Yes actually, City should be winning that match with Arsenal down a man for 45 minutes, not grasping for a last second draw. Arsenal outplayed them over the first 45 too.
And don't put words into my mouth. I didn't say it was a devastating blow or anything. City will be fine and they're still the favorites, but that result was a disappointment considering the circumstances.
You literally said
BTW that's a bad result for CIty.
And I used your term "bad result" verbatim and you accuse me of putting words in your mouth, lol. Help me here what am I supposed to say?
yeah it’s amazing that our City supporter manages to gloat and complain/be bitter at the same time after his team was just handed yet another point.. as if Arsenal could play another way down a man while also without their best mid.. Teddy isn’t used to having to think about injuries, or tactics when a man down.. because city have another team on the bench and don’t get horseshit or even deserved cards called against them… at least not on the regular.
This is another garbage post and it wouldn't be tolerated on maybe any other area of this site. So many of you will just casually accept that the ref handed City a win today because you don't agree with the second yellow call and obviously that means the ref had it in the bag for City, right? Did he also have it in the bag for City when he calls the captains over then lets Arsenal take a quick free kick to score the first? Does the ref have it in the bag for Arsenal every week when they let the team continually pick goalkeepers every week on set pieces so they can score all these goals not from open play? Arsenal had their goalkeeper signaled to go down so Arteta can call half the team over for tactics and must have had 12 straight cramps from the 75th minute on. Did he forget that he wanted City to win when he didn't caution for all that time wasting? I suppose you'd say that he was happy because he'd add on more extra time so he could call a late pen if necessary, right?
And before you engage on going tit for tat on who was screwed more by the refs today (and it wasn't City) and maybe some generous third party comes in to say "look they're just bad" let me try to help you see the actual point, and it's one that took me a long, long, long time to learn: if your path to victory requires the refs to never make any mistakes against you, then you've got work to do. Sometimes I think you all forget that I've got a PHD in hating Manchester United. I still check their scores second whenever I check scores over Liverpool or Arsenal because fuck that fucking club. And for years I was typing the same posts you all are today so I try to not respond to this bullshit because honestly I get it but if you Arsenal fans sincerely want what you seem to want so badly then the next step is having a squad and, I think, a fan base who can ride the ups and downs and still find a way to get it done. What Trossard did today was not an automatic yellow or a vicious challenge. But it was extremely dumb to do and sometimes when you play stupid games you win stupid prizes. I've typed literally those words about Kyle Walker on enough occasions in the last decade to understand that sometimes you just won't get the decision and the teams that will win either generally avoid the dumb mistakes or find a way to overcome them anyway. If your big takeaway today, as an Arsenal fan, is that you just can't win because the refs won't let you then you're missing the plot entirely. If you want to dethrone City, you're going to have to have some things go against you and you're going to have to take City's head off anyway. That's how it's done.
Finally, all the noise about City's bench and not having to think about injuries is just a lie you tell yourself to feel better. Arsenal seemed plenty happy to hack Rodri and weren't unhappy to see him injured and we played without KDB who is just as critical to us as Odegaard is to you. City's bench hasn't been formidable for quite some time and Arsenal have certainly outspent City considerably the last few years. Arsenal had over 100m worth of transfer fee players on the bench which probably would exceed City's bench by fee today if Grealish had started instead of Doku. Neither of these teams are poor and City are not outspending you, as difficult a narrative as that is for you to accept. You're not David going against Goliath. You are, yourself, Goliath fighting against another Goliath.
Arsenal have not accomplished what the Klopp Liverpool teams did. It's easy to understand why a Man City fan wouldn't view them the same way.
What I've never quite understood as an American EPL fan is the idea that Arsenal should feel obligated to play a certain way against City. It's the implication in the Rodri comments after the draw in Manchester last season. Arsenal have been effective in their last three games against City...why would they change their approach?
The bias brought into this discussion as an Arsenal fan is that being hardheaded with expansive tactics is the exact reason why Wenger was replaced. Now the team is pragmatic in its approach vs. the best teams and that has become a point of criticism in the face of good results.
This is a much more reasonable post and I think a completely fair question. I think Arsenal need to outcompete City on the pitch in some way. It can be pragmatic, certainly someone like Inter have taken a very pragmatic approach to City both in the CL final and earlier this week. So it's not that I think Arsenal need to try to be something they are not, although I do think it matters that they basically play one way against literally everyone else and then show up and turn into Atletico Madrid when you play City. And I mean that comparison completely, I think it does a disservice to the mentality of your team that you're so prepared to waste time, fake cramp, engage in really any way possible to win, etc in this fixture like managing to eke out the win over 90 minutes would be some colossal tide turning event. This is a big fixture against a club you're in direct competition against, it would be crazy to throw caution to the wind. But I think there's something missing in Arsenal's approach to this fixture akin to a little brother who hasn't yet realized he belongs playing with his brother's friends. You have a good enough squad to tackle this fixture as a near equal but for whatever reason (and today the red card certainly dictated this) it always seems to play out that Arsenal are trying to use gamesmanship and set pieces to take the 3 points. I watch a decent amount of Arsenal against other clubs and it just feels like your approach in this fixture is so starkly and strangely different when the Arsenal I watch each week is fully capable of taking it to City for 15-25 minute increments the way Liverpool used to. Not in the same way, mind you, but in a way that would mean a lot more if you did get the full points haul because you just kicked City in the face.
Again, it took City a long time to become this type of team. We certainly faltered a lot in that ascendancy and had some absolutely chaotic and mind destroying matches getting over the hump. Maybe it was Balotelli who finally broke this by bringing his own special version of crazy to town and forcing United to lose their cool, I don't really know. I just know that for a long time we were crap, and then when we weren't crap anymore we just kept losing when weird shit kept happening to us. Weird shit still happens against us but these days the player quality and self belief is high enough that they tend to find a way through it, with notable exceptions like when we face Real Madrid and sometimes bring that same little brother energy to the table that Arsenal brings to this fixture.
edit: And I want to be clear, when the ref calls Walker over and lets a free kick happen, that in the end is on Kyle Walker. And when the ref lets the entire team obstruct Ederson for the goal that's really on City for both not being prepared for Arsenal's consistent approach and still on Walker for not tracking the run better. The refs have an impact and I don't think they're very good, but the players have to find a way to play through it.
