Erling Haaland can finally give Man City manager Pep Guardiola his Arsenal opportunity

Manchester City dug in to beat Arsenal in the FA Cup last January, and then finished more clinically than them to beat them at the Emirates a month later.

Those two were close contests that could have gone either way, with Pep Guardiola and his players relieved to come away from north London still in the title race. However, when the teams met for a third and final time in April at the Etihad the contest was over before it had even begun.

A City side in supreme form crushed Arsenal's game plan in the opening minutes, with John Stones ignoring heavy pressure to knock a ball up to the halfway line where Erling Haaland found Kevin De Bruyne who burst onto the ball and fired past Aaron Ramsdale. It didn't need Haaland to take his headband out at the end of the game and add a fourth goal for everyone to be in little doubt that City would be champions.

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City's remarkable run in the second half of last season was a case of everything coming together at once, as their best players found their best form to put more inspired concepts from the best manager into practice. Along with Bayern and Real Madrid, Arsenal at home went down as one of the most convincing performances of the whole campaign.

It is really boring to say that City have struggled to hit the heights this year without their best players and there have of course been other factors involved. However, in two cameo appearances off the bench De Bruyne has shown what an impact a world-class player can make; sometimes the most obvious answer is the actual answer.

Two more superstars are on the way back, with