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Where to start? Well, how about the first few seconds when Kai Havertz bumped into Rodri, who stepped across his path. The Spanish international pretended he’d been caught in the face and the game was stopped for two minutes while he kept up the facade and got some treatment. That set the tone for what was to come.
Minutes later, Erling Haaland clattered into William Saliba as he was making an aerial clearance, a dangerous action which the referee kept his cards in his pocket for. It felt like an afternoon when this rivalry took on a new layer. Haaland did what he did best by opening the scoring. For once Saliba and Gabriel weren’t on the same wavelength, he was put through by Savinho and poked home for 1-0.
It could have been worse. Ilkay Gundogan hit the post and City were building momentum we found hard to deal with. Then one of the moments that changed the game. From a corner Rodri jarred his knee, went down actually hurt this time, and had to come off. Mateo Kovacic came on, but that seemed to put the brakes on the home side, and we started to play a bit.
Almost immediately, we were level. City were aggrieved that Kyle Walker wasn’t allowed time to get back in position after the referee had called the two captains over for a word in midfield after we’d been awarded a free kick. Thomas Partey took it, played it down the line to Martinelli who cut it back for Riccardo Calafiori to curl home a magnificent goal on his first Premier League start. What a finish, and as for City’s complaints, Walker might have been distracted but he wasn’t paying full attention either, and City were disorganised because of the substitution. That’s more on him/them than the ref – and I’m not someone inclined to give Michael Oliver any benefit of the doubt (read on).
Even at 1-1, it was a game we struggled to get hold of. By the 33rd minute Declan Rice had made just 3 passes. Trossard and Havertz had 2…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/09/man-city-2-2-arsenal-heroic-gunners-battle-opposition-and-officials/
Author : arseblog
Publish date : 2024-09-23 06:05:26
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