Manchester City 3-2 Liverpool: Pep Guardiola’s side fire warning shot at Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal – The Warm-Up

FRIDAY’S BIG STORIES

City are already firing on lots of cylinders, what of Arsenal?

City saw 16 of its squad head off to Qatar; Arsenal had 10. The balance of probabilities suggest that the World Cup should have had a bigger impact on City than Arsenal. Football, however, does not work like that.

City have emerged from a first winter World Cup unscathed with their most potent weapon – Erling Haaland – looking fairly rested and ready to go after the six-week hiatus. Arsenal meanwhile have lost their talisman Gabriel Jesus to injury. The Brazilian could be out for up to four months.

Now, returning to the sample size, for Arsenal, it is non-existent, but this in itself is a problem for the Gunners.

In truth, winning the League Cup is great, but it is not what clubs invest millions of pounds per year for. So, City had a bit of a free-hit, a tune-up ahead of the Premier League restarting – and against one of their fiercest rivals. They emerged from it with the win, and with their most important players – Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne – looking in fine fettle. It represents a warning shot at Arsenal already.

The Gunners will return to Premier League action on Boxing Day against West Ham cold. Arteta will have a contingency in place for the absence of Jesus, but, it goes without saying, a League Cup match to attune themselves would have been of benefit.

City got one, Arsenal did not. And at season’s end, that could prove decisive.

FIFA investigating Salt Bae situation

The presence of Salt Bae knocking about at the end of the Greatest World Cup Final Ever™ registers fairly high on the what-the-blazes-is-going-on-here scale.

Someone relevant in 2017 was somehow on the pitch in the aftermath of the Greatest World Cup Final Ever™ – barging his way into photos left, right and centre.

If Mr Bae was running around in the aftermath of the 2018 final then – in some ways – fair enough, but in 2022? Nah.

Anyway, FIFA has announced an investigation into how Mr Bae got onto the pitch.

“Following a review, FIFA has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail stadium on 18 December.

“The appropriate internal action will be taken.”

Avram Grant has been appointed Zambia manager.

Avram Grant has himself a new job – as manager of Zambia.

“I was looking for the right challenge and that’s why I chose Zambia,” Grant said at a press conference in Lusaka.

“I came here because of the challenge and I hope when I leave here I will look around and say we did a good job and made a good foundation for the future.

“I think Zambia has the potential, we have set the targets of what we want to achieve.”

Grant has previously managed Chelsea, West Ham and Ghana. His Ghana side were runners-up at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, losing on penalties to Ivory Coast.

IN OTHER NEWS

That’s probably a penalty

Fair to say that Ciaran Clark was probably fouled here.

To be fair, the fact that his shirt was pulled off his back didn’t impact the final result. His Sheffield United team won 2-1.

RETRO CORNER

Does an event – the World Cup – that ended a matter of days ago count as retro? Well, it is going to have to. Here is Roy Keane saying Roy Keane things at the World Cup.

HAT-TIP

The fact the League Cup is back in the mix, and the Premier League is days away, is a touch discombobulating. Did Argentina actually win the World Cup? Was it staged in Qatar? Yes and yes.

“We were shown the hyperreal Qatar. The whole country was given over to the World Cup for the month, and I read several journalists describe it as a kind of football Disneyland, which reminded me of Baudrillard’s thesis that they built Disneyland as an imaginary world to convince you that the rest of California was real. He wrote that they are one and the same, both built around images stripped of any original meaning where fact and fiction blended to the point of being indistinct from one another.”

HAT-TIP II

The Warm-Up is a big fan of a mural. And this is an excellent mural.

COMING UP

Football has an actual day off. Scenes. Then another. And then it is Christmas.