Man City keep finding new ways to win as they move 11 points clear in the title race

Maybe Rodri summed it up best. “You saw our champions personality,” he told BT Sport after the game, one which Manchester City again won without being at their best.

The Blues beat Arsenal 2-1 in the maiden Premier League game of 2022, their 11th in a row to move them 11 points clear at the division’s summit.

It’s a run that indicates just how domineering City have been in recent months, and the signs are ominous for anyone hoping to stop them claiming a sixth Premier League crown come May.

This winter period could prove so pivotal if they are to again finish top, but this was the fourth game in a row where Pep Guardiola’s men have shown some flaws, yet still powered through to take all three points.

There was the 4-0 win at Newcastle United in mid-December, where the scoreline certainly flattered a City side who were far off the pace in the first period, but soaked up enough pressure and grabbed decisive strikes at the other end to come away with three points.

Then it was 6-3 battering of Leicester City - a peculiar game in which the champions were so overwhelmingly dominant in the opening 20 minutes, but allowed the opposition back into proceedings, before again quickly taking the game back out of sight. Leicester wanted to attack, so did City - there was only ever going to be one outcome.

Away to Brentford a few days later couldn’t have been more different, as Phil Foden netted after 15 minutes and then not a lot else happened. It was a game the Bees still stood a chance in right up until the latter stages, but such was City’s dominance on the flow of events, there was never any real hope of a comeback. The 77% possession stats attested to that.

Finally, Arsenal. It was a fixture, unlike the others, where Guardiola’s men were second best, overrun in midfield, harried in possession and lost several individual battles, but the outcome remains the same.

Rodri’s late strike saw to that. He prodded home in the third minute of injury-time to hand City the win, perhaps the first in that 11-game run hey didn’t really deserve.

Cynics could point to the dubious refereeing decisions to explain why that was the case, and there’s no denying the two big moments went in City’s favour.

The first saw Ederson clip Martin Odegaard in the box, which was most almost certainly a foul, although VAR deemed it not worthy of overturning Stuart Attwell’s on-field decision.

But the same rule wasn’t applied to Granit Xhaka when he felled Bernardo Silva in the box while simultaneously grabbing his shirt. Those at Stockley Park advised the referee to check his pitchside monitor before he inevitably overturned his decision and pointed to the spot.

That moment of madness was only compounded a few minutes later when Gabriel Martinelli hit the post, seconds before another Gabriel received a second yellow card for hauling back a third Gabriel - Jesus - on the halfway line.

After an hour of dominance, suddenly Arsenal found the game slipping away from them - and it really had been dominance.

The Gunners had gone ahead through Bakayo Saka’s strike just after the half-hour mark, rich reward for their pressing and swift attacks. City couldn’t cope with it, as their full-backs floundered with the pace of Saka and Martinelli, while the axis of Thomas Partey and Xhaka overran Rodri in the middle.

It was that which Guardiola resolved following the red card. He introduced Ilkay Gundogan in the 63rd minute, and the midfielder offered City a base from which to build attacks, while Silva was pushed higher up. It worked perfectly, as the 10 men of Arsenal failed to muster sufficient attacks, despite their resolute defending.

A point was the least Mikel Arteta deserved as he tuned in from home due a recent case of Covid-19, and it seemed, as the clock ticked towards the full-time mark, that they would get it. For all City’s intricate passing, it had lacked real penetration, until Kevin De Bruyne arched a brilliant ball into the box.

After a brief melee it fell so invitingly that Rodri couldn’t miss. He tucked it past a devastated Aaron Ramsdale, and with just their second shot on target of the game City managed to nick all the points.

On such things are matches decided, and on such matches can title races be determined.