Man City vs Arsenal Player Ratings: Etihad thriller a microcosm of Arsenal under Mikel Arteta
A rain-drenched Etihad Stadium played host to Arsenal‘s best and worst under Mikel Arteta as they dramatically snatched one Premier League point against champions Manchester City from the jaws of victory.
It didn’t look good after Erling Haaland put the hosts in front, but these North Londoners are built differently and showed resilience despite making things harder for themselves. Having been forced into making one change from their NLD success at Tottenham last weekend — Riccardo Calafiori starting ahead of Ben White, with Jurriën Timber at right back — the move immediately paid off with the Italian defender equalising before a fellow member of Arsenal’s backline sensationally put them ahead.
But they couldn’t hold on as John Stones, a 78th-minute substitute, levelled it again in the 98th minute. A rush of ecstasy surged through City as their opponents cut dejected figures, and the match ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw, one that will not be short of talking points.
However, the game’s real talking point came deep into first-half stoppage time. For the second time this season, Arsenal had a player sent off for kicking the ball away and earning a second yellow card. It was a considerable risk for Leandro Trossard to boot the ball. But Arsenal supporters will point to Jérémy Doku and ask why he wasn’t cautioned for kicking the ball away when Arsenal was awarded a free kick earlier in the half. Ironically, this happened just before Trossard received his first yellow card. It’s the same incident, though sources say Trossard didn’t kick the ball away out of petulance but was playing on and clearing the danger. Doku is now the new ‘João Pedro’. Mikel Arteta was ‘amazed’ by Declan Rice’s sending-off against Brighton. What will he feel about this in a much bigger game?
“Arteta has put his jumper over his head. I don’t think he can complain,” Gary Neville said on Sky Sports commentary. “It’s a foul. He barges Bernardo Silva and then he wellies the ball away. The reason we know he’s heard the whistle is he half pulls away.” Jamie Carragher added: “The position Arsenal find themselves in, what is Trossard doing?” Even if there’s a grievance over Dokú not being cautioned, he should have known better. “The position Arsenal find themselves in, what is Trossard doing?” Jamie Carragher added.
That was Trossard’s first Premier League red card in his 175th appearance in the competition. Furthermore, the Gunners (four) have received more cards for time-wasting in England’s top division this season than any other team. But the ugly truth is that since Mikel Arteta’s first game in charge of Arsenal in December 2019, the Gunners have had 17 players red-carded in the Premier League—at least four more than any other club.
RED CARD 🟥
Leandro Trossard gets a second yellow and is sent off for kicking the ball away after barging into Bernardo Silva… pic.twitter.com/FLNunzgN54
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 22, 2024
White came on to start the second half, with Arsenal switching to a back five and four in midfield, just as they did after going down to 10 against Brighton. Considering they had to play a Champions League game a day later than Manchester City and away in Italy, too, they didn’t get back from that game with Atalanta until early Friday morning. The odds were surely in Manchester City’s favour to wear Arsenal down.
What followed was a rearguard action for the ages, but enabled by City’s forethought, summed up by centre-back Rúben Dias regularly striking from range. The setup for City wasn’t correct. Pep Guardiola needed to get his playmakers onto the ball in the central areas instead of Dias and Manuel Akanji trying to play the defence-splitting pass or come up with the wonder strike. “Manchester City have to get Rúben Dias off the ball,” exclaimed Carragher, and his point was illustrated by the fact that the aforementioned defenders, plus Mateo Kovačić and Kyle Walker, had the most touches of any City player in the second half.
It became moot as a corner goes short, and Grealish gets to the left byline. He pulls the ball back for Kovacic, but another Arsenal block gets in the way. The rebound falls to Stones, and he squeezes it through David Raya’s desperate dive. Raya had been excellent, making eight saves in the second half, bringing Arsenal within seconds of a rare Etihad victory that would have taken them top. Standing firm and holding out, they had been down to ten men for more than 45 minutes at the Etihad. But champions do what champions do. Stones’ last-gasp equaliser could be crucial come the end of the season.
