There was a moment a little less than half an hour in when Pep Guardiola, shaped to pass a ball back into play, fell flat on his backside, to the collective mirth of the visiting contingent and, rather self-consciously, waved to them. Though he resumed his usual immaculate poise, the fall left a small stain of whitewash on the bottom of his coat.

We seemed to have witnessed an emblem of the fallibility of the manager who was supposed to walk on water and whose Manchester City side at that stage were a goal behind and threatening to suffer defeats to Chelsea, Leicester and Arsenal in the space of 18 days.

All excitement about the subsequent turnaround must be tempered by an acknowledgement that they happened to be playing a side who now have sacrificed leads twice in five days and whose manager, Arsene Wenger, made the shocking admission on Sunday night that his side “dropped physically” in the second half – as if that was actually acceptable. City’s defence also looked profoundly vulnerable as they fell behind.

But the win revealed a steel which has not often been visible in City these past four or five years. It was the first time since the 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur here in November 2012 that they have overturned a losing half-time deficit to win. At the heart of the shift was Guardiola, making the almost imperceptible tactical shifts, such as withdrawing Kevin de Bruyne from the spear of the attack to overload the midfield and deploying both Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane in the pocket of space between the lines.

A squeeze on the accelerator pedal was really all Guardiola’s players needed to drive their opponents into the dust and transform a game in which they had no shots on goal in the first half and allow Arsenal, who should have taken confidence from that, none in the second.

Guardiola offered emotional thanks to the supporters for staying until the end, though the way his players started made the notion of them making it to the interval look a struggle. The players were distracted, arriving on the field sporting Ilkay Gundogan shirts worn back to front in recognition of his prolonged absence with cruciate damage of their teammate, who was injured on Wednesday. Was this necessary? All sense of perspective had seemingly vanished. “Awful start by City. Gundogan will be turning in his grave,” was one of the many memorable responses on social media as the game got under way.

Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Show all 23 1 /23 Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Manchester City vs Arsenal Who impressed as Pep Guardiola's side beat Unai Emery's at the Etihad Stadium? The Independent Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Ederson - 8 out of 10 Came off his line superbly to beat Aubameyang to the ball. Little he could do to prevent Koscielny’s equaliser. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Kyle Walker - 6 out of 10 An improvement on some recent performances. Comfortable when in a back three after playing the same role with England. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Nicolas Otamendi - 6 out of 10 A forceful presence at the back, sometimes too forceful. One robust first-half challenge on Lacazette went unnoticed. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Aymeric Laporte - 7 out of 10 Picks up a rare assist, crossing for Aguero’s first, then saw a goal disallowed for offside. Covered well for Sterling, who was alone on the left flank. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Fernandinho - 7 out of 10 Initially struggled to exert his usual control over the midfield in the first half, perhaps because he had to keep dropping back into defence, but improved. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Bernardo Silva - 7 out of 10 Out of position on the wing and less influential than he often is in a central role but still troubled Arsenal’s left side. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Ilkay Gundogan - 8 out of 10 Almost faultless when distributing the ball. A delicate chip over the top of the defence in the build-up to Aguero’s goal was his best. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings David Silva - 7 out of 10 Not masterful from Il Mago but an all-round improvement on his display at St James’ Park, sprinkled with the odd special touch or pass. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Kevin De Bruyne - 6 out of 10 Did not have his usual influence on the game. An off-day though hardly anything to be concerned about. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Raheem Sterling - 8 out of 10 Created two of Aguero’s three, ghosting superbly behind Lichtsteiner for the second. Asked to cover the entire left flank but did not look out of place. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Sergio Aguero - 9 out of 10 Header, right foot, left arm. An unconventional hat-trick but his 14th in City colours. The wrong side of 30 now but his predatory instincts have not waned. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Bernd Leno - 6 out of 10 Dives too early and the wrong way for Aguero’s first but denied City impressively on several occasions after it. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Stephan Lichtsteiner - 5 out of 10 Caught out by Sterling’s intelligent movement, particularly on City’s second. Arsenal’s third-choice at right back and it showed. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Shkodran Mustafi - 6 out of 10 Equalises from Torreira corner, Monreal flick-on, but culpable for letting Aguero go at the far post for City’s crucial second. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Laurent Koscielny - 5 out of 10 Five yards behind the rest of the Arsenal defence for Aguero’s first, playing every City player onside, though perhaps did not anticipate Iwobi’s error. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Nacho Monreal - 7 out of 10 Neat near-post flick-on for Koscielny’s equaliser. Coped well enough with Bernardo despite being given little support. Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Alex Iwobi - 5 out of 10 Dispossessed deep in his own half by Laporte. Attempted to make up for his mistake and was tidy enough, though did little to atone. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Lucas Torreira - 8 out of 10 Made several key interceptions and tackles, especially as momentum shifted towards Arsenal in the first half. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Matteo Guendouzi - 7 out of 10 Poor start but did not hide and grew into the game as it went on. Largely shut down City’s midfield with Torreira until the game got away from Arsenal. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Sead Kolasinac - 6 out of 10 Stationed at left midfield but perhaps too adventurous for his full-back’s liking, with Monreal left one-on-one with Bernardo too often. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Alexandre Lacazette - 6 out of 10 Him and Aubameyang were sat strangely deep, bulking up Arsenal’s midfield, and this affected his ability to get forward. Getty Manchester City vs Arsenal player ratings Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - 6 out of 10 As with Lacazette, often too deep to threaten, though a little brighter than his partner and Arsenal’s main threat on the counter-attack. Getty

