It will be an image that will achieve iconic status for Arsenal. It may even, if they win the Premier League this season or continue to confirm their ascent at Manchester City’s expense, gain a mural outside the Emirates Stadium. Myles Lewis-Skelly, one of their own, a Hale End academy product like 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri who also sumptuously found the net, struck the ‘meditation pose’ after scoring the third goal in Arsenal’s luminous 5-1 demolition of the soon-to-be deposed champions. With it, the teenager exposed the deep and seething rivalry that has developed between these two clubs with his team-mates all gleefully crowding round him as he sat on the turf.

Pre-match it was played down but, undeniably, it was there and, following this, it has only developed further. Afterwards Mikel Arteta spoke about “tenacity” and the motivation clearly went way beyond the desire to reduce Liverpool’s lead at the top of the table back to six points, albeit with a game in hand, which they monumentally achieved. It was a celebration pose that used to be adopted by Erling Haaland who, of course, had witheringly directed a “who the f--- are you?” comment towards Lewis-Skelly following the momentous 2-2 draw between these two sides earlier in this campaign. Haaland certainly knows who he is now.

“Stay humble,” Haaland also told Arteta and so, after the call for humility, City were humiliated. Arsenal also hit back by playing Kendrick Lamar’s hit single HUMBLE at full-time. The pose defines ‘inner peace’ but, for City, there was just wretched turmoil as Pep Guardiola watched one of his teams concede five goals and lose by a four-goal margin for the first time in a dominant career that has also covered Barcelona and Bayern Munich. That spans 958 matches. He has lost 4-0 on four occasions before and 5-2, once, but never 5-1.

Even more extraordinary was the nature of the second-half collapse, another second-half collapse, from City who have simply lost all semblance of control when that was their hallmark. It is becoming a theme. They conceded four goals against Paris St-Germain from 56 minutes onwards – when 2-0 up – and did so again here against Arsenal from 1-1. They conceded two goals from 80 minutes against Brentford and Manchester United and three in the last 15 minutes against Feyenoord.

But it felt like it was the third one here, the one claimed by Lewis-Skelly, his first professional goal and with his weaker foot, that was the key one; the defining one; the one that secured the result. Guardiola agreed, stating it was the goal that “killed” City. Myles Lewis-Skelly scores his first goal for Arsenal! 🌟 pic.twitter.com/ctqscXZRet. Less than two years ago Lewis-Skelly was scoring against the same opponent in an FA Youth Cup tie and now this. “He had been nurtured in the academy,” Arteta said. “He has got it inside him and he is good at expressing it. He wants to make things happen.” He did just that.

The Arsenal fans will rightly lap it up. No one should doubt Lewis-Skelly’s confidence or his competitiveness but did it also feel a little premature, without being too po-faced, for the 18-year-old to be goading Haaland in that way? Now he has talked the talk he needs to continue walking the walk as he and Arsenal did here. Their actions, their glorious pettiness need to be backed up with trophies.

And to think Lewis-Skelly was due to miss this game had the red card for his controversial dismissal against Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend not been rightly overturned. Make no mistake this was a statement result and a statement performance from Arsenal – a much overused phrase but a justified one on this occasion – and while the focus will be on the bit of devilment, with Gabriel Magalhães screaming into Haaland’s face, it should also not detract from one of the best individual contributions of the campaign so far: delivered by Declan Rice.

The England international, aided by captain Martin Odegaard, ran the game with his energy and aggression while, on this evidence, the impressive Lewis-Skelly may even follow him into Thomas Tuchel’s first squad when it is announced next month. Lewis-Skelly, who was substituted to a standing ovation late on, certainly has the confidence and the competitiveness and England are weak at left-back. So why not?.

This is the one where Arsenal simply wanted it more and Rice captured that. It will hurt City that they firstly decided against trying to buy Rice, opting to sign Kalvin Phillips instead, and then later on pulled out of the bidding when Arsenal made their huge £100 million-plus offer. Instead City’s midfield of Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva were simply overrun. “We had that fire in our stomachs,” Rice later said and it burned fiercest of all in him, Odegaard and Lewis-Skelly. City contributed to their own downfall with some shockingly poor mistakes but they were also harried and pressed by Arsenal.