If the quality was dialled down in this heavyweight collision, there were still enough feints, jabs, punches and counters to fascinate. Manchester City administered the knockout blow. They were close to ineffectual before the break, then came out and took the tie to Arsenal.
Pep Guardiola can be snarky about the timings of his substitutions but his introduction of Julián Álvarez with 58 minutes on the clock was a masterstroke. It was the forwards 20-yard effort that presaged Nathan Aké’s winner: it crashed into a post and then Jack Grealish took over and weaved his magic.
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