Guardiola’s players could have done with saving their thoughts for how to shore up a defence that looks porous. The manager had retained the same back four for the first time this season, with John Stones still carrying the can for what happened at Leicester last weekend, yet there was a very familiar vulnerability when Arsenal scored, five minutes in.

Hector Bellerin was able to take a ball rolled out to him from Petr Cech, advance unchecked, to the half way line beyond the jogging de Bruyne and locate Alexis Sanchez, who had time to execute a reverse pass of the finest geometry, which Theo Walcott, advancing unhindered from a position behind him, was able to take on and sidefoot past Claudio Bravo with minimum power. “Sometimes you can’t control talent,” Guardiola reflected. But he goalkeeper committed himself dreadfully early and Nicolas Otamendi was pitifully unaware of Walcott’s run.

Bravo committed himself early as Walcott delicately tucked the ball away (Getty)

After Raheem Sterling criminally headed de Bruyne’s well weighted cross over, we witnessed an impressive Arsenal muscularity. Bellerin halted a Sterling run, Alex Iwobi quelled an advance from Leroy Sane, a Francis Coquelin tackle on Yaya Toure was timed to perfection and Laurent Koscielny demonstrated what good central defending looked like.

Sané may have been marginally offside but there was nothing wrong with his finish (Getty)

All this made Arsenal’s second half capitulation shocking to behold. The equaliser offered grounds for complaint. Sane, was fractionally offside when - after Arsene Wenger’s players had failed to gather a Cech clearance - David Silva seized the ball and played him in to run through and score.

Wenger was unhappy about the winner, too. The 40-yard cross-field pass from Kevin de Bruyne which supplied Sterling was even better than the Englishman’s dead-eye finish: a shot on the inside Cech’s post. Silva, in an offside position, ran in front of the goalkeeper at around the moment Sterling released his shot and though it was a very close call, Cech said on Sunday night that he was unsighted.

Sterling's winner came after a beautiful cross-field ball from De Bruyne (Getty)

City ran amok after that, with Sane repeatedly running at the visiting defence with a pace that it could not deal with and it took Cech to keep the deficit respectable. The goalkeeper saved sharply from Sane just beyond the hour and palmed wide a De Bruyne shot which was deflected by Granit Xhaka.

The display left Guardiola talking of “fighting for the title,” though only when the defence is sorted out will the risk of falling on their backsides be fully removed.

Teams

Manchester City (4-1-4-1): Bravo; Zabaleta (Sagna HT), Otamendi, Kolarov, Clichy; Fernando; Sane (Navas 76), Toure, Silva, De Bruyne ( Iheanacho 84); Sterling. Substitutes: Caballero, Nolito, Stones, Iheanacho, Garcia

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin (Girond 75), Xhaka; Walcott, Ozil, Iwobi (Oxlade Chamberlain 65, subbed by Elneny 76) Sanchez. Substitutes: Ospina, Gibbs, Perez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Holding

Referee: M. Atkinson (West Yorkshire)

Star man: Silva (Mnachester City)