Ruthless Manchester City have humiliated crestfallen Arsenal at Etihad Stadium.
A 5-0 collapse at Manchester City on Saturday left Arsenal with three losses without scoring at the start of the season for the first time in its history, having been fallen to Brentford and Chelsea.
Arsenal taming West Brom Albions 6-0 early week appeared as a wake-up call from the slumbering defeats.
In the week when the defending Premier League champions missed out on signing not only Harry Kane but also Cristiano Ronaldo, the existing attacking options did the job against a side reduced to 10 men after Granit Xhaka’s first-half sending off.
Two goals were scored in an assist from Ferran Torres, and goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus and Rodri.
This was Arsenals ninth successive league loss to City, stretching back into Arsene Wenger’s reign.
Unai Emery and, now Mikel Arteta, have been brought in to revive Arsenals fortunes. But the Gunners look further than ever from getting back into the Champions League, let alone winning the title for the first time since 2004.
Arteta has had 20 months in the job since being hired away from City where he was Pep Guardiola’s assistant.
Now he has two weeks of the international break to face more questions about his suitability to continue as Arsenal manager.
There was nothing to show for the comfortable opening minutes for Arsenal. It was just like that against Chelsea last Sunday and that ended in a 2-0 defeat.
The opener was conceded even earlier this week, after only six minutes.
Left back Kieran Tierney allowed Gabriel Jesus to beat him far too easily for the high ball. And it was a cross from the striker that Gundogan headed in at the back post off the cross bar, via a slight touch off goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
City was able to deploy a short free kick routine and had the space for a passing interchange before Bernardo Silva’s high ball into the penalty area evaded the defense and Torres tapped in.
Arsenal played to type as Xhaka was sent off, being the fourth red card in his five years at Arsenal was produced after a two-footed lunge on Joao Cancelo.
Some Arsenal fans had already started heading to the exit by the time City scored again in the 43rd minute.
Once again Arsenal was sliced through far too easily, this time in a move that started with a ball through the center from goalkeeper Ederson.
Torres then played it out to the left wing to Jack Grealish and the $139 million summer signing drifted in the penalty area. Gabriel Jesus was gifted space and time to cushion the pass and then to tap into the net.
