Summary:
- Manchester City-Arsenal Premier League match ended in a tense 2-2 draw on Sunday night.
- Man City players accused Arsenal of employing “dark arts” while Mikel Arteta invoked a “miracle”.
- Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard received a controversial second yellow card and was sent off in the second half.
Manchester City forward Bernardo Silva voiced his frustrations after a thrilling 2-2 draw against Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium, claiming only one team came to “play football“.
The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee
The tense Premier League match saw City dominate possession, while Arsenal, down to 10 men for the entire second half, nearly pulled off a victory.
City Captain Walker: ”Great Spectacle for the Premier League”
Man City captain Kyle Walker told BBC Radio 5 Live the match was
A great spectacle for the Premier League, I think it’s part and parcel of the game and we’ll say the dark arts.
He added that while City fans and players were “obviously frustrated”, the Arsenal manager could expect to be told “well played and well managed“.
The game’s pivotal moment came just before halftime when Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard was controversially sent off.
Trossard received a second yellow card for kicking the ball away after a challenge on Silva, leaving the Gunners short-handed for the remainder of the match.
While Arteta refused to directly criticize referee Michael Oliver’s decision to send off Trossard, the incident came at a particularly frustrating time for Arsenal.
Just a week earlier, Declan Rice served a one-match suspension for a second yellow card under similar circumstances, leading to renewed questions about disciplinary consistency in the Premier League.
When asked if his side would have come out victorious if Trossard would have stayed on the pitch, Arteta said he had “no clue” but explained they “would have tried for sure”.
Despite the disadvantage, Arsenal managed to hold City at bay until deep into stoppage time, with John Stones scoring a dramatic 98th-minute equalizer.
The game was marked by City’s overwhelming second-half dominance that claimed 87.5% possession and 28 shots.
Arteta: “It Is a Miracle We Played 56 Minutes at the Etihad With 10 Men”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta praised his team’s resilience, calling it “a miracle” they held on for so long with a man down.
“It’s unbelievable what we have done“, Arteta said, acknowledging the daunting task of facing City under such circumstances.
99 out of 100 times if you play 56 minutes against this team with 10 men, you’re going to lose by a lot of goals
The Gunners were on the verge of becoming the first away team to win at the Etihad since November 2022 since Brentford – and move top of the Premier League – before Stones snatched a point that instead returned City to the summit.
However, the Stones’ late equalizer denied them a victory that would have propelled them to the top of the Premier League.
The match saw tensions rise not just over Trossard’s red card, but also due to the extended stoppage time, which allowed City to snatch a point and return to the summit of the table.
The draw left Arsenal questioning what might have been, while City stays on top, on its way to pursue another league title.
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