Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji has fired a dig at Arsenal after Sunday’s tense 2-2 draw in the Premier League, claiming that the Gunners are just looking ‘for drama’.
Mikel Arteta’s side led 2-1 heading into the second half, until a red card shown to Leandro Trossard forced them to play with their backs against the wall. The Gunners were battled on with 10-men as they looked to defend their lead, succeeding until John Stones found a way to break through their impenetrable backline to make it 2-2.
Stones’ 98th minute strike saw both sides return with a point, with reigning champions City retaining their top spot ahead of Arsenal in the league.
Akanji has criticised Arsenal’s defensive tactics in the game: “That’s what they’re looking for,” he told reporters. “Always when we play against them, that’s what they’re looking for: the drama.
“It worked for them so if they’re happy with the one point. We’re not, we tried to get more but that’s what they’re happy with. At the end of the day we’re still top of the league. We haven’t lost a game yet. We tried, especially in the second half with one man up but it’s hard with ten players defending in their own box.
“It’s still early in the season, I think again, we’re going to win the league again, and we don’t focus too much on Arsenal. Obviously, the focus today was on them because we played against them, but now we don’t play them for half a year, so still focusing ourselves on our games, and then we will see.
“With the time-wasting, we cannot control this. It is up to the referee to do. But in the end, it’s obviously hard to score against anyone who has 10 with the goalkeeper in their own box. So we tried our best. But if you don’t concede the two goals, then it looks differently. It was maybe one goal too much.”
City are set to return to action on Tuesday night when they face Championship side Watford in the Carabao Cup. Meanwhile Arsenal will host Bolton in the same competition on Wednesday.
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