Man City 2-2 Arsenal (Haaland 9′, Stones 90’+8 | Calafiori 22′, Gabriel 45’+1)
ETIHAD — If there was any doubt as to how fierce and feisty the rivalry has become between two sides to have gone toe-to-toe in the last two Premier League title races, the master in one dugout against his young protege in the other, they were dismissed 10 seconds into the game at the Etihad.
From Manchester City’s kick-off, Kai Havertz jogged straight for Rodri and thrust a shoulder into his opponent. Rodri fell to the floor, all 20 outfield players surrounding the midfielder holding his face and the referee trying to work out what the hell had just happened.
Maybe Rodri will think twice next time he offers analysis on why Arsenal failed to beat them to it last season. Maybe he won’t – had Havertz been sent off, it would’ve been a mind-game masterstroke.
In case you can’t recall, when asked for his opinion during the summer as to why City pipped Arsenal to the title last season, Rodri questioned Arsenal’s mentality.
“Arsenal did an unbelievable season, but I think the difference was in here,” he said, pointing to his head.
Havertz dishing out some retribution lit a fuse on a powder keg game.
A few minutes later Erling Haaland smashed into William Saliba, two planets colliding and causing shockwaves felt lightyears away.
Fired up City brought the heat to Arsenal who for a while looked unable to withstand the flames. A goal down in nine minutes through a brilliant Haaland strike, Arsenal started trying to foul shadows. In one move, City popped passes through Arsenal until Gabriel Magalhaes snapped Savinho on the edge of the box.
The anger showed no signs of dissipating after Arsenal equalised – in fact it probably contributed to it.
Bernardo Silva left out a leg to deliberately trip Thomas Partey, conceding an unnecessary free-kick. Partey then took it quickly, but fairly, managing to play a long pass a fraction of a second after Michael Oliver had blown his whistle.
The swiftness caught City out, Gabriel Martinelli, in space on the left, dribbled inside then cut the ball back for Riccardo Calafiori who sublimely stroked it over Ederson from distance.
Were Calafiori and his goal entered into a beauty contest the judges would be hard-pressed to pick a winner.
It was, in the context of the game up until that point, a strange goal: 22 minutes and Arsenal had not had a shot at Ederson’s goal. And City were furious about it.
Volcanos erupted everywhere: City’s players surrounded and screamed at the referee, Pep Guardiola stamped on a dugout chair like a bouncer ending the night of an uninvited guest, the City manager then turning his fury on his defender, Kyle Walker.
Maybe the final piece in an Arsenal title-winning puzzle is Mikel Arteta adding this tough ruggedness and aggression so at odds with the flimsy sides of the end of the Arsene Wenger era. An ugliness, a delight in getting their hands dirty that was evident in the 1-0 win against Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby the weekend before and in Manchester on Sunday evening.
When Gabriel or Saliba make those galloping runs into the penalty area it is a brave opponent who tries to stop them. No City player stopped Gabriel with his first run of the match, which he headed narrowly over, nor the second, which he thundered in.
VAR checked some wonderful shithousery from Martinelli, who had blocked Ederson’s path to a ball he would ordinarily claim, right on his line, but deemed it fair.
It was scored in first-half stoppage time, but there was still time for Partey to halt a City counter-attack by scything down Savinho and Leandro Trossard to be sent off for what appeared tw0 soft yellow cards – the second kicking the ball away.
At the break Arteta switched Saka for Ben White and set up a granite slab in front of Arsenal’s goal. And the second half went inevitably: 20 minutes in and City’s possession ticked over 90 per cent, they’d had 10 shots to Arsenal’s zero, at one point they out-passed Arsenal 208 to 15.
After one collision, goalkeeper David Raya stayed down “injured” and all Arsenal’s players rushed over to Arteta to hear an explosive, inspiring team talk, as though it had been pre-planned.
Meanwhile, during the short break, as more minutes eked out of the game, Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly was booked with his bib on, warming up on the touchline, seemingly for telling Raya to go down – the 17-year-old becoming the first player to be booked before making his debut for a club. Declan Rice soon joined him on a booking for taking too long over a free-kick.
City finally broke Arsenal deep in stoppage time, John Stones equalising. Painful for Arsenal, but quite the result in the circumstances.
From the final kick-off, Haaland crashed into Gabriel and two entire teams squared up to one another, the game finishing almost exactly as it had begun.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/awYS1vm
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