Man City vs Arsenal ratings
We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to assign each player a percentage score (minimum 50 minutes played). Each player’s statistics are compared to the average output of their respective position. We also weighted each statistic from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of their respective position style, with five being the most important.
Man City
- GK: Ederson (32%) – Recorded a ‘goals prevented’ score of -0.86.
- RB: Kyle Walker (55%) – Didn’t complete a single tackle but did create one big chance from right-back.
- CB: Rúben Dias (63%) – Completed two tackles, three long passes and won four aerial duels.
- CB: Manuel Akanji (63%) – Managed an 89.83% retention rate and completed four clearances.
- LB: Josko Gvardiol (54%) – Won two tackles and three aerial duels but was ineffective going forward.
- DM: Mateo Kovacic (54%) – Came on for Rodri, who went off injured in the opening 30 minutes.
- DM: Ilkay Gündogan (57%) – Made three passes into the opposition penalty area to earn the best midfielder Squawka Score in the match.
- W: Savinho (65%) – Assisted Erling Haaland for the opener, completed three take-ons and won two fouls in the final third.
- AM: Bernardo Silva (49%) – Created one big chance but didn’t register a shot or win the ball in the final third at any point.
- W: Jérémy Doku (44%) – Managed an xA of just 0.03 in an ineffectual performance.
- ST: Erling Haaland (68%) – Scored the opening goal and racked up five shots on target against the in-form David Raya.
Arsenal
- GK: David Raya (59%) – Despite conceding twice, he made a weekend-high nine saves and finished with a 1.19 ‘goals prevented’ total.
- RB: Jurriën Timber (58%) – Had a 0% pass accuracy rate (0/6) but did complete four clearances.
- CB: William Saliba (66%) – Won three aerial duels, two tackles and made eight clearances at the heart of the Arsenal defence.
- CB: Gabriel Magalhães (64%) – Scored another headed goal, but was less involved defensively than Saliba.
- LB: Riccardo Calafiori (65%) – Aside from his goal, Calafiori also won three tackles and completed four clearances
- RM: Bukayo Saka (N/A) – Subbed off at half-time.
- CM: Thomas Partey (45%) – Made one error leading to a shot and just one interception over the 90 minutes.
- CM: Declan Rice (40%) – Struggled in possession with just 68.42% pass success rate.
- LM: Gabriel Martinelli (42%) – Registered an xA of just 0.17 and didn’t complete a take-on.
- ST: Leandro Trossard (N/A) – Sent off on the stroke of half-time.
- ST: Kai Havertz (44%) – Had a 0% pass accuracy rate (0/5). As you may have noticed, he wasn’t alone. Before today’s game, no outfield player on the pitch for 89 minutes or more had failed to complete a single pass in a Premier League game since Opta started recording passing data. By full-time, it had happened twice.
Only two outfield players have played 89+ minutes of a Premier League game and not completed a single pass since @OptaJoe records began:
◉ Kai Havertz vs. Man City (0/5)
◉ Jurrien Timber vs. Man City (0/6)And it happened in the same game. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/KCKHP3S4RN
— Squawka (@Squawka) September 22, 2024
More so when you know who’ll lead City’s charge. It feels like a lifetime ago that Haaland broke the deadlock. He scored his 100th goal for Manchester City in all competitions, needing just 105 appearances to reach the landmark. The machine-like Norwegian marksman also became the fourth player to score 100 goals under Pep Guardiola after Lionel Messi (211), Sergio Agüero (124), and Raheem Sterling (120). By scoring against Arsenal, Haaland also equalled Cristiano Ronaldo’s record of the fastest player to score 100 goals for a club. Both forwards achieved this in 105 appearances, with Ronaldo doing the same for Real Madrid.
Calafiori cancelled Haaland’s opener, meaning he’s scored three goals across his last three league starts (two in one for Bologna, one in one for Arsenal), before Gabriel, for a second consecutive weekend, nodded home from a Bukayo Saka corner. Arsenal has scored 18 goals via this method in the Premier League since the beginning of last season, at least six more than any other team. It was a day that highlighted both the positive and negative aspects of Arsenal under their manager.
