Man City have no regrets about Arsenal poaching another gamechanger in behind scenes title battle

It's funny that Pep Guardiola doesn't get asked about Gabriel Jesus or Oleksandr Zinchenko any more.

Last season it was frequently brought up what a mistake it was for Manchester City to sell both to an Arsenal side who had gone on to eclipse them at the top of the Premier League. What good was the £75m brought in for those two players who wanted to leave because they didn't have a big enough role at the Etihad, if selling them shifted the balance of power to North London?

As it turned out, City won the Premier League. And the FA Cup. And the Champions League. Zinchenko and Jesus had terrific careers at City and earned their moves, but the nature of the system at City means the club rolls on regardless of departures; it was as true for Jesus and Zinchenko as it was for Mikel Arteta back in 2020.

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So it was for Declan Rice in summer - the latest transformational signing at Arsenal - and is for Arsenal's secret weapon in the title race in Nicolas Jover. Jover was briefly in the news after City played at the Emirates this season when Kyle Walker fumed at the coach wanting to shake hands after a victory when he had refused earlier in the year after defeat, but is gaining more headlines now for his work as a set-piece specialist.

City had taken Jover from Brentford - one of the most innovative and best exponents of set-pieces in the league - in 2019 and he had helped start to turn a major weakness for Guardiola into a big strength. In the three seasons before he joined, the Blues averaged a net score on set-pieces (goals scored minus goals conceded) of