‘I Was There For 4 Years’: Mikel Arteta Responds To Manchester City Accusing Arsenal Of Time Wasting

Arsenal drew controversies for allegedly wasting time during the Premier League game against Manchester City on September 22. Mikel Arteta has now come out in support of his team. The Gunners suffered a huge blow moments before half time. Leandro Trossard committed a foul on Bernardo Silva in their own half. The referee immediately blew the whistle but the Arsenal forward, already on a booking, did not stop and kicked the ball away. The incident was deemed as a ploy to waste time and as a result, the match referee sent Trossard off by producing the second yellow card.

Despite playing with ten men for the rest of the match, Arsenal managed to secure a point from the crucial away game which ended in a 2-2 draw. After the thrilling fixture was over, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and some of his players accused Arsenal of intentionally wasting time when they were leading by a goal.

Mikel Arteta, however, did not appear to be much bothered about those claims. According to him, Manchester City are also not new to bending on-field rules and thus, they should not complain about such things. Arteta was part of the Manchester City’s coaching unit from 2016 to 2019 before joining Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta further referred to the time when Manchester City briefly went down to ten men following Rodri’s injury. As the midfielder could not continue, Pep Guardiola opted for a substitution and called up Mateo Kovacic.

“I was there for four years. I have all the information. So I know, believe me. We did what every team does. They played for 30 seconds with ten. Look what they did. It’s normal what they did. We had to do it in a different way,” Arteta said, as quoted by The Sun.

Arsenal faced a similar scenario while playing against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in 2021. Granit Xhaka saw the red card in that match and the visitors ended up enduring a 5-0 defeat. Reminiscing about the outcome of the game, Mikel Arteta said, “We learnt from the past. If not I’d be thick — very thick. Unfortunately, we’ve been in the same situation a few times. We were in that situation with Granit and we lost 5-0.”

Following the draw with Manchester City, Arsenal now hold the fourth spot in the Premier League standings. They will next face Bolton Wanderers in the third round of the Carabao Cup.