Wayne Rooney fears Mikel Arteta’s ‘strange’ decision to bench Viktor Gyokeres could have a harmful impact on the Arsenal striker’s confidence.
The Gunners knew a win on the Etihad would all-but secure their first Premier League title since 2004, but despite a much improved performance Arteta’s side slipped to a harmful 2-1 defeat.
Manchester City will go top of the table on goal difference with a win over Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday with five games remaining.
Should each teams claim maximum points then the destination of the title will boil right down to a straight gunfight which City would feel confident of prevailing in given their array of attacking options.
Gyokeres, Arsenal’s top scorer with 18 goals in all competitions, was dropped for Sunday’s summit meeting with Arteta opting to begin with Kai Havertz as a substitute.
The Germany international scored his side’s equaslier, charging down Gianluigi Donnarumma’s clearance, but missed two huge probabilities either side of Erling Haaland’s sixty fifth minute winner.
Gyokeres was introduced to the fray with 14 minutes, including injury time, remaining but did not adjust to the pace of the sport and didn’t register a single touch during his time on the pitch.
‘I believe these decisions if he comes on and scores the winner or scores the equalising goal obviously it’s the correct decision,’ Rooney told the BBC when asked about Arteta omitting his £60m summer signing from such a major game.
‘I believed with him not starting, Arsenal would’ve tried to take a seat in there. It was an odd one him not starting since you bring a No.9 during which they’ve been on the lookout for all season, and I actually think he’s done OK, to not start him in such a giant game I believe that may effect him.’
Despite the image looking bleak following a run of 4 successive domestic defeattl, Rooney stays adamant there remains to be loads of room for optimism from an Arsenal perspective.
He said: ‘This title race is just not over yet, I still feel like there are some more twists and turns to come back. It’s is clearly going to be tight but City have gotten another game to attempt to win, so I still have Arsenal down as slight favourites.
‘I’ve been in this example myself, where it’s essential to win all of your games for the title.
‘You take a look at your games and you think that well we must always win this one, or that one, but it surely never pans out that way.
‘From now until the top of the season it’s just going to be right down to which team keeps their composure one of the best – that’s who will win it.’
Who will win the Premier League title?
Arteta definitely agreed with that sentiment and was adamant he saw enough from his team to suggest the race will go right down to the wire.
He said: ‘The most important disappointment is that we did loads of good things through the game.
‘They created some individual moments and we created the most important probabilities of the sport but we didn’t rating.
‘There was a component of luck and hitting the post was unlucky. It has to go your way and it didn’t today.
‘We lost a chance when it comes to the result. They’ve a game in hand, now we have three points. Game on since it is a brand new Premier League.’
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