By Pep Guardiola’s own admission, the Premier League title race is run.
“We’re still there, knowing that if we drop points it will be over,” he said before the trip to West Ham, an opponent against whom Manchester City had won each of their previous seven Premier League games, scoring at least three goals in all of the last six.
The visitors could have played for an indeterminate but absurd amount of time at the London Stadium and not improved on the fortunate, mis-hit Bernardo Silva cross which breached Mads Hermansen’s net.
And in conceding from the only shot West Ham had – from the Hammers’ one corner of the game – Manchester City helpfully exposed the deficiencies which will prevent them from catching Arsenal.
Manchester City simply do not have a game-changing 16-year-old on the bench and that does feel like a significant oversight.
Guardiola is quickly discovering who he can rely on in these crunch moments – and the list is considerably shorter than Arteta’s at Arsenal. It will include Rayan Cherki, Manchester City’s best player despite only playing half an hour, and probably Silva and Rodri too, even though they hardly stepped up here. But beyond that, the dependable options are worryingly limited.
And these 90 minutes underlined how Guardiola can often be let down even by two of his ostensible lieutenants in this transitional era of Manchester City uncertainty.
“I have an incredible striker and keeper,” the manager said earlier this season, following a 1-0 win over Brentford in which Erling Haaland scored and Gianluigi Donnarumma excelled. But against West Ham the former once again faded while the latter flapped.
The 6ft 5ins Donnarumma’s curious aerial fallibility was punished almost entirely inevitably by forgettable Arsenal alumnus Konstantinos Mavropanos, who helped shackle a version of Haaland which doesn’t particularly need restraining.
Since his two goals and an assist in the 3-0 win over West Ham at the Etihad in December, Haaland has scored four – two penalties – and assisted three in 18 appearances; he should be dropped.
There are significant questions around the service the Norwegian is receiving. Cherki immediately played in Haaland for his only shot on target from four efforts with his first touch of the game after coming on for Omar Marmoush, but otherwise this is a thoroughbred feeding off what barely resemble scraps.
Jeremy Doku’s late cutback deflecting up and into Haaland’s testicles to render the striker obsolete for a minute, before he returned to his feet to end up sprawled on the ground again after losing a header to Jean-Clair Todibo, felt like an appropriate summary of his evening.
It is a little unfair to single out Haaland, even if his stature, wage and presence almost demands it in these moments. Marmoush also did nothing and Antoine Semenyo’s normally sure-fire shooting was painfully out of kilter too.
West Ham were also excellent and deserve utmost credit. Their forwards were tireless but Hermansen, Todibo and Mavropanos in particular were totemic in earning a point which lifts them outside of the relegation zone for the first time since November.
But this was naturally framed more as a Manchester City failure, especially in light of Arsenal’s win and Guardiola’s pre-match comments.
“It’s not over…because we didn’t lose,” said a hilariously unconvincing Guardiola after the game when reminded of his own words. Manchester City certainly looked as beaten as he sounded.
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