MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - It didn’t look like a football match, it didn’t sound like one and it didn’t smell like one, but the goal of restarting the Premier League was achieved on Wednesday as Manchester City beat Arsenal 3-0 at the Etihad stadium.
Although the absence of spectators, inevitably, meant a strange lack of atmosphere in the ground and for the millions watching on television globally, the rhetoric about the sport being pointless without fans, was not supported by the evidence of the 90 minutes on the field.
It was business as usual on the field with City deserved winners thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden while Arsenal were clear second-best, hampered by early injuries and the sending-off of error-prone substitute David Luiz soon after halftime.Sterility was, of course, the goal.
The small amount of media, staff and medical services, allowed into the ground had to undergo temperature tests outside the stadium after signing declarations about their health status. Messages from fans around the world were broadcast on video-screens and the PA system did its best to replicate some of the usual soundtrack to a game with pre-match music and team announcements.
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