Manchester City players were not happy after Sunday’s game with Arsenal but can make their point on the pitch on Tuesday
Arsenal bothered Manchester City on Sunday.
They gave as good as they got in an incredibly physical game, and challenged the Blues far more than when they beat them 1-0 at the Emirates last season. This was the strongest Mikel Arteta’s side have looked, and the City players spoke with Pep Guardiola after the game about the level they now know they have to reach this season if they want to keep hold of the Premier League trophy
The spikiness carried on after the game. While Arteta was in the press room bleating about a refereeing decision that everyone who doesn’t support Arsenal thought was spot on, John Stones was telling broadcasters about Arsenal’s ‘clever or dirty’ tactics and Manu Akanji and Bernardo Silva were eviscerating their second-half approach.
That has been interpreted by some as a further sign of Arsenal getting under City’s skin, and they undoubtedly have, but more importantly this was City players giving the strong opinions that they have been giving for years. Be it Rodri saying City were the better team after a 3-1 defeat at Anfield or rubbishing Scotland after Spain lost to them, these City players are programmed to appreciate a certain brand of football and mentality like no other.
Rodri again got into trouble with Arsenal for mentioning mentality last season, while a few thousand kilometres away Ilkay Gundogan publicly bemoaned the attitudes inside the Barcelona dressing room on more than one occasion. It doesn’t make their view any better or worse than somebody else’s, but theirs have been formed on the back of winning Trebles and an unprecedented amount of consecutive Premier League titles.
The best way that they can show that their way is the best is to keep on winning things. On Tuesday, even in a team that will surely feature at least nine changes from the side that drew with Arsenal, they can prove to everyone how City think a successful team should play.
It will be far from the spotlight that the Arsenal game had when they kick off against Watford in the Carabao Cup, but Guardiola’s side have become serial winners by treating every single match like it is the most important. A winning mentality is helped no end by winning, and winning, and winning.
Tuesday’s game will certainly take the sting out of Sunday with a different competition, different team, and different atmosphere. City advancing through the competition playing the way they want to play would be a perfect response to anybody who saw their comments as a weakness.
