City back in business

Written off at times during an unusually erratic season, resurgent Manchester City delivered a resounding statement as they moved to the top of the Premier League with a 3-1 victory at title rivals Arsenal on Wednesday.

As City's players celebrated in front of their travelling fans in one corner of the Emirates Stadium at the final whistle, Pep Guardiola's face was wreathed in smiles, and perhaps tinged with a little relief.

Kevin De Bruyne had given City the lead and even Bukayo Saka's controversial penalty equaliser wasn't enough to shake the champions' equilibrium once they rode Arsenal's first half storm on a rainy night in north London.

Having trailed Arsenal by eight points just a month ago, City are now firmly in contention to retain the title.

Arsenal might have a game in hand but it was City who finished a frenetic encounter with all the momentum in the title race.

Defeats at Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham, as well as a home loss to Brentford and a surprise League Cup exit at Southampton, had given the impression that all was not well in the City camp.

Even Erling Haaland's barrage of goals came with the caveat that the Norway striker's style of play might not be best suited to Guardiola's philosophy.

But as the critics sharpened their knives, Guardiola saw signs in training ahead of their seismic showdown at Arsenal that his squad were about to make their point to the doubters.

Guardiola admitted his tactics against Arsenal -- which included starting midfielder Bernardo Silva at left-back -- had to be altered at half-time but it was an attitude change among his players that was just as important.

"In the first half, they were much better than us. My tactics were horrible. Second half, we were much, much better," Guardiola added.

To rub salt on the wounds of Arsenal, who seem to have lost the momentum that could extend their 19-year wait for the title further, Grealish said: "If I'm being honest I thought Arsenal were the better team, but to win titles you've got to come to places like this and win even when you are not at your best."

Haaland urged City to now go all the way and win the title.

"I'm so happy," Haaland told Amazon Prime. "We needed this one and now we need to start going on a run because that's what Man City do."

Even though they are sitting pretty at the top, Guardiola refused to label City as title favourites.

"We won against Arsenal at the Emirates. They have one game in hand so I consider they are still top of the league. There are still so many games to play, the Champions League is coming as well," he said.

"If we had come here eight or nine points behind and lost it would have been almost over. But we had a chance to be close and we took it.

"If you want the crown, fight for it. We still want it."

Meanwhile, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was left ruing the mistakes that he believed decided the fate of the crucial tie.

De Bruyne's opener came from an awful Takehiro Tomiyasu back-pass, while Gabriel Magalhaes was robbed of possession high up the pitch before City broke to restore their lead through Grealish in the second half after Bukayo Saka had equalised from the penalty spot.

"It's exceptionally difficult to play at the level they require you to play to have a chance to win. I thought in many moments we did and we had them, but if you give three goals the way we did and don't put away the big chances we had, then the margin for error is almost zero. It's a shame because we really had them," Arteta said.