There is a service tunnel hidden inside the Etihad Stadium. All the away teams travel down to enter, their coach driving underground, passing under the home supporters who greet the arrival of Manchester City on their way through.
About 100 yards ahead, towards Ashton New Road, the two Arsenal buses decided to turn around. Then they slowly reversed all the way in, a tentacled metaphor when it comes to Wednesday night.
For their title challenge, for their occasional refusal to follow instructions at Mikel Arteta’s preferred line of defense.
Arsenal pulled out from the start, but more accurately, were forced there by City, whose form continues to reach a different peak with each passing week, with each extension of this unbeaten run. Seventeen and counting.
“Maybe they weren’t at their best level because we were really good,” said Pep Guardiola and he was right. Stuart Pearce was busy calling it the best performance he’s ever seen on the radio.
Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland teamed up for devastating effect as Manchester City beat Arsenal 4-1 to take control of the Premier League title race
Haaland put the icing on the cake after letting his hair down to give Man City’s fourth
Pep Guardiola enjoyed a victory that puts the title race in City’s hands ahead of the final stretch
The result moved City to within two points of league leaders Arsenal, but they still have two games to go
The mechanics of the firing, one laying down a different marker – if another was needed – were clearly worked on during the one full pre-training session.
Long knocking is far too rudimentary an explanation – overstretched midfield and man marking were the key ingredients – but it still went to Erling Haaland and there Kevin De Bruyne feasted on the second ball.
It was a pattern. Kyle Walker’s first throw was long to Haaland and no one was within 20 yards of him. Guardiola rolled out Ruben Dias early on for snapping a goalless ball straight to Gabriel halfway through.
But vertical was the plan, the opening goal coming from a John Stones punt to Haaland. When direct, City devastated. The same happened against Bayern Munich.
It seemed clear for a while that City are better against better opponents – better teams don’t defend so deeply, to begin with – but that has crystallized by beating the Bundesliga champions and then their biggest threat in the league, who were on course for a 100-point season in one stage, for three and four in the space of two weeks.
Going man-to-man, Dias follows Martin Odegaard into midfield and knows someone will set the best example, giving them a chance to express physical dominance.
City are no longer a David Silvas team and they have taken pride in strength to complement the beauty.
The team is now incredibly powerful, evidenced by Manuel Akanji putting Bukayo Saka out of play in an unfamiliar left-back role on his best night since signing for £16 million.
It was a night of pure misery for Arsenal at the Etihad as they backed off under pressure
Arsenal fans feel their title shot has run out as City are on the verge of overtaking them
Haaland bullied Arsenal’s central defenders Rob Holding (pictured) and Gabriel all night
Haaland has a shot on target after stealing space from Gabriel as City dominated at the Etihad
The mix of power and class is epitomized by Haaland and De Bruyne, the double act who in full flight look like they’re somehow cheating. De Bruyne got off with a minus, but City expect him to be fine for Fulham on Sunday and the Belgian has looked energetic again lately.
It wasn’t until early March that Guardiola demanded that De Bruyne, 32, go back to perfecting the ‘simple stuff’.
There were times this season where he forced the issue, trying too hard to play the Hollywood ball, but now this intuitive relationship with Haaland sees him looking at his own assist record, shared with Thierry Henry. De Bruyne is now four times behind twenty, with seven games to go.
Since Guardiola’s comments, he has 11 goals in eight games.
De Bruyne is often said to take his game to the next level when angry and the City manager knew exactly what he was doing when he lit the fuse.
“Kevin is a master of the assist, with or without Erling,” said Guardiola. ‘Erling always scores goals, with or without Kevin. But together, when teams press that high and with those balls with space behind them, they’re so dangerous. If we can find Kevin and he can run, he’s unstoppable.”
De Bruyne beats Aaron Ramsdale with a perfectly placed low shot to open the scoring