For Arsenal, it felt as if all hope had left the stadium. Mikel Arteta had started with the dial turned towards caution but by the time the board went up to show seven minutes of stoppage time, the manager had torn off the handbrake, sending on attacking substitutes, praying that one of his finishers could come up trumps.
It was attack versus defence, as it had been throughout, but now it was a ridiculously extreme version, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City set up with everybody deep; 5-4-1, desperately holding on to the advantage given to them by Erling Haaland in the ninth minute.
The breakthrough goal seemed to have happened in a different age, Haaland running through to finish for his seventh City goal in six appearances so far this season. Was this really Guardiola, taking off forward-thinking players, including Haaland, and just clinging on?
City looked set to get over the line, the hardest fought of three points coming their way when Arsenal finally made it happen. Arteta’s team looked to have run out of ideas. And then one substitute, Eberechi Eze, saw another replacement, Gabriel Martinelli, begin an all-or-nothing run behind the City back line. And he lobbed the ball towards him.
