Three things we learned from Arsenal’s 3-2 victory over Manchester City

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Guardiola’s Tactical Machinations Will Be Hard To Keep Pace With

Those who throw the word ‘hipster’ around as an insult probably feel Guardiola’s tinkering and strategic solutions receive more attention than they’re due, but he does do things no other coach would do. Yesterday saw Fernando and Aleksandr Kolarov start at centre-back and they were asked to split wide to receive the ball in traditional Guardiola fashion.

It is easy to see why Guardiola wants to bring in John Stones, because neither Fernando nor Kolarov looked especially comfortable taking the ball in these areas and Arsenal created chances by pressing them and forcing errors.

Also, as Guardiola encouraged at Bayern Munich, his full-backs were asked to move into central areas when City had the ball. Pablo Zabaleta was playing as a pivote at times, with midfielders David Silva and Fabian Delph asked to split into wide areas to support Nolito and Raheem Sterling.

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Sterling played on the right flank, a role he has not played a great deal since his Liverpool days, and provided an excellent cross for Sergio Aguero to open the scoring.

Commentators will have to keep their eyes peeled in order to keep track of all these details, but it should be a veritable feast for all those interested in tactics.