Enzo Maresca delivers a surprising claim about Arsenal’s win over Sunderland

Arsenal sit top of the Premier League on goal difference ahead of Manchester City.

Both sides have won all four of their opening games, and if these opening weeks are anything to go by, the title race is shaping up to be a two-horse affair.

City face Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium this weekend. And ahead of that game, manager Enzo Maresca has been studying Arsenal’s 2-0 victory at the Stadium of Light very closely. He thinks Arsenal were slightly fortunate to come away with all three points.

“I watched the game live against Arsenal and then I watched again in the last two days,” the Man City manager said in his latest press conference.

“If you watch the game you can realise how strong they are. I think personally they didn’t deserve to lose that game. But again, they are very strong.”

To be fair, he’s not entirely wrong. It was a razor-tight game which, on another day, Arsenal probably drop points like they did there last season.

But they dug in and fought through, despite the fact that Sunderland were handed a controversial penalty after a tussle between Ezri Konsa and Dan Ballard. Mikel Arteta was furious about the decision in his post-match interview, and Mark Clattenburg agrees that it was a mistake by the officials.

Fortunately, Arsenal have David Raya, and David Raya is amazing. And they have Bruno Guimaraes too, who pinged the ball into the top corner about 90 seconds later. Bukayo Saka then rounded off the win from the spot in stoppage time.

Were Arsenal fortunate? It was a very even game and a draw might have been a fair result. But the best teams find ways to win tight games. City will need to be equally resilient against Regis Le Bris’ side if they want to keep pace with the champions.