Sterling strike sees Man City postpone Arsenal
Raheem Sterling scored the only goal as Pep Guardiola got the better of Mikel Arteta in Manchester City's 1-0 win over Arsenal to go three points off the top of the Premier League table.
On another high-scoring Saturday elsewhere in the English top-flight, the mutual respect between City boss Guardiola and his former assistant Arteta resulted in an even more cautious encounter.
However, Sterling's strike midway through the first-half was enough to relaunch City's title challenge after failing woefully to win two of their first three league games of the new season.
Arsenal remains lacking any away league win against among the 'big six' in 28 games dating back again to January 2015.
And despite a spirited performance, the actual fact they have lost again at Anfield and the Etihad in the first five games of the campaign shows the strides Arteta still must make to revive the Gunners to title contenders.
Arteta got the better of his old boss when the sides last met in the FA Cup semi-finals in July and Guardiola responded with a change to a 3-5-2 system to complement up with Arsenal.
The move nearly paid within a minute as Riyad Mahrez curled inches wide after a flowing move from one end to the other.
Sergio Aguero returned for the house side for the very first time since June alongside Sterling in the attack.
In the absence of Kevin De Bruyne, Sterling captained City and led from the front as he was readily available to open the scoring after Bernd Leno could only parry Phil Foden's initial effort.
Leno kept Arsenal in the contest when he denied Foden again from Aguero's unselfish pass.
But it was Ederson who ensured City went in ahead at half-time with a string of saves as Guardiola's men again failed to convince at the trunk.
Bukayo Saka was Arsenal's biggest threat and the 19-year-old was denied by a brilliant Ederson save after a neat one-two with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Aubameyang was next to fire too close to the Brazilian stopper when he was one-on-one and onside regardless of the linesman's flag being raised.
Arsenal also saw strong penalty appeals fall on deaf ears with the final action of the first half when Kyle Walker's high foot had not been punished as he challenged Gabriel Magalhaes inside the area.
The occurrence of De Bruyne was missed as City again didn't control the game once in front.
Leicester originated from behind to win 5-2 at the Etihad and Leeds also took a deserved point after a blistering opening from City prior to the international break.
Definitely not the free-flowing attacking force of the past three seasons, City were happy to sit on their lead following the break.
But in another period short on goalmouth action, Nicolas Pepe's weak header that was easily claimed by Ederson was the closest Arsenal found an equalizer.
