Does Manchester City’s new heated rivalry with Arsenal stain the Guardiola-Arteta friendship? According to the coaches, who cares, at least on the pitch.
The two bosses are still in a good relationship despite last weekend’s explosive 2-2 draw. Guardiola revealed that he exchanged texts with Arteta after the Sunday showdown at the Etihad.
Arsenal suffered a stoppage-time capitulation despite competing the entire second half a man down. Man City players blamed Arsenal’s ten men for ‘parking the bus’ against their endless, desperate attacks.
Arteta may have employed Mourinho’s ‘dark arts’âtime-wasting, feigning injury, and tactical fouling, to name a fewâto eke out an impossible victory. But it didn’t last; karma forced Arsenal to share the points when Josh Stones equalized in injury time.
âThere was only one team that came to play football,â Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva speculated after the match. âThe other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately.â Notably, Arsenal has come under a red card barrage from referees lately for delaying restarts, with Rice in the draw against Brighton and Trossard’s first-half ejection against City.
After the game, Erling Haaland sarcastically patted Arteta on the back and told him to “be humble.” Arteta wisely ignored him and looked on, having nearly survived the impossible.
Man City-Arsenal Rivalry escalates, but Guardiola and Arteta stay unfazed
“The opponents can play how they want to, it’s up to us to handle them,’ said Guardiola. “With Mikel, we texted each other. The relationship, it doesn’t change.”
“If they decide to play in that way, it’s more than perfect. It’s fine. I wasn’t able to do that, but they were brilliant. It’s about us, how we can break them down and we did it really well in many things.
“It’s not the first time in eight years here. Do you know how many times we’ve played against teams that play that way? Millions, millions. It’s about us, that’s why it’s a challenge for us.”
Arteta admitted earlier this year that Guardiola is still Goliath. But the Spaniard remains calm and professional and unwilling to back down from criticism of his players’ on-field defensive tactics.
The 42-year-old had this to say about City’s ‘dark arts’ allegations against his players. “No comment. I have been there before. I was there [City] for four years. I have all the information. So I know. Believe me.”
We’ll leave Arteta’s words up to your interpretation. At least we know that we now have a bloody good rivalry. And the two coaches’ professional courtesy and mutual respect remained intact despite fiery encounters on the pitch.
