stefan Ortega had to save. Then, fifteen minutes later, Trossard beat City full-back Rico Lewis again, and this time it was his own shot that Ortega had to deflect, this time with one hand.

The threat from Arsenal was clear at that stage, but it was not persistent, never really threatening to overwhelm a subdued City side. Later, as they looked for the tie, it was different.

Martinelli and Odegaard launched as Arsenal chased and made the difference.

Arsenal almost found their way back immediately after Ake’s goal. With 7,000 traveling supporters energized by their team’s sudden need, a cross from the left seemed to be pushed by Eddie Nketiah at the far post only for City defender Aymeric Laporte, rather than the injured John Stones, to somehow deflect. the ball from behind. before he could get to the young Arsenal player.

Interventions like that are just as important as the goals, and often more difficult to achieve. Laporte could have easily missed his leg stretch and missed the ball completely. I could have made it his own goal. But he did not. He saved the team from him and set the tone for the last 20 minutes that were by far the most engaging spell of the entire game.

So City advances in a competition Guardiola would like to win yet again, while Arteta and his team have only the Premier League as their real goal. That may not be the worst for them. They will need everything they have to keep City at bay.