Manchester City’s draw with Arsenal provided further evidence why these sides – the two title favourites before the reverse fixture in December – have slipped behind Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur. The scoreline actually flattered the sides’ attacking efforts, the four goals coming from only five shots on target.

Manuel Pellegrini kept faith with Kelechi Iheanacho supporting Sergio Agüero up front. There were few signs of a genuine relationship between these two, however. They combined only five times, usually when both drifted into deep positions, and never threatened to penetrate Arsenal’s defence. Peculiarly City’s runs in behind often came from Fernandinho, who charged into an advanced position to provide a knock-down for Agüero’s opener and found himself running through on goal at the start of the second half. The Brazilian is the biggest beneficiary when Yaya Touré is left out of the starting XI, and able to play the box-to-box role he became accustomed to in his Shakhtar Donetsk days.

City’s formation was not enabling them to play good passing combinations but it did help them press aggressively in the opening stages, with Kevin De Bruyne and Jesús Navas pushing forward alongside the forwards to shut down Arsenal’s back four quickly. Arsenal struggled in the opening stages, in part simply because they did not have enough bodies in midfield to work the ball forward. Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sánchez started wide but played very high up the pitch while Alex Iwobi was also too advanced in his No10 position. Arsenal’s midfielders were unable to find this trio, generally playing more direct passes to Olivier Giroud.

Arsenal’s shape improved after Welbeck departed through injury. Jack Wilshere replaced him, playing at the top of the midfield trio with Iwobi moving to the left. Wilshere was his usual energetic self, putting in a couple of strong challenges, as Arsenal started to compete in the midfield zone. After half-time Wenger moved to more of a 4-3-3 system, using Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey ahead of Mohamed Elneny. With the City press no longer so noticeable after the break Arsenal worked the ball forward much more effectively. While City again took the lead through De Bruyne it was Arsenal who played the better football in the second half, particularly after the introduction of Theo Walcott in place of Iwobi, with Sánchez moving to the left.

Sánchez and Walcott offered the type of penetrative runs badly missing at the other end. Walcott made an excellent run in behind Gaël Clichy to reach a Ramsey through-ball, before a classic example of Giroud’s one-touch hold-up play sent Walcott through on goal, his first touch letting him down.

That was Arsenal’s best route to goal and they almost immediately scored from a similar move, Sánchez running through on goal after a one-two with Giroud, again providing a brilliant flick, before firing home.

One-twos were seemingly the order of the day, with Agüero firing narrowly wide after exchanging passes with De Bruyne. That was the exception to the rule, however – City’s other attempts came from an individual attempting something spectacular, with substitute Wilfried Bony hitting the bar from an excellent volley. Under Pellegrini City have rarely appeared better than the sum of their parts and their combination play will surely improve drastically under Pep Guardiola.