Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has become the latest player within Pep Guardiola’s camp to launch an assault on Arsenal’s tactics on Sunday afternoon.
The Premier League champions found themselves ahead in the mammoth contest between the top-flight title rivals inside the opening 10 minutes thank to Erling Haaland’s 10th goal of the season having combined with Savinho.
Riccardo Calafiori would tie the game level before Gabriel Magalhaes would move Arsenal ahead inside the first-half, only for a moment of madness from Leandro Trossard would see the forward dismissed via a second yellow card after kicking the ball away.
Manchester City would face a nine-man defence for the entirety of the second-half, with Arsenal attempting all the tricks in the book of football’s dark arts, delaying the restart of play, feigning injuries, and breaking up play to receive instructions on the sideline.
The antics issued by Arsenal have unsurprisingly left Manchester City’s players overjoyed by the fact that they managed to deny their opponents the victory as a result, with some issuing their anger in post-match comments towards Mikel Arteta’s side.
Speaking after the dramatic 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium at the weekend, Manuel Akanji doubled down on the belief that Arsenal were the only team happy to settle for a draw during the clash given their defensive tactics.
“That’s what they’re looking for,” Akanji responded when the subject of Arsenal’s time-wasting was put to him after the game. “Always when we play against them, that’s what they’re looking for: the drama.”
He continued, “It worked for them so if they’re happy with the one point. We’re not, we tried to get more but that’s what they’re happy with. At the end of the day we’re still top of the league. We haven’t lost a game yet.
“We tried, especially in the second half with one man up but it’s hard with ten players defending in their own box.”
Despite Manchester City having now drawn their last two games across the UEFA Champions League and Premier League, Akanji and his Etihad teammates will be left with plenty to be positive about in a challenging period for the club.
Pep Guardiola’s strength of squad will be tested to the very limit over the course of the coming weeks, despite having already come into the upcoming matches off the back of stern challenges.
Watford visit the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night in the third round of the Carabao Cup, just 49 hours after the conclusion of the game between Manchester City and Arsenal, before a trip to the north-east against Newcastle awaits on Saturday lunchtime.
