Pep Guardiola defied his Man City critics with Arsenal changes

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola showed positive signs with his team at the Emirates with their unusual set-up

There were more grumblings from some Manchester City fans after the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates. One point in North London leaves the Blues eight points behind champions and leaders Liverpool after just five matches, which will take some catching even with so long in the season left.

Some disliked the result, others weren't fans of the defensive nature of the performance - a Pep Guardiola team has never had so little possession in the Premier League than the 32 per cent they enjoyed/endured against Arsenal on Sunday. City are no longer the dominant force in the league or league matches, it seems.

However, what Guardiola did at Arsenal certainly confounded some of the criticisms levelled against him. After nearly 10 years in English football and with a philosophy that he has insisted he is not for changing, Guardiola delivered one of the most backs-to-the-wall defensive performances we have seen.

Much of the pre-match talk was of how Arsenal have added to their options to win matches this season, yet here was Guardiola acting like prime Jose Mourinho with a counter-attacking goal followed by a timewasting masterclass. It was very good for almost the entire game, with Arsenal generating less than 1.0 for expected goals (xG) even with their equaliser counted.

There are also signs of players improving, with Jeremy Doku, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico O'Reilly all rising to one of their biggest challenges yet.

The players deserve the bulk of the credit for those developments, yet it continues a long tradition of players getting better under Guardiola's coaching; too often last season, it looked like City looked less than the sum of their parts.

City's point at Arsenal was miles better than their performance at the Emirates last season - or in either game against Liverpool. They have not beaten either of their two titles rivals since the Treble season and did not even look competitive in the most recent games.

This, then, has to be seen as a marked improvement. It is certainly the closest City have come to winning at the Emirates in their last three games and on another day - perhaps a day when they had more preparation time or did not lose Khusanov and Erling Haaland to injury - they would have held on.

Whether it is enough improvement for City to win the league is another question, and one that leads to some of the frustration around Guardiola right now. Liverpool have started relentlessly and have shown a consistency that the Blues have struggled with.

Given the scrutiny that always surrounds Guardiola though, rather than Sunday showing he had lost the plot with a radical change in approach the manager answered plenty of the criticism levelled at him over the last year by showing he still has new tricks.

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