Manchester City and Arsenal win and put pressure on 'Lucho' Díaz's Liverpool

Manchester United remains plugged into the bid for the English competition. In the absence of Liverpool facing Sheffield on Thursday to complete the day, the champions only have Arsenal ahead of them, who won their match. It is tied with Liverpool. Everything is still up in the air. Now, on one point.

Three timely goals from Phil Foden, the first on the brink of half-time that his team reached with an advantage, another at the hour mark, when Aston Villa threatened with another draw; and one more later, the sentence, led Manchester to victory

City, winner again in a Premier duel after two draws in a row.

Aston Villa declines, unable to stop the defeat suffered at the Etihad and Phil Foden, the fittest guy in Guardiola's team. Unai Emery's team remains fourth, but is within striking distance of Tottenham, which can take away the Champions League spot.

Manchester City responded to a double obligation, that of winning after two consecutive draws against their direct rivals for the 'Premier' and the need to beat one of the first five classified teams.

On the seventh try he succeeded. At the Etihad, with Pep Guardiola measuring the wear and tear of their references. With De Bruyne and Haaland substitutes due to the stress of playing two games while their rival in the Champions League, Real Madrid, reserves their strength.

After breaking a goalless draw against Arsenal with a historic streak of 57 consecutive games scoring at the Etihad, it didn't take long for him to find reward for his impressive outing. He suffocated Aston Villa, who made serious losses at the beginning of the play, he found in Doku the unbalancing factor on the right side and in Grealish the doses of quality. Haaland's presence on the bench gave the start to Julian Alvarez, hungry for a goal. Misguided in the first act. Already after two minutes he hooked a left-footed shot into the side of the net after Grealish's excellent filtered pass.

City's dominance in the opposing half allowed Rodri to get loose in attack. He warned with a left foot saved by Olsen. And he found the goal above, with his right foot, appearing by surprise after eleven minutes to hook Doku's low pass. Despite the casualties, there was room for Unai Emery's Aston Villa to react.

Revived from a tunnel in Foden's bad area that almost cost City dearly. With a warning canceled due to offside from Duran, after an acrobatic shot to which Ortega responded with a great intervention. Finding spaces in the biggest weak point of Pep Guardiola's team, the withdrawal after loss. Aston Villa surprised with speed, launched a wall John Duran With Rogers, he took advantage of the slowness of Rubén Dias and defined the low cross with quality. Impossible for Ortega.

However, the blow did not decenter City. He turned his game to the Doku zone and deserved the award before the break. Grealish hooked it with a double bounce, but Olsen's flight prevented the goal. Julián Álvarez did not hone in on the shot and it was Foden who, with a foul in which the barrier was opened, allowed his team to go to the locker room in charge. Even with an advantage that could have been greater if Olsen had not hit the header at Julián's pleasure.

Then City unleashed. He tried to recover from the blow and tested Stefan Ortega who came out of the way of a shot from Douglas Luiz at the beginning of the second half and a header from Frenchman Clement Lenglet. Foden broke in to stop the villains' insurrection. First, from the crescent, he shot low, first, a pass from Rodri who made a great play. Later, in the seventieth minute, he sealed t
he match by completing a steal thanks to the pressure and beating Olsen again after receiving the ball from Julián Álvarez.

Arsenal, pointer

Arsenal, with several rotations in the starting eleven, beat modest Luton (2-0) without much effort, this Wednesday in London, to move to the top of the Premier League awaiting the match of the previous leader, Liverpool, on Thursday against Sheffield United.

Coach Mikel Arteta rested Jorginho, Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus at the start, without losing defensive solidity or offensive efficiency, against a recently promoted team that occupies a relegation position.

The 'Gunners' rise to first place with 68 points, one more than Liverpool, who will host the bottom team on Thursday, but are assured of sleeping as leaders this Wednesday no matter what Manchester City does against Aston Villa, still in play.

The London team can look with optimism to their next four crucial games, against Brighton and Aston Villa in the Premier League, and the double duel against Bayern Munich in the round trip of the Champions League quarterfinals. At the Emirates this Wednesday, Arsenal presented an eleven different from Arteta's usual one, due to resting its players, or due to the loss of Bukayo Saka.

One of those who benefited from the rotation was Emile Smith Rowe, in one of his rare inclusions in the starting eleven. The 23-year-old English midfielder, applauded when he was substituted in the 85th minute, was involved in both goals: first by pressing and recovering a ball that Norwegian captain Martin Odegaard (24) would end up sending into the net, and then with a cross towards Nelson who deflected Daiki Hashioka (44) into his own goal.

SPORTS, EFE AND AFP

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