Spanish coach Mikel Arteta defended his team Arsenal’s style of play against defending champions Manchester City last Sunday in the English Premier League, in a match that ended in a 2-2 draw and the London club completed it with ten players from the end of the first half.
After the end of the confrontation between the champion and his London runner-up, the latter was criticized, especially by his competitor, due to his defensive style and his attempt to waste time after he was leading 2-1 until the last minute.
“We played the game the way it should be played,” Arteta said, recalling what happened in August 2021 when his team was forced to play with ten players after Swiss Granit Xhaka was sent off in the 35th minute, which caused them to lose to City by five clean goals.
Arsenal completed Sunday’s match with ten players since the end of the first half after the expulsion of the Belgian Leandro Trossard immediately after the opening goal scored by the Brazilian Gabriel, in a match in which City took the lead through the Norwegian Erling Haaland before the Italian Riccardo Calafiori equalized, until the fatal goal scored for the home team by John Stones in stoppage time.
“Unfortunately, we had to do it because we had already experienced the same thing (the sending off) three times against them. Once with Xhaka’s sending off, and how many goals did we concede (then)? Fortunately we learned our lesson, otherwise we would be stupid, I would be very stupid,” the Spanish coach said.
Since Arteta arrived at Arsenal in December 2019, observers have criticised the London club for failing to rise to the challenge in big games.
During the match against City on Sunday, Arsenal tried to approach the confrontation with negative play, whether by committing mistakes to stop counterattacks or by wasting time.
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