LONDON: Eight years without beating an opponent is a long time in competitive football, as is 12 defeats in a row to the same rivals.

For Arsenal fans, ending that long barren run against Manchester City was worth the wait as Gabriel Martinelli fired a last-gasp winner to earn the Gunners a 1-0 win over the champions on Sunday and send the Emirates Stadium into delirium.

Given the way Arsenal fell away in the Premier League title race last season, they needed a strong start to the new campaign to send a message to dominant City they can compete again.

Arsenal are yet to lose a Premier League game this season, last going on a longer unbeaten run to start a campaign in 2007-08 that is certainly how to make a statement of intent.

Arsenal had already beaten City on penalties in the Community Shield at Wembley in August, a success they celebrated with almost as much vigour as Sunday’s.

But this was a far more important result, coming not in a glorified friendly but in the red-hot atmosphere of a crucial clash between the champions and their closest rivals last season.

And coach Mikel Arteta is convinced it could be a defining moment in their development.

“It’s a great feeling. You could sense it. It’s been so many years without beating them, but now we have beaten the best team in the world without a question of doubt,” he said.

“We have done it in a great way because there were moments we had to suffer. It sends a message to our team to keep believing in what they are doing. I don’t know if it was a barrier, but it was something we needed to go through.”

Second-placed Arsenal head into the international break two points above third-placed City, with leaders Tottenham Hotspur above their north London rivals on goals scored.

City have suddenly dipped after winning their first six league games this term and although their second successive league defeat the first time they have suffered that indignity since December 2018 won’t necessarily be fatal to their bid for a fourth successive title, Arsenal exposed a few chinks in the treble winners’ armour, not least the lack of contribution from Erling Haaland.

Haaland started the season with a flurry of seven goals in five league games, but since then the striker has scored just once in his last five appearances in all competitions, including three in a row without a goal.

He barely had a significant touch in the Arsenal penalty area as Gunners centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel subdued him in a manner that might give Pep Guardiola a few sleepless nights as he ponders City’s slump during the international break.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2023