Arsenal vs Manchester City: Kevin De Bruyne's brace sinks embattled Gunners

Premier League champions Manchester City put up an impressive performance on Sunday evening at the Emirates Stadium in London by defeating hosts Arsenal 3-0. The match was pretty much decided by the two goals City scored in the opening 20 minutes of the game. City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne produced a masterclass display to inflict more misery on Arsenal. The defeat meant that Arsenal have now lost their last six home games across competitions. Keep reading as we discuss the match highlights and the player ratings.

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Premier League: Arsenal vs Manchester City

Arsenal had an excellent catch first up after youngster Gabriel Martinelli showed great resilience to evade the City defenders and fire a shot at Ederson. The home team, however, found themselves trailing soon after when Kevin De Bruyne fired home a thunderous strike after a neat cut-back from Gabriel Jesus. Manchester City doubled their lead in the 15th minute when De Bruyne picked out Raheem Sterling with an inch-perfect pass and the latter slipped the ball into the empty net. The second goal meant Pep Guardiola's side were controlling the pace of the game with ease against the hapless Gunners. De Bruyne put the game to bed before the half-time whistle after his low shot from 25 yards out swung past Bernd Leno into the bottom corner. The second half saw Manchester City take a cautious approach as they were seemingly content with just knocking the ball around and starve the Gunners off possession. The game ended with the scoreline reading 3-0 in favour of Manchester City.

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Premier League standings

Manchester City have come within four points of second-placed Leicester City but still trail Liverpool by 14 points. As for Arsenal, their hopes of finishing in the top four are quickly diminishing after they produced another laboured performance at home. They sit on the 9th spot with just 22 points, seven points off fourth-placed Chelsea. The Premier League champions next face Oxford City in a Carabao Cup quarter-final match on Wednesday night (Thursday night IST), while Arsenal will be travelling to Goodison Park next week to face Everton in the Premier League.

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Arsenal vs Manchester City player ratings

Arsenal

Bernd Leno (GK) - 6/10

Ainsley Maitland-Niles - 6/10

Calum Chambers - 5/10

Sokratis Pasasthopoulos - 5/10

Sead Kolasinac - 5.5/10

Matteo Guendouzi - 6/10

Lucas Torreira - 6.5/10

Nicolas Pepe - 6/10

Mesut Ozil - 6/10

Gabriel Martinelli - 6/10

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - 6/10

Substitutes: Bukayo Saka - 6/10, Emile Smith-Rowe - 6/10, Joseph Willock - NA

Manchester City

Ederson Moraes (GK) - 8/10

Benjamin Mendy - 7/10

Fernandinho - 7.5/10

Nicolas Otamendi - 7/10

Kyle Walker - 7.5/10

Phil Foden - 8/10

Rodri - 7/10

Illkay Gundogan - 7.5/10

Raheem Sterling - 8/10

Gabriel Jesus - 7.5/10

Kevin De Bruyne - 9.5/10

Substitutes: Bernardo Silva - 6.5/10, Riyad Mahrez - 6/10, Oleksandr Zinchenko - NA

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