Tetchy Mikel Arteta gives ‘unbelievable’ reaction to Arsenal draw and red card against Man City

Mikel Arteta went fully passive-aggressive in refusing to criticise the officials after his side’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City, saying everything he needed to in the process.

The Arsenal boss was clearly aggrieved that Leandro Trossard was shown a second yellow card for booting the ball away late in the first half, while Jeremy Doku escaped punishment for passing the ball further up the pitch after a free kick went against Manchester City earlier in the game.

Arsenal had fought back from a goal behind at the Etihad Stadium, with Riccardo Calafiori curling into the top corner from outside the box and Gabriel heading home from a corner after Erling Haaland had opened the scoring.

But the Gunners were given an uphill battle after Trossard was shown his second yellow card on the stroke of half time, leaving them to contest the second half with ten men.

Arteta’s side succeeded in limiting City largely to hopeful long-shots with an impressive defensive display, but their resistance was finally broken in the eighth minute of added time when John Stones capitalised on a penalty box scramble to fire past David Raya – despite Arsenal’s best efforts to waste as much time as possible throughout the second half and into injury time.

“It’s unbelievable what the players did,” Arteta said. “When we played in normal conditions it was already super super difficult – Man City haven’t lost here for 40-something games. Then the context that we were against ten men for 55, 56 minutes…that tells you the story of the character of our players and I’m really proud of them.”

Arteta added: “We went up 2-1 and then there are two incidents that are very similar, with one having a very different outcome, which then forces us to play in a way that nobody wants to watch.”

Asked specifically about Trossard’s red card, Arteta said: “I’m not talking about anything, I’m just saying what happened. I think it’s very  obvious, I don’t need to talk about it.”

Pressed further, the Gunners boss responded: “It’s not my job to come here and judge what happened. My job is to survive in the most difficult environment you can in football for 55 minutes and try to get things done to survive. That was my job. The rest of it is not my job and it’s already the second time it’s happened in five games, which is really really worrying. We want to see the best Premier League.

“In football or in any sport it’s less than a second. Less. Than. A. Second. The previous one (Doku’s) is more than a second. That’s it. Simple.”

Finally, Arteta said his players did ‘unbelievably well’, commenting: “I’m so proud of them. When you have survived for that many minutes and then concede the way we did, because had to play for 97 and then it went to 99, I’m very disappointed. But at the same time I couldn’t be prouder of them and we really competed today.”

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