\u201cIt\u2019s 22 years since you last won the Premier League<\/a>!\u201d That was Sky\u2019s David Jones reminding Patrick Vieira of the invincible days, Patrick nodding wistfully. <\/p>\n And D\u00f3nal \u00d3g, perhaps unwittingly, because he was considerably more focused on events at Semple Stadium than those at the Etihad, accurately described the unpredictability of tussles between both sets of rivals. \u201cIt\u2019s like Forrest Gump and the box of chocolates, boy, you\u2019re never sure what you\u2019re going to get.\u201d<\/p>\n Granted, the Thurles game wasn\u2019t going to decide the outcome of the championship, and neither, really, was the one over in Manchester, even if Sky had us thinking the Premier League trophy would be presented at the end of it. And even if Arsenal<\/a> had won, their devotees are now so fatalistic, they\u2019d have been forecasting home defeats by Fulham and Burnley in the run-in.<\/p>\n Some of us might have lost our appetite for football after, say, transferring out Morgan Gibbs-White from our fantasy team on the eve of him scoring the first hat-trick of his entire career, but this one, as Peter Drury put it, was \u201cthe game to which a season has built\u201d. Big and unmissable, in other words. <\/p>\n Since seeing their team lose somewhat calamitously to Bournemouth the previous weekend, Arsenal fans had been having pictures of bottles WhatsApped to them every four minutes, but, yes, catastrophic as that setback was, our Roy<\/a> pointed out prematch that they were still on top of the actual table. And for all the talk of the title race now being in Manchester City<\/a>\u2019s hands, it was in Arsenal\u2019s too. If they could avoid defeat on Sunday. <\/p>\n And for all the doubts about Roy\u2019s managerial skills down the days, you\u2019d a notion he and that take of his might have been a more stirring message to the Arsenal dressingroom before the game than that which Mikel Arteta might have offered. Arteta, who has appeared to be on the verge of a 19th nervous breakdown for much of the season, and has been hell-bent on sucking the joy out of his team, most probably told them: \u201cLOSE AND WE DIE!\u201d You know, motivational stuff such as that. <\/p>\n Now, there have been those who have suggested the standard of the Premier League this season has been utterly dire, largely because Manchester United are, somehow, in third place, but this skirmish between City and Arsenal has been, undeniably, entertaining.<\/p>\n As was the first half of Sunday\u2019s game. Rayan Cherki\u2019s dancing feet? Very lovely \u2013 1-0 City. \u201cPuuuurrrrr,\u201d Gary Neville purred. Arsenal\u2019s equaliser, when Kai Havertz charged down Gianluigi Donnarumma\u2019s attempted clearance? It elicited one of those Gary squeals that possibly prompted Ofcom to demand an on-air apology from Sky Sports, so indecent did it sound. It also called a halt to the home fans\u2019 crooning. \u201cWe shall not, we shall not be moved, just like a team that\u2019s gonna win the \u2026.. oh heck.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cFrom the truly sublime to the ridiculous,\u201d said Drury, while Pep Guardiola dug his nails into his face once more and Mikel came mightily close to smiling.<\/p>\n Second half. Erling Haaland, need it be said, scored the goal that decided the game, even if he has the worst hairdo in the history of association football, one that makes him look like the bass player in Whitesnake. <\/p>\n But we need to talk about Bernardo Silva. <\/p>\n \u201cThey may chisel something on his gravestone in 100 years from now: \u2018He was always there\u2019,\u201d said Drury when the little Portuguese lad emerged from the blue to be the last line of defence and averted a very possible Arsenal goal. And then he beat Viktor Gy\u00f6keres in the air, despite being about 7\u00bdft smaller. \u201cDid Bernardo Silva just beat Gy\u00f6keres in the air?\u201d Gary asked, his jaw resting on the Etihad pitch. He had indeed. As football-playing goes, he\u2019s decent.<\/p>\n \u201cPanic on the streets of London,\u201d read the banner draped across a stand in the Etihad come full-time. Even if you were the cruellest, you wouldn\u2019t be sending bottles to your Arsenal-loving pals after Sunday. They\u2019re suffering enough. Heaven knows they\u2019re miserable now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was, when you think about it, a small bit of symmetry between the two main Super Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5582,15133,1964,61,60,8579,15687,16909,1102,271,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-407874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-tipperary-gaa","9":"tag-arsenal","10":"tag-cork-gaa","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-mikel-arteta","15":"tag-pep-guardiola","16":"tag-premier-league","17":"tag-roy-keane","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Cork](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IXU3PHKJUCYPWXLKH3QHBNMGWA.jpg\")
Cork had the last laugh over Tipperary in Thurles on Sunday. Photograph: James Lawlor\/Inpho <\/p>\n![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/OBSRCOFLXLQ2V3NTIGFAQYGTTU.jpg\")
No one could accuse Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola of bottling up their emotions during Sunday’s Premier League clash between Manchester City and Arsenal. Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA Wire <\/p>\n