Mikel Arteta has hit back at claims from several Manchester City players that Arsenal employed “dark arts” in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Etihad Stadium by insisting several of his players could be facing injury layoffs.
John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva were all critical of the Gunners’ approach last weekend as the visitors attempted to defend a 2-1 lead with 10 men, only for Stones to equalise in the 98th minute.
After the game, Stones said Arsenal “have done [dark arts] for a few years — you can call it clever or dirty,” while Akanji and Silva accused them of time-wasting.
Gabriel Martinelli, Jurriën Timber and Riccardo Calafiori were all substituted in the second half while goalkeeper David Raya was seen leaving the stadium with his right knee bandaged.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup third round tie against Bolton Wanderers, Arteta was seemingly irked by the comments made by Arsenal’s title rivals.
“I always prefer the facts to words or supposing things,” he said. “Let’s see who is available tomorrow and then we can talk about ‘dark arts’ or these things or if it’s a reality. Unfortunately, yes there will be a few players not available.”
Pushed on whether any of those injuries were serious, Arteta replied: “We have to wait on one of them.”
Asked whether the dark arts label was fair, Arteta said: “I don’t know. It’s opinions and that’s it. But as I mentioned before I think other things will be factors and that’s it. We will use the facts.
“[What are the other factors?] Well, if a player is faking something that means he will carry on and be involved in the squad and play.”
Arteta pointed to a spell of time-wasting from City when they were briefly down to ten men and claimed that following Leandro Trossard’s red card, Arsenal learnt from the last time they played City with a numerical disadvantage when losing 5-0 in August 2021.
“We had to play the game that we had to play,” Arteta said. “The first 10, 15 minutes, we couldn’t with 11 versus 11. Then we got much better. Then we were thrown in a very different context and did what every team does. They played 30 seconds with 10 men. Look what they did for 30 seconds. It’s normal what they did. We had to do it in a different way.
“We learnt from the past. Unfortunately we’ve been in the same situation a few times. We were in that same situation with Granit [Xhaka sent off] after 38 minutes and we lost 5-0. We’d better learn. If not I would be thick, very thick.”
City striker Erling Haaland was caught on camera at full-time telling Arteta to “stay humble” and asked for his response, Arteta said: “It’s part of football, part of sport. After the game, all that goes away and we move on. That’s it.”
