Analysis of every dark moment between Man City and Arsenal

September 23, 2024

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Analysis of every dark moment between Man City and Arsenal

It was a meeting of the Premier League’s two best teams, a battle of tactical masters, a clash of technical ingenuity and pure drama.

Manchester City v Arsenal, which lasted just five games into the season, lived up to expectations in many conventional ways and provided a memorable ending.

But it also proved that no heavyweight match can’t be made better by a little shit (or, to be more accurate, a whole lot of shit).

There was plenty of time for it. The match lasted 109 minutes and 17 seconds, surpassing the previous day’s 109 minutes and 8 seconds between Aston Villa and Wolves as the longest match of the season so far.

And despite some valiant time-wasting attempts (more on that later), the ball was in play for a total of 63 minutes and 28 seconds – the fifth-longest total in a game so far this season – and 58.1 percent of the time available, which compares favorably to the season-to-date average of 56.8 percent.

But with City having almost 88 per cent of the ball possession in the second half, Arsenal’s ten men had to use every trick in their power to withstand the barrage.

So forget the nuances of formations and the analysis of sublime skills. Here is an overview of the dark arts.

“Make sure the tone is early, boys.” “Yeah, maybe not quite that way.”

It took just three seconds after kick-off for Arsenal’s Kai Havertz to push Rodri to the ground, with City playing the ball back to goalkeeper Ederson and Rodri attempting to block Havertz’s route to City’s goal.

There were medics on the pitch and immediately players were in the ear of referee Michael Oliver, who was probably already wondering why he had let a Sunday afternoon on the bench pass him by for this.

The VAR checked this incident and although it could have justified an on-field foul, there was no intervention, which would only happen in the case of a red card.

“Our striker is bigger than yours.” Havertz is certainly not a slight figure, but you don’t want to get in Erling Haaland’s way when he’s in full flight.

Well, William Saliba did it in four minutes, because, to use the old-fashioned vernacular, the Norwegian left the Frenchman “a little bit”. The result, as you might expect, was that Saliba was steamrolled, although he dusted himself off admirably quickly.

Just like Havertz with Rodri, this was also checked by the VAR.

Just as a game of football threatened to break out, there was more pushing in the 16th minute when a Manchester City corner was cleared after Thomas Partey followed Havertz’s example and finished off Rodri’s ball, this time with a knee to the upper part of the Spaniard’s leg.

It all happened while City’s Manuel Akanji and Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber were playing Greco-Roman wrestling a few yards away. A rare moment of double dark arts – and one with serious consequences, as Rodri was forced off injured.

Six minutes later it was Oliver who tried to close things out, raising the temperature to a new level.

After calling captains Kyle Walker and Bukayo Saka together to discuss controlling their team-mates, Oliver gave Arsenal a quick free-kick while Walker was still finding his feet. Gabriel Martinelli’s cross was cleared to Riccardo Calafiori and the Italian curled a shot into the top corner.

Walker was not happy about it, that goes without saying. Neither was City manager Pep Guardiola, as his seat in the dugout in his home country would confirm.

If Walker could claim the award for most wronged man of the afternoon, he could also add the award for most hapless proponent of the dark arts.

His strange prod of Arsenal defender Gabriel as they waited for a corner in first-half injury time could have been quite funny had the Brazilian defender not easily moved away from the England player and headed in his side’s second goal at the far post.

Got him, got him, got him…

…yes, I lost him.

Not to be outdone, Leandro Trossard seemed intent on proving he could also be a bad sch***housing player. Deeper into first-half injury time, he was penalized for a foul but continued to kick the ball away. He would claim the whistle came too late to stop himself from acting on instinct.

Oliver disagreed and was shown a yellow card. It was Trossard’s second of the half and a red card followed immediately.

#MCIARS 45+7′

The referee gave Leandro Trossard a second yellow card for delaying the restart.

— Premier League Match Center (@PLMatchCentre) September 22, 2024

There was a period of calm at the start of the second half as Arsenal’s ten men held firm despite City’s intense pressure. But the battle flared up 19 minutes after the break when Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was injured and required treatment.

It is possible the Spaniard was in genuine pain, but the ensuing stoppage gave visiting manager Mikel Arteta time for an impromptu team talk.

To add to the madness, Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a yellow card for unsporting conduct – he ran along the touchline and behind the goal. He was a substitute at the time, having never played in the Premier League before – and received his first yellow card on his first appearance. Lewis-Skelly made his Premier League debut later in the game.

The delay was consistent with Arsenal’s general approach, with an average of 42.7 seconds needed to restart play from a corner, goal kick, free kick or throw-in – the second-highest total of any team in a match this season.

In the 83rd minute Arsenal tried everything they could to eat away at precious seconds with Declan Rice shown a yellow card for delaying a restart before, two minutes later, Martinelli went down in the middle of the pitch, having limped around in less important parts of the field with cramp.

And to prove that Timber could out-play Martinelli, Arsenal then sent doctors onto the pitch to treat the Dutchman. However, goalkeeper Raya’s ball missed the pitch, forcing Oliver to stop play as City tried to attack.

Timber was helped to his feet after initially falling to the ground in front of the goal.

He hobbled away and gestured to the sideline for a substitute.

After seeing Timber fall again, a doctor prepared to enter the field after Raya hit the ball out.

And when Raya couldn’t find contact, the doctor ran on anyway.

Martinelli was eventually replaced by fellow countryman Gabriel Jesus, who almost immediately resorted to a trick and was shown a yellow card for lying on the ground and blocking a corner.

And then, after John Stones’ dramatic equaliser for City eight minutes into injury time, City apparently couldn’t resist turning the tables on the chicanery. Guardiola and one of his coaches were shown yellow cards for breaching the rules of conduct in the technical zone.

Haaland picked the ball out of the net and fired it into the head of the unsuspecting Gabriel as the Arsenal defender buried his face in his shirt.

To make sure Gabriel was genuinely angry, Haaland repeated Havertz’s earlier attack on Rodri when the match restarted. Both of Haaland’s incidents were reportedly checked by VAR.

And Haaland continued the theatrics after the final whistle in a seemingly unnecessary yet oddly entertaining confrontation with Arteta, in which the Arsenal manager appeared as bewildered as the viewers as he was repeatedly told to “stay humble”, all of which went to show that there is no match between two heavyweight teams that cannot be enhanced by a little random aggression.