It was satirical, when Erling Haaland shouted at Mikel Arteta’s face that “be humble”, it was very fast after that, Man City was no longer in the position to teach life like that.
All were good in Man City’s universe in the first 20 minutes at home against Arsenal in September last year. Erling Haaland took City to take the lead with the 100th goal for the champion’s club and the defending champion seemed to be on the rise to defeat the opponent and start the campaign with the fifth consecutive victory in the tournament.
By the end of that afternoon, Man City had lost their advantages, lost their most influential players, Rodri because of knee injury and struggled with 10 people right before Haaland told coach Mikel Arteta that “Be modest” after the tense draw.
John Stones saved a point for Man City in the 90+8 minute to ensure that Arsenal’s day ended incomplete, but that match was surprisingly a negative milestone for City and Haaland.
Man City struggled for a few weeks later without Rodri, when Hoa Newcastle and defeated Fulham, Wolves and Southampton. But then a series of victories in 9 Premier League matches, blowing their season.
Man City’s decline is largely due to the loss of defensive stability. In 19 matches since the draw with Arsenal, they conceded 27 goals. They had less than a goal in just 4 matches, when their opponents were Wolves, Southampton, Everton and Ipswich Town.
Unable to hold Rodri’s regular ball and the ability to extinguish counterattacks, Man City is too easily pierced. Summer consecutive recruitment of inefficient midfielder have returned to haunting them, with too many players on the other side of the slope sloping short breath when chasing the ball.
Pep Guardiola also lost its most reliable insurance in the defense, with Kyle Walker just his own shadow and Ruben Dias, Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji each with their own problems.
Man City’s collapse coincides with an unusually dry match of Haaland. No one denies Haaland as an excellent striker, but it is not necessarily a type of talent that can turn lead into gold with personal shine moments. He operates in a “floating floor” different from most other strikers, but like most people, he also depends on the supply below.
Although it can be convenient to separate attacks and defense for analysis purposes, Guardiola will not recognize that way. For him, the way his team attacks affects the way they defend and vice versa. When Man City is accurate in controlling the ball, they move rhythmically with many combinations and have better positions to counterattack and maintain pressure, which means more opportunities for Haaland.
Lack of accuracy or decision with the ball means that the opponent can escape when the city is not in the standard shape, with Haaland must leave the goal, leading to long -term running to recover the ball.
Until and including the first leg of Man City against Arsenal, Haaland on average made 5.2 shots per game and 8.2 touches in the penalty area of the opponent. Since then, he has only had an average of 3.8 shots per game and 6.9 times touching the ball.
Haaland has scored 10 goals in the Premier League from the first 26 shots on its first target this season, the extraordinary conversion rate is more than 40%. There are no goals of them within 6 meters.
Since the match against Arsenal, Haaland has scored 8 goals from 65 shots, the conversion rate is 12.7%, equivalent to the average of the Premier League. On September 1, 2024, the average Haaland scored a goal every 80 minutes in his Premier League career. In 19 matches since Arsenal, he has scored an average goal after every 186.3 minutes.