By Bruna Reis

Copyright mirror

Thierry Henry has highlighted a significant issue plaguing Manchester City during their Premier League clash with Arsenal last weekend. City were forced to settle for a 1-1 stalemate at the Emirates, with Gabriel Martinelli’s stoppage-time equaliser cancelling out Erling Haaland’s early strike. However, Pep Guardiola’s men managed to control just 32.8 percent of possession – the lowest figure his team has ever registered in a league fixture. During the encounter, they resorted to more direct balls and dominated in aerial battles. Despite the campaign being in its infancy, there’s been a noticeable decline in their patient build-up and intricate passing combinations. Their high-intensity pressing statistics have also dropped considerably, indicating reduced emphasis on both aggressive pressing and constructing attacks from deep with crisp, short passes. “If you look since the beginning of the season, they’re having an issue that they never used to have before – they struggle to stop transitions,” the Arsenal legend, Henry told Betway Insider. “If you play Arsenal and you’re too open when you attack them, you’re dead. People have been saying that Pep never wants to adapt to a situation. He did, and people kill him. It’s easy to talk after things happen. “Maybe he’s trying to find his best team with two new coaches alongside him. They played on Thursday night, and I know it bothered a lot of people, but it does matter. “Maybe he thought, ‘let’s try to surprise them, play a game that we never did before.’ And, by the way, he can do whatever he wants. He surprised us all.” Gary Neville , the former Manchester United star turned pundit, shared his thoughts on Sky Sports , stating: “For the last six, seven, eight years, we’ve just seen them dominate possession. When they were at their absolute best, you knew they’d be 1-0 up but they’d have 70, 80 per cent of the ball and the other team would be chasing shadows. “This is a completely different Manchester City; it’s a complete turnaround. It’s a 180 to see him do that in the final parts of the game. There are a lot of questions asked of managers. Do they adapt? Are they agile enough to change things in games?”. “Guardiola never really changed his way of playing before. It was almost as if to say everyone has to adapt to what I’m doing, and everybody copied him for years and years, playing out from the back, but he’s moved on beyond that now. “They are certainly a lot more physical, a lot more direct, and less football than they used to be.” Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.