Arteta

London (AFP)
Spanish coach Mikel Arteta defended his Arsenal side’s style of play against defending champions Manchester City on Sunday in the English Football League, in a clash that ended in a 2-2 draw and sent The London club finished with ten players from the end of the first game. half
After the clash between the champion and the runner-up in London ended, the latter came under criticism, especially from his rival for his defensive style and his attempt to waste time after to lead 2-1 at the dying moment.
Arteta said, “We played the game as it should be played,” recalling what happened in August 2021 when his side were forced to play with ten men after Swiss Granit Xhaka was sent off in the 35th minute, which made City lose by five goals.
Arsenal ended Sunday’s game with ten men from the end of the first half after Belgium’s Leandro Trossard was sent off immediately following Brazil’s Gabriel’s opener as City took the lead ​​​​​​​through the Norwegian Erling Haaland before the Italian. Riccardo Calafiore made a chance, leading to a stoppage time goal scored by skipper Iain Stones.
The Spanish coach said, “Unfortunately, we had to do this because we had experienced the same thing (elimination) three times against them. Once Tsaka was sent off, how many goals did we concede (at the time)? Luckily we learned our lesson otherwise we would be stupid, I would be very stupid.”
Since Arteta’s arrival at Arsenal in December 2019, observers have criticized the London side for their inability to rise to the challenge in key games.
During the game against City on Sunday, Arsenal tried to deal with the conflict with negative play, whether by making mistakes to stop attacks or by wasting time.
After a foul on Portugal’s Bernardo Silva, Trossard tried to delay the free kick by clearing the ball, thus receiving a second caution and dismissal, in a similar situation what happened with his teammate Declan Rice against Brighton (1-1) on 31 August.
When asked about the course of the game, City’s other Spanish coach, Pep Guardiola, seemed to understand what Arsenal did, saying: “I probably would have done the same because they played with ten men players.
But some of his players were not on the same wavelength, including legendary defender John Stones, who said: “You can describe (what Arsenal did) as clever or dirty , whatever you want, but they messed up the game, messed it up. rhythm “They are using this to their advantage and we have handled it well. “
He continued, “They slow down the game, their goalkeeper falls to the ground (uninjured) so they can give some information to the field. We had to control our emotions in those difficult times and I feel like we did. “There were a lot of difficult interventions, and some stupid decisions, but we did well.”
As for his colleague Bernardo Silva, he was harsher, saying, “There was only one team on the field coming to play football.” As for the other team, it came down to playing within the limits of what is allowed and what is allowed by the referees.”