Key events
66 min “A referee doing their job properly is making the best calls possible based on what is seen in the moment,” says Eric Peterson. “Period. I’m not so naive to think this hasn’t always been a part of the game, but I am frustrated at how far we’ve come with players treating a first caution as a commodity, a free hit, a mulligan, rather than the warning it’s meant to be. If a player is going to manage how they play the game in this manner, then they have to be prepared to be an adult and accept the risks, including the consequences of that strategy backfiring on them.”
That ship sailed a long time ago, sadly.
64 min City’s bench options include Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Rico Lewis. No sign of any of them coming on just yet.
Meanwhile, David Raya has decided to have a sit down, which allows both managers to give an impromptu team talk. How do you prove he’s cheating?
While Raya receives treatment, Michael Oliver books one of the Arsenal substitutes, possibly Myles Lewis-Skelly.
63 min At time Arsenal’s shape is closer to 6-3-0, with Martinelli as the left-back as Calafiori as a fourth centre-half. One thing’s for sure: Erling Haaland won’t be charging through any gaps like he did for the opening goal.
62 min David Raya makes another save. A corner is only half cleared, and Gvardiol raps a snapshot from 12 yards. It’s at Raya’s feet but he still gets down to knock the ball up in the air and then grab it at the second attempt.
61 min “If only,” says Niall Mullen, “there was some part of the process of a player kicking the ball away and getting booked for it that was in the player’s control.”
60 min Passes in the opposition half since the break: Manchester City 114-2 Arsenal.
All Arsenal care about is what happens when you take away the 1 and the 4.
59 min: Good save by Raya! City take a short corner on the right. Walker flips a cross beyond the far post, where Haaland leaps miles above Saliba to power a header back across goal. Raya changes direction to paw it away, an excellent save, and then the off-balance Bernardo Silva shoots over the bar.
58 min A stinging shot from Walker, 20 yards out, is beaten away by Raya. This is a fascinating gamble from Mikel Arteta. He hasn’t just parked the bus, he’s taken the engine out and put it on eBay.
57 min Doku wins a corner and takes it quickly. It’s half cleared to Akanji, whose shot deflects behind for another.
56 min Arsenal are defending so deep, with five across the line of the penalty spot and four more on the edge of the area.
55 min “Mid-Wenger Arsenal were pretty good at playing with 10 men too,” says Angus Chisholm. “Remember the 3 – 2 comeback against Bolton?”
I do now! The first seven or eight years, though, they had an insanely good record.
54 min Dias blooters wide from 25 yards. Arsenal will be very happy if City are reduced to efforts like that. They’ve barely had a kick since half-time but, crucially, David Raya has barely had a touch.
52 min They don’t. Bernardo Silva’s free-kick is overhit.
51 min Calafiori trips Savinho just outside the area on the right. Michael Oliver doesn’t give it, then changes his mind after the assistant puts his flag up. Arsenal will be thrilled if City equalise from this.
51 min As a neutral I think there’s something quite admirable about Mikel Arteta’s unashamed pragmatism. When he first took over at Arsenal I assumed he was just another new-age romantic, but he couldn’t care less about going to 5-4-0 and wasting as much time as possible.
50 min “I understand the argument against being more lenient when a player is on a yellow, that the rules should be applied consistently without eye to context,” says Zach Neeley. “But for both these Arsenal reds, it seems like the rule is more lenient if you aren’t on a yellow but if you are, they have to give you a second, and that makes the least sense to me.”
Weren’t they just mistakes rather than inconsistent application of the law?
49 min Now Kovacic shoots over from 22 yards after a cutback from Bernardo Silva. It bounced up awkwardly.
48 min Walker pings a flat cross towards the far post, where Haaland gets above Saliba and heads straight at Raya. Saliba did well to ensure Haaland couldn’t get a run at the ball.
47 min These are the revised line-ups for what is likely to be an extended training session: City attack v Arsenal defence.
Manchester City (4-1-2-3) Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Kovacic Bernardo, Gundogan; Savinho, Haaland, Doku.
Arsenal (5-4-0) Raya; Timber, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Havertz, Partey, Rice, Martinelli.
46 min Arsenal begin the second half. White has gone to play as the right centre-back in what is essentially a 5-4-0 formation. Havertz is playing from the right, Martinelli is on the left.
Half-time substitution Arsenal are bringing on Ben White for… Bukayo Saka. Interesting. It looks like a back five straight from the off.
A few of you have suggested Michael Oliver didn’t have to send Trossard off. Isn’t it a pretty clear edict? If Oliver doesn’t book him, he gets marked down, loses his job and by 2025 he’s working as a barista in Whitstable.
That said, we’ve just seen footage of Doku kicking the ball away seconds before Trossard’s first yellow card. Arsenal will understandably be aggrieved about that.
“Arsenal need to channel the early Wenger-era sides,” says Tanay Padhi, “who were masters of playing with a man down.”
They were amazing, weren’t they? Who knows, maybe this will be their Anfield 2001.
Half-time reading
“Astounding, incomprehensible stupidity from Trossard,” says Charles Antaki, and he’s an Arsenal fan. “The only explanation is that his water bottle was contaminated with lead, which is known to reduce IQ by significant percentage points. He seems to have somehow managed to drink several gallons of it over the course of the first half.”
“There were nearly ten seconds between the referee having a word and the free kick being taken,” says Will Vignoles. “You’d think a defender of Walker’s vast experience, who is famously quick, might have used that time to get back in position, no?”
Half time: Man City 1-2 Arsenal
Last season, the games between City and Arsenal were dull and duller. Today’s first half was the complete opposite: utterly, at times disgustingly compelling.
City started magnificently and took the lead through a devastating goal from Erling Haaland. Then Rodri got injured, Riccardo Calafiori scored a stunning and controversial equaliser and the mood changed.
Gabriel headed Arsenal in front from a corner that was almost impossible to defend. But the mood changed again on the stroke of half time when Leandro Trossard was sent off for kicking the ball away.
45+9 min Trossard finally leaves the field after about 60 seconds of chuntering. Arteta puts his arm round him before he walks down the tunnel.
Trossard is sent off!
45+8 min The plot thickens. Trossard, booked earlier in the game, barges Bernardo Silva over and then kicks the ball away. Mikel Arteta is waving his hands around in frustration but those are the rules. Having said that, I’m pretty sure Doku did the same earlier in the half without being booked.
We’ll hear plenty about it, either way. Arteta is fuming.
45+7 min Partey is booked for a sliding foul on Gundogan (I think). An easy decision.
45+5 min “I willingly take back my prophecy that Arteta’s strategy was equivalent to having a plan until you got hit in the face,” says Charles Antaki. “It was all a masterpiece of planning, and allowing Haaland to get the first goal was a sophisticated gambit that Capablanca or Kasparov would have been proud of.”
45+4 min As Gary Neville stresses on Sky, Saka’s delivery for both Gabriel chances was nigh-on perfect.
45+3 min Blimey.
45+2 min There was a VAR check for a potential foul by Martinelli on Ederson, but the goal stands. Martinelli knew what he was doing, no question, but all he really did was stand his ground. With the current threshold it was never going to be overturned.
Ruben Dias has been booked, presumably for dissent.