Man City 2-2 Arsenal: Heroic Gunners battle opposition and officials

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

Where to start? Well, how about the first few seconds when Kai Havertz bumped into Rodri, who stepped across his path. The Spanish international pretended he’d been caught in the face and the game was stopped for two minutes while he kept up the facade and got some treatment. That set the tone for what was to come.

Minutes later, Erling Haaland clattered into William Saliba as he was making an aerial clearance, a dangerous action which the referee kept his cards in his pocket for. It felt like an afternoon when this rivalry took on a new layer. Haaland did what he did best by opening the scoring. For once Saliba and Gabriel weren’t on the same wavelength, he was put through by Savinho and poked home for 1-0.

It could have been worse. Ilkay Gundogan hit the post and City were building momentum we found hard to deal with. Then one of the moments that changed the game. From a corner Rodri jarred his knee, went down actually hurt this time, and had to come off. Mateo Kovacic came on, but that seemed to put the brakes on the home side, and we started to play a bit.

Almost immediately, we were level. City were aggrieved that Kyle Walker wasn’t allowed time to get back in position after the referee had called the two captains over for a word in midfield after we’d been awarded a free kick. Thomas Partey took it, played it down the line to Martinelli who cut it back for Riccardo Calafiori to curl home a magnificent goal on his first Premier League start. What a finish, and as for City’s complaints, Walker might have been distracted but he wasn’t paying full attention either, and City were disorganised because of the substitution. That’s more on him/them than the ref – and I’m not someone inclined to give Michael Oliver any benefit of the doubt (read on).

Even at 1-1, it was a game we struggled to get hold of. By the 33rd minute Declan Rice had made just 3 passes. Trossard and Havertz had 2 and 1 respectively. But the chances at our end had dried up, and we threatened from set-pieces. Gabriel was too strong for Jeremy Doku from one corner, so next time they put Walker on him. What followed was potentially one of the funniest things you’ll see all season.

Walker was poking and prodding Gabriel, I assume to try and put him off. The Brazilian shimmied one way, then the other, ran to the back post and leaped highest to head home and make it 2-1. It was wonderfully dismissive. He is such a threat, the timing of his runs is impeccable, but kudos too to Bukayo Saka for the quality of the delivery, and to Gabriel Martinelli for his role in blocking off Ederson. The City keeper was so weak for both those corners, from a keeper considered one of the best in the world, it was feeble stuff, and you love to see it.

That goal came just before the break, giving us a great platform to take into half-time, but then the next moment that changed the game took place. Having been booked for a very soft foul, Leandro Trossard was shown a second yellow for ‘delaying the restart’. He kicked the ball away after he’d made a foul. I think he’s probably trying to make a pass more than just boot it, and he sort of pulls out of it, but it looks like a bit of a hoof. It’s also just a bit instinctive, barely a second after the referee blows (and the City player is on the ground anyway, so I don’t know what restart he’s actually delaying).

Michael Oliver didn’t hesitate. Second yellow. Red card. And look, I think of all the teams in the Premier League, we should be hyper-aware of this, because we’ve already fallen foul of this rule. In fact, we seem to be the only team that this rule applies to, because you didn’t have to look far on social media last night to find examples of players doing the same thing and not getting sent off. Indeed, one of them was Dominik Szoboszlai for Liverpool in a game refereed by … yep, you guessed it, Michael Oliver.

So, my thoughts are thus: Trossard was a bit daft, and should not have given the referee – especially that referee – the chance to put himself front and centre. We know this rule all too well, and we have to be smarter in future. At the same time though, this rule is a load of shit and we cannot have games ruined over trivialities like this, because that’s what it did. It ruined it.

I think what Arsenal almost did in that second half was extraordinary, a heroic defensive effort until that late goal got City a point I don’t think they really deserved. But objectively, it turned a brilliant game of football – potentially an all-time Premier League classic – into a terrible game of football. I watched it because I’m an Arsenal fan, but if that was City v Liverpool or Man United or anyone else, and the visitors had got that red card, I’d just switch off. Honestly, I wouldn’t watch, and I’d feel somewhat robbed after such an enthralling first half. The self-styled ‘best league in the world’ is in danger of becoming a laughing stock for nonsense like this (even if there’s a part of me that wonders if an executive decision has been made somewhere to skew the sport versus entertainment aspect of matches because the latter creates more headlines and eyeballs).

