Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva has accused Arsenal of not “playing football” in their 2-2 draw at the Etihad on Sunday.
The game was full of controversy as a number of incidents were seen to have been poorly handled by referee Michael Oliver. Arsenal had Leandro Trossard sent off just before halftime after he was deemed to have kicked the ball away after a foul while on a yellow card. This was the second time Arsenal have been directly affected by a decision like this; the first being Declan Rice against Brighton.
A late equalizer from John Stones was enough for City to steal a point from the Gunners. An early goal from Erling Haaland opened the game for City, before Riccardo Calafiori equalized and Gabriel scored a header to make it 2-1.
Bernardo Silva slams Mikel Arteta’s tactics
Arsenal started the second half with 10 men, and were able to shut out City until deep into added time when John Stones scored the equalizer. Silva accused the Gunners of not ‘playing football’:
“There was only one team that came to play football,” Silva told TNT Brazil. “The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately. But at the end we got a draw, the best we could get considering the context of the last moments of the match. We’re not happy as we wanted the three points, but personally I’m happy with the way we came to play and faced the game. I’m glad we always enter the pitch to try to win every match.”
The Gunners conceded 28 shots with David Raya having to make 8 saves in the second half.
Michael Oliver blamed for result
Despite the fans and pundits commenting after the match that Michael Oliver’s sending off was uncalled for, Bernardo Silva believes the referee did a poor job that also affected Manchester City:
“It all started in the very first second. In the first action we realised what was going to happen. We had a player injured after they sent him to the ground twice in 10 minutes.
“We had a goal conceded after the referee called our captain and then didn’t allow him to recover his position. The second goal is already their usual block to our keeper, which was allowed by the referee.
“Then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but in the end it doesn’t have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens.”
Arsenal survived a tough week of fixtures without a loss. A win against Spurs, and two draws against Atalanta, and Manchester City prove that Mikel Arteta was right about how the North London derby result will shape the rest of the season.
