Mikel Arteta has rejected Manchester City’s suggestions that his Arsenal team employ football’s “dark arts” and says their injury list proves it.
City players John Stones and Bernardo Silva accused Arsenal of gamesmanship after their fiery 2-2 draw on Sunday, in which several of Arteta’s men required medical treatment.
As 10-man Arsenal were defending a slim lead it led to claims of time-wasting but their manager insists the number of players ruled out of midweek action will show their injuries were real.
“I prefer facts to supposing things, so let’s see who is available tomorrow and then we can talk about dark arts. Unfortunately there will be a few players unavailable,” said Arteta.
“It’s opinions and that’s it. If a player is feigning something then that means he will carry on, he will be involved in the squad and he will play.”
Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Martinelli and Jurrien Timber all came off late in the game at City with apparent knocks and are doubts to face Bolton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
Arteta also praised his team’s backs-to-the-wall effort after Leandro Trossard was sent off, saying they had learnt from finding themselves in similar situations in recent seasons.
“We had to learn from the past because unfortunately we had been in that situation three times,” he added.
“We were in the same situation with Granit [Xhaka in 2021-22] and we lost 5-0. We had better learn. If not I would be very thick.”
Stones took a swipe at Arsenal’s tactics after his 98th-minute equaliser denied their title rivals a first Premier League win at the Etihad Stadium since 2015.
“They’ve done it for a few years and we know to expect that,” he said. “You can call it clever or dirty but they break up the game and it upsets the rhythm for everyone.”
Silva went further, accusing Arsenal of spoiling the game, time-wasting and deliberately injuring City midfielder Rodri, who suffered a serious knee injury in an off the ball incident.
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.”