Arsenal crush Man City to keep pressure on Liverpool

Arsenal delivered a statement of intent in the Premier League title race with a 5-1 hammering of champions Manchester City to close the gap at the top to six points on Sunday.

Captain Martin Ødegaard gave Arsenal the lead in the second minute due to woeful City defending, and although Erling Haaland equalized after the break, the hosts ran out of comfortable winners to extend their unbeaten league sequence to 14.

Haaland's equalizer, his 250th senior career goal, had briefly raised City's hopes, but ultimately, any lingering hopes of winning a fifth successive title surely disappeared.

Arsenal are now 14 games unbeaten in the league and have 50 points from 24 games with leaders Liverpool on 56 from 23.

Manchester City are a distant fourth with 41.

Arsenal have been accused of being overreliant on set-piece goals this season, but on Sunday they played with fluency and flair to rack up their biggest home win of the league season.

"It was a top game, a top performance and with the fans and the atmosphere it can't be better, so very happy," Ødegaard said. "In the end, I think we got what we deserved."

Sloppy City gifted Arsenal the lead when Manuel Akanji was put in trouble by teammate John Stones and was dispossessed before Kai Havertz calmly set up Ødegaard to sweep home from close range despite an attempted block by Stones.

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With City at sixes and sevens, Arsenal thought they had made it 2-0 shortly afterwards when Gabriel Martinelli lifted a shot past Stefan Ortega but was adjudged to be offside.

City were spared further punishment when they again lost the ball playing out from the back, and Havertz, with the goal open, somehow dragged his shot wide.

Haaland touched the ball only six times in the first half but came alive in the 55th minute to head in Savinho's cross.

For a moment, it looked as though Arsenal's earlier misses might haunt them, but 38 seconds after the restart, Phil Foden gave the ball away and Thomas Partey's shot deflected off Stones to leave Ortega with no chance.

"It is difficult. I think all of us don't take losing well," Stones said after the match. "It is hard to put into words straight after a game like that.

"How we played in the last 30 minutes was not acceptable."

With their tails up, Arsenal looked to rub City's noses in the dirt, and Myles Lewis-Skelly took a pass from Declan Rice and curled a shot beyond Ortega for his first senior goal. Havertz then made up for his earlier miss with a clincal finish from a counter-attack.

The party was already in full swing when substitute Ethan Nwaneri left Ortega for dead with a sublime finish.

Arsenal will now try to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit in Wednesday's League Cup semifinal at Newcastle United while City will have to dust themselves down as a seismic Champions League playoff against Real Madrid looms.