Four-goal Etihad thriller: a microcosm of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta

A rain-drenched Etihad Stadium played host to Arsenal‘s best and worst under Mikel Arteta as they dramatically snatched one Premier League point against champions Manchester City from the jaws of victory.

It didn’t look good after Erling Haaland put the hosts in front, but these North Londoners are built differently and showed resilience despite making things harder for themselves. Having been forced into making one change from their NLD success at Tottenham last weekend — Riccardo Calafiori starting ahead of Ben White, with Jurriën Timber at right back — the move immediately paid off with the Italian defender equalising before a fellow member of Arsenal’s backline sensationally put them ahead.

But they couldn’t hold on as John Stones, a 78th-minute substitute, levelled it again in the 98th minute. Delirium from the champions as their opponents cut dejected figures as the match ended in a 2-2 draw.

However, the game’s real talking point came deep into first-half stoppage time. For the second time this season, Arsenal had a player sent off for kicking the ball away and earning a second yellow card. It was a considerable risk for Leandro Trossard to boot the ball. But Arsenal supporters will point to Jérémy Doku and ask why he wasn’t cautioned for kicking the ball away when Arsenal was awarded a free kick earlier in the half. Ironically, this happened just before Trossard received his first yellow card. It’s the same incident, though sources say Trossard didn’t kick the ball away out of petulance but was playing on and clearing the danger. Doku is now the new ‘João Pedro’. Mikel Arteta was ‘amazed’ by Declan Rice’s sending-off against Brighton. What will he feel about this in a much bigger game?

“Arteta has put his jumper over his head. I don’t think he can complain,” Gary Neville said on Sky Sports commentary. “It’s a foul. He barges Bernardo Silva and then he wellies the ball away. The reason we know he’s heard the whistle is he half pulls away.” Jamie Carragher added: “The position Arsenal find themselves in, what is Trossard doing?” Even if there’s a grievance over Dokú not being cautioned, he should have known better. “The position Arsenal find themselves in, what is Trossard doing?” Jamie Carragher added.

That was Trossard’s first Premier League red card in his 175th appearance in the competition. Furthermore, the Gunners (four) have received more cards for time-wasting in England’s top division this season than any other team. But the ugly truth is that since Mikel Arteta’s first game in charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the Gunners have had 17 players red-carded in the Premier League—at least four more than any other club.

White came on to start the second half, with Arsenal switching to a back five and four in midfield, just as they did after going down to 10 against Brighton. Considering they had to play a Champions League game a day later than Manchester City and away in Italy, too, they didn’t get back from that game with Atalanta until early Friday morning. The odds were surely in Manchester City’s favour to wear Arsenal down.

What followed was a rearguard action for the ages, but enabled by City’s forethought, summed up by centre-back Rúben Dias regularly striking from range. The setup for City wasn’t correct. Pep Guardiola needed to get his playmakers onto the ball in the central areas instead of Dias and Manuel Akanji trying to play the defence-splitting pass or come up with the wonder strike. “Manchester City have to get Rúben Dias off the ball,” exclaimed Carragher, and his point was illustrated by the fact that the aforementioned defenders, plus Mateo Kovačić and Kyle Walker, had the most touches of any City player in the second half.

It became moot as a corner goes short, and Grealish gets to the left byline. He pulls the ball back for Kovacic, but another Arsenal block gets in the way. The rebound falls to Stones, and he squeezes it through David Raya’s desperate dive. Raya had been excellent, making eight saves in the second half, bringing Arsenal within seconds of a rare Etihad victory that would have taken them top. Standing firm and holding out, they had been down to ten men for more than 45 minutes at the Etihad. But champions do what champions do. Stones’ last-gasp equaliser could be crucial come the end of the season.

Man City vs Arsenal ratings

We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to assign each player a percentage score (minimum 50 minutes played). Each player’s statistics are compared to the average output of their respective position. We also weighted each statistic from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of their respective position style, with five being the most important.

Arsenal

• GK: David Raya (59%) – Despite conceding twice, he made nine saves and finished with a 1.19 ‘goals prevented’ total.

• RB: Jurriën Timber (58%)

• CB: William Saliba (66%)

• CB: Gabriel Magalhães (64%)

• LB: Riccardo Calafiori (65%)

• RM: Bukayo Saka (N/A) – Subbed off at half-time.

• CM: Thomas Partey (45%)

• CM: Declan Rice (40%)

• LM: Gabriel Martinelli (42%)

• ST: Leandro Trossard (N/A) – Sent off on the stroke of half-time.

• ST: Kai Havertz (44%)

More so when you know who’ll lead City’s charge. It feels like a lifetime ago that Haaland broke the deadlock. He scored his 100th goal for Manchester City in all competitions, needing just 105 appearances to reach the landmark. The machine-like Norwegian marksman also became the fourth player to score 100 goals under Pep Guardiola after Lionel Messi (211), Sergio Agüero (124), and Raheem Sterling (120). By scoring against Arsenal, Haaland also equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of the fastest player to score 100 goals for a club. Both forwards achieved this in 105 appearances, with Ronaldo doing the same for Real Madrid.

Calafiori cancelled Haaland’s opener, meaning he’s scored three goals across his last three league starts (two in one for Bologna, one in one for Arsenal), before Gabriel, for a second consecutive weekend, nodded home from a Bukayo Saka corner. Arsenal has scored 18 goals via this method in the Premier League since the beginning of last season, at least six more than any other team. It was a day that highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of Arsenal under their manager.

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