Man City v Arsenal - A new rivalry

Over the last couple of seasons in the Premier League Man City and Arsenal have battled it out for the title. Man City have been the team victorious in the title races but Arsenal are slowly closing the gap. They met last weekend in what was an exhilarating affair, particularly in the first half. There were many controversial calls in the first half that changed the trajectory of the second half. Arsenal went down to 10 men and played defensively in the second half as a result, wasting time when they got the chance. Man City scored a stoppage time equaliser, the game finishing 2-2 as a result. Touchline antics followed with Man City’s physio celebrating on the pitch, and Haaland getting in a heated exchange with both Partey and Gabriel. The game showed a different side to this new rivalry. Let’s take a look at a review of the game and delve into the rivalry that has developed between these two clubs.

A Thrilling Draw

Both sides left the Etihad Stadium on Sunday with a point after both sides exchanged two goals. Erling Haaland opened the scoring before goals from Calafiori and Gabriel had Arsenal leading at the interval. Right on half time Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away, stopping the restart. This left Arsenal on the back foot going into the second half. Despite their lead, they now had to play a full half a man down. Arsenal were brilliant defensively in the second half but have been criticised for using the “dark arts”. The time wasted in order to try and see out a 2-1 victory. I’m not condoning this but it is understandable why they would do this, being 2-1 up at the home of the champions, down a man. It would prove to be their undoing as 7 minutes was added on by referee Michael Oliver, with John Stones finding the back of the net for Man City in the 98th minute, as there were more time wasting in injury time. Arsenal will feel aggrieved that City scored a minute over the allotted time, but they can only blame themselves. For neutrals and for Man City fans, it was a thrilling end to the game. Will Arsenal look back at the end of the season and rue getting 1 point here instead of 3?

Different than Liverpool Rivalry

Manchester City’s rivalry with Arsenal definitely feels different than their rivalry over the last number of seasons with Liverpool. The Manchester City and Liverpool rivalry was intense but deep down there was respect there. The players respected each other and the managers respected each other, we never seen the scenes that we seen at the end of the game last weekend. Off the field there was problems, especially when City players sang a song about Liverpool fan Sean Cox, but on the field the respect was there. Both teams went out and gave it their all to win the game, no sitting back, no dark arts, just two top class teams and managers who want to win. Arsenal are a top class team in their own right, but you get the sense City look at them differently than they do Liverpool. City have sold players to Arsenal, something they never would have done when going for titles with Liverpool. There is disrespect if anything amongst the City players to Arsenal with Bernardo Silva saying about the differences between their matches with Arsenal than Liverpool, “Perhaps because Liverpool has already won the Premier League and Arsenal hasn’t. Liverpool, at that time, had also won a Champions League, while Arsenal hasn’t. Liverpool always faced us head-on, to win matches. From that perspective, our games against Arsenal haven’t been like the matches against Liverpool were, and still are. It seems the City players are frustrated with Arsenal, but it is not up to Arsenal to make it easy for City!

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✒️ Jack Guing – Football and GAA Sports Expert

Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.