It seemed like Manchester City would be unable to capitalise on Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to AFC Bournemouth before John Stones headed in a 95th-minute winner in their 2-1 victory against Wolves.
Stones shared Manchester City’s focus on set-pieces against Wolves in preparation for Sunday’s contest.
Pep Guardiola praised Phil Foden’s assist against Wolves — describing his delivery for the corner and Stones’ header as “magnificent” in the aftermath of the clash.
Arsenal, however could not dig deep to beat Bournemouth after William Saliba was sent off in the 30th minute for denying Evanilson off a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert scored in the second half to pile on the misery on Mikel Arteta’s side.
As Arsenal’s unbeaten start to the season ended against Andoni Iraola’s side, Manchester City’s continued on the other hand.
Jack Grealish says Man City are unbothered about Arsenal result despite Bournemouth loss
City are now sitting three points above the Gunners, who host Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola’s men, however face Southampton at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
As quoted by The Mirror, Jack Grealish revealed that Manchester City are not looking at Arsenal’s results after their defeat to Bournemouth.
Grealish said: “Honestly, we don’t think about them. Listen, if it was later in the season, maybe it could be seen as a big weekend.”
“But it’s October. We still know it’s just not Arsenal. There’s Liverpool and Chelsea. All top teams. All we want to do is focus on ourselves and to come to these away games and score at the last minute, there’s no better feeling.”
At the same stage of last season, Manchester City had 18 points, winning six and losing two out of their first eight games.
Arsenal, on the other hand won six while drawing too, with 20 points to their name.
This season, the Premier League winners have 20 points while the London-based side have 17.
Manuel Akanji has already promised Man City will beat Arsenal to the Premier League title
Perhaps Grealish’s insistence on not taking a peek at how Arteta’s side are faring is due to his confidence in his City team.
After all, Manuel Akanji backed Manchester City to beat Arsenal to the Premier League title after both sides drew 2-2 in September.
“I don’t think there are many better than them at it [the dark arts]. But in the end, we always won the title and I don’t think it’s going to be different this year.”
“Like I said, it’s still early in the season, I think again, we’re going to win the league again and we don’t focus too much on Arsenal. Obviously, the focus today was on them because we played against them but now we don’t play them for half a year, so still focusing ourselves on our games, and then we will see.”
Whether Akanji’s promise rings true remains to be seen but Grealish’s points stands as eight games in, the title cannot be decided.
As a result, the Manchester City players would be solely focusing on themselves rather than their title rivals such as not just Arsenal but Liverpool as well.
Only when the business end of the season is in session will such results become a bigger topic of conversation within dressing rooms, as Grealish stated.
