Mikel Arteta suffers unwanted Arsenal first in Man City loss as fatal substitution mistake highlighted

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta suffered an unwanted Gunners first as history repeated itself for the North London giants in Sunday's gut-wrenching 2-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The Premier League leaders came up short in the biggest game of the English top-flight campaign, succumbing to Rayan Cherki's delightful opener and Erling Haaland's sweeping finish at the Etihad Stadium.

Kai Havertz's freak leveller had given the Gunners hope against Pep Guardiola's side, but the individual quality of the hosts proved telling, as Man City closed the gap at the top of the Premier League table to just three points.

The Citizens also still possess a game in hand on Arteta's side, who still boast a marginally superior goal difference but will drop to second place if Guardiola's men overcome Burnley by any scoreline on Wednesday, thanks to City's 65 goals scored compared to Arsenal's 63.

For a month now, the Champions League has been Arsenal's only saving grace, as Sunday's loss saw them suffer four straight domestic defeats for the very first time under Arteta.

Arsenal suffer fourth straight domestic defeat at Man City

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The Premier League leaders are also reeling from a previous top-flight loss to Bournemouth, an FA Cup quarter-final exit to Southampton and last month's EFL Cup final reverse to the Sky Blues.

Arsenal never suffered four consecutive defeats during the short-lived Unai Emery era, and the previous most recent time they lost four in a row domestically came during Arsene Wenger's farewell season in 2017-18.

Coincidentally, that run also featured an EFL Cup final defeat and Premier League loss to Man City, who will be in complete control of the title race if they can take all three points at Turf Moor in midweek.

Arsenal's failure on Sunday marked their seventh defeat in all tournaments this season, four of which have arrived in their last six games, compared to just three in their first 49 matches of the term.

The Gunners have a six-day break before taking on faltering Newcastle United at the Emirates on April 25, four days before they travel to Atletico Madrid for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.

Mikel Arteta made one fatal mistake in Arsenal loss to Man City

© Iconsport / Rene Nijhuis/MB Media

Arsenal fans witnessed flat displays against Sporting Lisbon and Bournemouth at the Emirates, but Arteta's players simply had to kick it up a gear art the home of their title rivals - to their credit, they did that.

The visitors' aggressive press was the key feature of the opening exchanges and led to their equaliser via Donnarumma's horrible howler, but the Italian was otherwise largely comfortable in between the sticks.

Donnarumma's biggest second-half scare came from the instinctive Eberechi Eze effort that struck the inside of the post, shortly before Arteta withdrew the England international - a baffling decision from an outsider's view.

Eze is the player Arsenal fans would associate with being able to conjure up a goal out of nothing - even when his overall influence on the game is not quite there - yet he was taken off with the Gunners chasing the game.

The playmaker's recent injury may have been a factor in Arteta's decision-making, but had he still been on the pitch in the dying embers when Arsenal were in kitchen-sink mode, the outcome could have been different.

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