Man City were right to sell Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal - even though it fuelled Gunners' title bid

It cannot be denied that Jesus and Zinchenko have turned Arsenal from a good team into a great one, an "unstoppable" side as Guardiola dubbed them ahead of Wednesday's match.

While Jesus was struggling to get into the City team even before the arrival of Erling Haaland, he has proved to be the perfect striker for Arteta. He has been mostly clinical when he has been on the pitch, scoring nine goals and contributing five assists in only 18 league starts.

But he has also managed to link Arsenal's attack superbly, getting the best out of fellow forwards Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, the team's leading scorers.

Zinchenko has also struggled with injuries, making only 23 starts, but he has had a huge influence on the team both on and off the pitch.

The Ukrainian believed Arsenal were capable of a title charge at the start of the season, and his team-mates laughed at the thought until he was proved right following the team's blistering first half of campaign, in which they took 50 points from their first 19 matches.

It is tempting to conclude that he developed his winning mentality while at City, where he lifted four Premier League titles, four League Cups, one FA Cup and reached the Champions League final.

It is tempting to say, with hindsight, that it was foolish to give a direct rival like Arsenal two valuable players with title-winning experience.

However, this is not the only time they have sold an important player to a fellow competitor. Last summer, they also sold Raheem Sterling to Chelsea.

At the time, before Todd Boehly started sacking managers for fun and buying every player under the sun, Chelsea looked like more of a threat than Arsenal and Sterling had just finished the season with 13 goals for City.

City also took a risk when they sent Joao Cancelo on loan to Bayern Munich in January, and could have ended up rueing that move when they were paired with the Bundesliga side in the Champions League quarter-finals.

In the end, City comfortably beat Bayern 4-1 on aggregate and Cancelo was benched for the first leg.

The truth is, whenever you sell a player, you risk living to regret it if they go on to succeed in their new team.

City also had little choice but to sell Zinchenko and Jesus to a top Premier League side given the growing financial might of the English top-flight in comparison to other leagues in Europe, which are still feeling the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Barcelona, who had bought Ferran Torres off City for £46 million in January 2022, had to perform a series of financial manoeuvres to finance their lavish spending in 2022.

Real Madrid spent a total of £70m on Aurelien Tchouameni last summer, while their only other major signing, Antonio Rudiger, arrived on a free transfer.

Atletico Madrid, the third force in Spain, spent under £25m last summer.

Arsenal, though, were able to offer £50m for Jesus and £30m for Zinchenko. That is equivalent to Juventus' total transfer budget last summer and far more than AC Milan, Inter and Napoli spent.

If City wanted to make any money from Zinchenko, Jesus and Sterling, they had to sell them to a competitor.

City took the gamble of strengthening Chelsea and Arsenal, and as a result managed to end the summer in profit, despite doing some eye-catching spending of their own.

They brought in £143m through the sales of Sterling, Zinchenko and Jesus, plus Pedro Porro.

That windfall allowed them to spend £51m on Erling Haaland, plus a reported weekly salary of £865,000.

They spent a further £42m on Kalvin Phillips, while also adding Manuel Akanji and Sergio Gomez to their squad for a combined £26m, all without having to worry about breaking UEFA's financial fair play rules down the line.

For a club with one of the richest owners in football, City managed to balance the books while improving their squad.

Strengthening Arsenal was a small price to pay for an outstanding summer of business.

Money wasn't the only reason City sold Zinchenko and Jesus, however. Both players had asked to leave the club in search of more playing time.

In five seasons at City, Jesus never made more than 21 Premier League starts. For a player who had only recently turned 25 and aspired to be a starter for Brazil at the 2022 World Cup, that was not nearly enough.

And his chances of starting games had just been further reduced by the arrivals of Haaland and Julian Alvarez.

Zinchenko felt even less important. In his five seasons at the Etihad Stadium, the Ukrainian started less than half of City's league games, and in his last campaign started just 10 times.

Both players yearned to be more than squad players and that's what they have become at Arsenal.

Zinchenko, for example, has started more than double the amount of games in his first season at Arsenal compared with his last at City, despite niggling injury problems and the fact there is still one month to go.

It is little use having players around that don't want to be there. The players themselves can become demotivated and there is a risk of the discontent affecting the rest of the squad and dragging them down.

"When they want to leave, they cannot stay," Guardiola said last year when Jesus, Zinchenko and Sterling left.

“I wish the best for Gabriel and Oleks. They are fantastic people, and they helped us a lot. I never say one player leave, it’s the club and it’s their decision.

“Erling and Julian came and it’s difficult for Gabriel. What happened with Gabriel is normal. It was a good deal."

City's handling of both players demonstrated how the club is always thinking two moves ahead.

They had already planned for the future by signing Haaland and Alvarez to replace Jesus and Sterling. And for the price they received for Zinchenko, they bought two able replacements in Akanji and Gomez, while Nathan Ake has also developed his own game to play at left-back.

Contrast Guardiola and City's management of the situation with how Manchester United refused to let Jesse Lingard move to West Ham in 2021, leading him to waste a crucial year of his career.

And look at how they tried to keep hold of Cristiano Ronaldo last summer when he desperately wanted to move, finally getting his way in November by mutually agreeing to tear up his contract after embarrassing the club with his infamous interview with Piers Morgan.

Or take how Tottenham kept hold of the likes of Danny Rose, Jan Vertonghen, Toby Alderweireld and Christian Eriksen for too long, paying the price further down the line when they needed to renew an ageing, declining squad with little money as they had refused to sell important players.

City, meanwhile, have a highly motivated squad that is making a serious bid to win a treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.

Arsenal have pushed them all the way in the league, helped by Zinchenko and Jesus, but the title race has undoubtedly made City a better team, keeping them on their toes.

Would that have been the case if they had refused to let their two players leave out of fear of strengthening a rival?

Guardiola certainly has no regrets about what happened last year. "The club made the decision," he said on Tuesday. "It is not about just one part, the players were agreed, the club wanted to sell, the club [Arsenal] wanted to buy. The club took a decision and that it is the risk. They are happy.

"We don’t have any doubts about Gabriel and Oleks and what they have done."