Call it the dark arts. Call it anti-football. Call it doing whatever it takes to win.
Arsenal tried it all against Manchester City on Sunday in the latest chapter of the Premier League’s new heavyweight rivalry — and came within seconds of victory. “There was only one team that came to play football,” Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva grumbled after an intense, absorbing and incident-packed 2-2 draw at Etihad Stadium. “The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately.
” John Stones’ equalizer for City in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time denied Arsenal, which played with 10 men for the entire second half, what would have been a defining victory for a team that is getting closer and closer to Pep Guardiola’s repeat champions. City's players know it, too. Hence Bernardo’s outspoken post-match comments on Arsenal.
Notice how Erling Haaland chucked the ball at the back of Arsenal defender Gabriel's head in City's wild celebrations after Stones’ late intervention. Look, too, at Pep Guardiola kicking his seat in the dugout after feeling a sense of injustice at the manner of Arsenal’s equalizer by Ricardo Calafiori. Arsenal has gotten under City’s skin.
Roll on the return match at Emirates Stadium in early February. “As a football match, it is a great spectacle for the Premier League,” City captain Kyle Walker said of the new rivalry with Arsenal, which has been runner-up in the .