City's Fifth Straight Win Has Created a Sense of Deja Vu for Arsenal

LONDON, SUNDAY – From London, Manchester City has sent a signal to the current league leaders, Arsenal, that they are the main contenders for the English Premier League title this season. Despite experiencing some inconsistency, "The Citizens" have achieved the longest winning streak of the season at the home of Crystal Palace, Selhurst Park, thanks to the combination of Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.

Arsenal's headquarters at the Emirates Stadium is located approximately 17 kilometers from Selhurst Park. The roar of the match between Palace and City on Sunday (14/12/2025) will certainly overshadow London, the capital of England.

There is hope for Arsenal that their city rivals, Palace, can contain City. This is similar to the success of "The Eagles" in defeating City in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, London, in May 2025.

However, Arsenal's hopes were dashed before halftime. Erling Haaland scored his 16th goal in the English Premier League for the 2025-2026 season in the 41st minute. That goal reduced the point gap between City and Arsenal to two points.

In the second half, Foden extended his team's lead in the 69th minute. Haaland then secured three points for "The Citizens" with the third goal through a penalty kick one minute before the end of regular time. City held a decisive 3-0 advantage over the defending FA Cup champions.

As the busy Christmas and New Year celebrations approach in the English League, City has found their best form of play. City has collected five consecutive victories since the end of November across all competitions.

They navigated through four English Premier League matches by defeating Leeds United, Fulham, Sunderland, and Palace. Not to be overlooked, Real Madrid was also silenced in the Champions League last week.

This is the longest streak of positive results for City this season. The last time this five-match winning streak was achieved by City was during the period from April to early May last year, which marked the closing phase of the 2024-2025 competition campaign.

That impressive performance has put City on the right track to repeat the title race with Arsenal. The two teams fiercely competed to be the kings of England in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons. In those two seasons, City emerged as the champion.

After closing the gap in points with their rival, City Manager Pep Guardiola emphasized that his team is still far from perfect performance. According to him, the City squad still frequently makes mistakes both collectively and individually at Selhurst Park.

Guardiola's demands of his players are not entirely misplaced. Amid convincing victory results, City also benefited from the ineffective attacks of the home team. Palace produced 16 shots, 12 of which were made inside City's penalty area.

Of the total, only four shots were directed at the guest team's goal. Meanwhile, City produced six shots on target out of a total of seven attempts.

"We have worked hard and been ourselves. Still, we have not delivered our best performance in several moments. We can still do better," said Guardiola about his team's performance to the BBC.

He added, “(Selhurst Park) is a difficult place. When we lose the ball, they attack very well. This victory strengthens our mentality.”

The significant demands placed by Guardiola on his players are quite justified. City will face a series of challenging matches until the beginning of the new year. Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Manchester United will serve as tests for The Citizens to prove their worthiness to reclaim their status as the sole rulers of England.

The return of City to a positive trend is influenced by two attacking players who have regained their sharpness and can support the team. They are Haaland and Foden.

In the last five matches, Haaland has scored four goals and provided two assists. It is no surprise that the Norwegian striker now leads the English Premier League's top scorers list with 17 goals. He is ahead of his closest competitor, Brentford's striker Igor Thiago, who has scored 11 goals.

Foden has been sharper than Haaland in the last five matches. Having contributed six goals and one assist, Foden seems to have been reborn after experiencing a difficult and inconsistent period last season.

Foden's sharpness has returned as he has been entrusted to play closer to the final third of the opponent's defense. He has become one of the mainstays of the two attacking midfielder tactics implemented by Guardiola in the 4-3-2-1 formation.

"The most important thing about our game was patience. We had more control and passed the ball like a real City player," Foden told Sky Sports.

"I am very happy to have performed well in the Premier League in the last few matches. I want to continue scoring goals," said Foden.