After a week of late summer sunshine, the rain came to Manchester and so did the two best teams in the country. This exciting, visceral and deeply felt football match seemed to signal the real start of the Premier League season.
Moreover, this also felt like the day a rivalry became real. This felt like an escalation, a turning point. There will be, we feel, no turning back.
They have been the two best-equipped teams in the country for some time now, Manchester City and Arsenal, with the gap between them at the top two seasons ago being five points in City’s favour.
Last May there were only two. Yet the two sets of players seemed a little unsure of each other. There was a polite distance, a cautious and rather uncertain respect. At times it felt a little like two top tennis players sitting in opposite corners of a locker room. A strange glance upwards, a fleeting glance.
It wasn’t that, though. This was different. This was close combat, nose to nose, physical and occasionally furtive. It was sometimes vicious and the outcome – a desperate late equaliser for City through substitute John Stones – will have been felt more keenly by both sets of players than they have shared in years, if that is the case in the Premier League era.
Sunday’s match took the rivalry between Manchester City and Arsenal to a new level
Tempers flared as both sets of players clashed after Man City equalised late in the match
The match was filled with goals and much controversy, with Leandro Trossard being sent off
And that’s how it goes sometimes. Sometimes a rivalry needs a spark to really ignite it.
With Manchester United and Arsenal two decades ago, all it took was a word from the two managers. City’s feud with Liverpool grew slowly, fanned into inferno by incidents both on and off the football pitch.
Here, at an increasingly restless Etihad Stadium, a match that started with a player being pushed to the ground in the opening three seconds ended in exactly the same way just over 97 minutes later.
A match that ended in an ugly way, but one that was sandwiched between some fantastic goals, brilliant goalkeeping and a determined and well organised defence. It took so long between a City comeback and the victory that perhaps seemed inevitable when Leandro Trossard was shown a red card for a second yellow card just before half time.
Arsenal pose a different challenge to Pep Guardiola’s City than Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. Liverpool were about energy, speed and emotional strength. Arsenal are more complex and it is an emerging mental toughness and physicality that currently forms the basis of their threat to City. That is not to understate the technical and tactical charm of Mikel Arteta’s players. Not at all. Arsenal have some great footballers who, crucially, are getting better.
Man City players were furious with referee Michael Oliver, claiming he did not allow Kyle Walker to return to his position before Arsenal scored
The tension between the two teams was clearly visible during an exciting match, while the staff on the sidelines were also enthusiastic
But they are also one of the most physically impressive teams in the Premier League. If Guardiola were asked to remember the last time he played a team as good at attacking set pieces as Arsenal, he would surely find it hard to remember.
Asked by Mail Sport after the game whether Arsenal’s meticulously orchestrated blocking tactics on attacking angles were legal, he refused to get involved. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. Which of course means he damn well knows.
What is certain is that Arsenal are playing on the edge of legality. Here City could not cope. In the 38th minute Arsenal’s giant Brazilian defender Gabriel headed over. Four minutes later he came like a rocket after clearing Kyle Walker to head in from the side.
The game was simmering at that point. It had been that way ever since Rodri stepped in Kai Havertz’s way at kick-off and was thrown to the ground. It took him a while to get up and as the game wound its way along a path of goals, chances, fouls, arguments and talking points, there was plenty of that.
In the second half – as Arsenal’s ten men tried to keep City’s eleven at bay – most of that came from Arsenal
There are all sorts of words for it these days, but ultimately it’s a waste of time and – along with their own efforts – it has almost got Arteta’s team where they wanted to be.
Perhaps there was some justice in Arsenal being brought down by John Stones (left) in extra time largely caused by their own miscues
In the second half – as Arsenal’s ten men tried to keep City’s eleven at bay – much of that came from Arsenal. There are all sorts of words for it these days, but ultimately it was a waste of time and – along with their own efforts – it almost got Arteta’s team where they wanted to be.
Some will argue that there was some justice in Arsenal being brought down in added time to add on to extra time that was largely caused by their own swerving. Arteta was asked about this later but had long since lapsed into non-commentary mode, to the extent that it was tempting to remind him that he had not been arrested.
This was indeed one of those afternoons that ended with seemingly everyone harboring some sort of beef with the officials. The general air of irritation is perhaps best summed up by the booking of Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly, who was cautioned for something he did as a substitute during the warm-up. It meant that the 17-year-old found himself booked before he had even made his Premier League debut. That may well be a first.
Lewis-Skelly bizarrely received his first Premier League yellow card before coming on to the pitch
Lewis-Skelly confronted City star Erling Haaland (second from right), who reacted negatively
Arteta and Guardiola can act as a fire blanket in this match, but the rivalry is still very much alive for now
Arsenal, despite their disappointment, should be pleased with this result. It is another sign of progress. After falling behind early, they were comfortably the better team when they took the lead.
They almost did it, they almost held back the ocean. And when Erling Haaland celebrated the equalizer by throwing the ball at Gabriel’s head, they had the confirmation that after years of trying, they had finally found their way under City’s skin.
This may never reach the level of City-Liverpool or United-Arsenal. After all, the two managers worked together at City. They are friends. So Guardiola and Arteta may end up being the fire blanket. But this rivalry has now been really ignited and English football feels better for it.