Call it the dark arts. Call it anti-football. Call it doing whatever it takes to win.
In the latest chapter of the new heavyweight rivalry in the Premier League, Arsenal tried everything against Manchester City on Sunday – and missed the win by just seconds.
“There was only one team that came to play football,” grumbled Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva after an intense, exciting and eventful 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium. “The other team came to push the limits of what was possible and what the referee unfortunately allowed.”
John Stones’ equaliser for City in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time denied Arsenal, who played the entire second half with ten men, a decisive victory for a side that is edging ever closer to becoming Pep Guardiola’s multiple champions.
City’s players know this too.
Hence Bernardo’s candid comments on Arsenal after the game. Note how Erling Haaland threw the ball at the back of Arsenal defender Gabriel’s head during City’s wild celebrations following Stones’ late intervention. Also see Pep Guardiola kicking his backside in the dugout after feeling wronged by the manner of Arsenal’s equaliser through Ricardo Calafiori.
Arsenal got under City’s skin.
On to the return match at the Emirates Stadium in early February.
“As a football game, it’s a great spectacle for the Premier League,” City captain Kyle Walker said of the new rivalry with Arsenal, who were runners-up in the last two seasons. “Probably not so much specific things – I think it’s an integral part of the game and we would say the dark arts.”
Stones spoke of Arsenal’s attempts to slow down the game by faking injuries in order to allow manager Mikel Arteta to “get some information onto the pitch”.
“I wouldn’t say they’ve perfected it, but they’ve been doing it for a couple of years now, so we knew to expect it,” Stones said. “You can call it clever or dirty, whatever you want to say, but they’re disrupting the game, which disrupts the rhythm.”
In this respect, Arteta seems to have taken a leaf out of Jose Mourinho’s book, the former Chelsea and Real Madrid coach. Mourinho was once a great rival of Guardiola and sometimes took his cynical game to extremes.
Arteta’s Arsenal can play beautiful football too, but with captain Martin Odegaard out injured and Leandro Trossard sent off in first-half stoppage time against City, the Gunners knew when to switch their approach to the other extreme.
“It’s incredible what we have achieved,” said Arteta, who knows City and Guardiola inside out as he was once his fellow Spaniard’s assistant at the Etihad.
For Silva, the games against Liverpool, ahead of Arsenal City’s big rival, were more entertaining.
“Liverpool have always faced us head-on and tried to win the games,” said the Portuguese playmaker. “From that perspective, the games against Arsenal were not like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.”
Silva was one of many City players who became agitated from the start of the heated encounter, at one point curling his finger into a ‘0’ when facing Gabriel – apparently in reference to the fact that Arsenal have not won a Premier League title, at least not since Silva joined City in 2017. Arsenal’s last league title was in 2004.
When asked about the difference between playing against Liverpool and Arsenal, Silva replied: “Maybe Liverpool have won the Premier League before, Arsenal haven’t. Maybe Liverpool have won the Champions League before, Arsenal haven’t.”
Will this be the season in which Arsenal end their wait for the league title?
After five games, Arsenal are in fourth place, two points behind leaders City. The team have just picked up four points in a week’s away games at Tottenham and City – two of their toughest away games – and a 0-0 draw at Atalanta in the Champions League.
The stage could be set for another title race between City and Arsenal.
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AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
