Furious Manchester City players accuse Arsenal of ‘dark arts’ in explosive title showdown
John Stones said ‘you can call it clever or dirty’ after Arsenal deployed time-wasting tactics in their battle at the Etihad Stadium
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Your support makes all the difference.Bernardo Silva reacted to a fractious 2-2 draw by accusing Arsenal of not coming to the Etihad Stadium to play football, accusing them of gamesmanship, time-wasting and doing whatever they could get away with.
The Manchester City midfielder felt Arsenal’s second goal, a header by Gabriel Magalhaes, should have been disallowed and criticised referee Michael Oliver for not clamping down on Mikel Arteta’s team.
City rescued a point courtesy of John Stones’ 98th-minute equaliser after Arsenal had Leandro Trossard sent off on the stroke of half-time for kicking the ball away.
But Silva, who was booked in injury time, drew a contrast with their previous biggest rivals by saying Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool used to try and beat City – and by telling Arsenal they were Champions League winners.
He said: “There was only one team that came to play football. The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately.
“It all started in the very first second. In the first action we realised what was going to happen. We had a player [Rodri] injured after they sent him to the ground twice in 10 minutes. We had a goal conceded after the referee called our captain and then didn't allow him to recover his position.
“The second goal is already their usual block to our keeper allowed by the referee. And then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but at the end it doesn't have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens.”
Silva felt Liverpool would have taken a very different approach at the Etihad as he identified their differences with Arsenal.
He added: “Maybe that Liverpool have already won a Premier League, Arsenal haven't. That Liverpool have won a Champions League, Arsenal haven't. Liverpool always faced us face to face to try to win the games, so by this perspective the games against Arsenal haven't been like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.”
Substitute Stones also felt Arsenal used the dark arts, explaining: “It was a difficult afternoon for both teams, how they stop the play, how they use the side of football that not many teams do. They slow the game down, they get the keeper on the floor so they can get some information onto the pitch.
"I wouldn't say they have mastered it [the dark arts] but they have done it for a few years now so we knew to expect that. You can call it clever or dirty, whichever way you want to put it, but they break up the game which upsets the rhythm. They use it to their advantage and we dealt with it very well."
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