Basically, the Premier League and/or PGMOL have invented a problem like ‘delaying the restart’ and cracked down on it to make it look as if they have authority, when in reality this was never an issue people talked about or worried about for a second. Let’s be clear here, there are myriad good reasons why a player can be sent off, this is not one of them. Not least because there are other ways delaying the restart can be dealt with – the most simple of which is to just add the time on. That’s what added time is for.

I’m also genuinely astonished how quickly this load of crap has become normalised, ex-players and pundits backing the referee’s decision to send Trossard off. Someone like Roy Keane, a combative midfielder who would have enjoyed a physical game like this, is backing an official’s decision to send someone off and completely hand the advantage to one team over something so small and meaningless. It’s absurd. What are we doing here? Why are none of them saying ‘This is stupid, nobody wants this’, instead of simply parroting PGMOL press releases?

Michael Oliver is the same official, by the way, who didn’t want to send Kovacic off at our place last season because he didn’t want to ‘overreact’ and ‘negatively impact the game’. It’s funny how the same didn’t apply when the decision was to be made over an Arsenal player, eh? As I said, all we can do is be smarter, control what we can control, but I stand by what I said after the Declan Rice red – no player, not even a Spurs player, should get sent off for that. We were seconds from half-time, Oliver could just have applied some common sense, and had a word with Trossard, but no. He wanted to negatively impact the game, at least for us.

I’ve got this far and I haven’t even mentioned the Doku bit. Did he delay the restart? Even if he was putting the ball back into the area where the referee was pointing, he kicked it beyond Rice who was obviously going to take the free kick, so yes, he did. When you think about Rice’s tiny touch against Brighton and how that was punished, it’s hard not to be frustrated by the inconsistency. Back to Trossard, I can understand the decision in the current climate (much as I think it’s nonsense), but I can’t bear the double-standards. Rules should apply to everyone, even stupid ones.

The red card meant we made a change, bringing on Ben White for Bukayo Saka, and the plan was to make it hard for City to break us down. Mikel Arteta called it an impossible job, and it’s one we so very nearly pulled off. To a man everyone put in a huge defensive effort, and you have to realise how draining that is. Physically and mentally, it’s so tough. We made blocks, clearances, saves, catches, as City threw the kitchen sink at us, often playing just outside our box. Wave after wave after wave which we repelled time and time again.

In the end, a very slight lapse in concentration from a corner saw them get a lucky bounce and John Stones equalised in the 98th minute. You can ask where all the time came from, because despite Arsenal understandably wasting some time to ease the pressure just a little bit, the ball was in play for more than 35 minutes – the most in any half this season. It was a sickener, a gut punch. I don’t think an opposition goal has had that kind of impact on me for a long time.

We tried so hard with 10 men against a team that is relentless in terms of quality and experience, and it was horrible to concede so late. But I have a funny feeling about this game and what we’ll take from it. Arteta has often used things like this as a way to further consolidate the motivation and togetherness of his team. He will 100% do that again with this.

He’ll ensure that what we take away isn’t the sting of that late goal, or frame it as two points dropped. He’ll make this all about the effort, the endeavour, the unity, the way his players stood up for each other in possibly the most testing circumstances you can face in the Premier League. This was our third away game in a week too, City had an extra day of rest after their Champions League draw with Inter Milan, and the way we dug so deep was something he will use to help his team take another step forward in its development.

Afterwards, he said:

Obviously, we were thrown into a context that made it almost impossible for 56 minutes, but anyway, we adapted to that context in the best possible way and the way the team competed was just unbelievable. I’m so proud of the team. You can’t be thrown into a more difficult situation against that kind of opponent and the way we handled that. I’m so proud.

As you’d expect, he wouldn’t be drawn on the red card, other than to say:

I’m expecting 100 Premier League games this season to play 10 against 11, or 10 against 10, or 9 against 10. Let’s see.

Tongue firmly in cheek, of course. In the end, a game which I think we can take a lot from, despite the disappointment. Every season that gap to City closes, and this time they couldn’t beat us even with the advantage they were given for a second half which ran to nearly an hour. As I said above, you can be sure that’s something Arteta will use, but beyond that, I wonder if it slightly shifts the dynamic between us and them. We used to be so easy to beat, now we are anything but, and I’m looking forward to our home game against them when we’ll take our revenge for how this one panned out in the end.

Anyway, I better leave it there for now. You can join us a bit later for an Arsecast Extra when we can go over things in a bit more detail. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Threads @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod should be out mid-morning. For now, have a good one.

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