They’ve been trying to put out the fire here all week here. The fire Mikel Arteta ignited with barely 20 words, uttered in his discussion of Manchester City’s allegations of Arsenal’s ‘dark arts’, on Tuesday.
It’s hard to believe that Arsenal’s manager did not appreciate that those words about his time at City – ‘I was there for four years. I have all the information. So I know. Believe me’ – would be subject to multiple interpretations, at a time when City are defending themselves against Premier League charges of financial deceit. But few could have anticipated the escalation, which had reached an incendiary level when Pep Guardiola sat down to respond on Friday.
It was unfortunate, in the week that bombs have struck Lebanon and killed innocents, that City’s manager should have described what is coming between the two clubs as ‘war’ on Friday. City will contend that Gabriel used the word first, in last Sunday’s febrile aftermath.
Arteta rose above it, on Saturday night, declaring at a press conference which had danced around such subjects as Leandro Trossard’s deflected winner and Riccardo Calafiori’s performance, that there had been no malign intent. He ‘loves’ Guardiola, he said. Considers him ‘a friend.’ And that ‘information’ that he said he had on them? No more, he insisted, than the knowledge that they work very hard indeed ‘to maintain the hunger’ City had displayed to find that 98th minute equaliser.
He had his own players to thank for giving him the stage to talk about those qualities, given the way they managed to win a game which they seemed, almost unbelievably, to have thrown away after an embarrassing level of first half superiority.
Mikel Arteta (left) sought to calm tensions between Arsenal and Manchester City after the Gunners' dramatic win against Leicester
Emotions were high during the enthralling Premier League clash between the two sides last week
The former City assistant had angered his old boss Pep Guardiola with comments he made after the side's ill-tempered draw last week
It was, Arteta reflected in the aftermath, all far more ‘emotional’ than he had hoped it would turn out to be, but the indefatigability is why Arsenal believe they can finally eclipse the team they were level with at the top of the table last night.
The Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, of whom we can expect to hear a lot more at the top of the British game, delivered in a way that few others in his position will this season and it was beginning to look like the win would elude Arsenal when Trossard’s 94th minute shot was deflected in to prove that Arsenal, like City, possess that late goalscoring faculty.
The struggle the game became for them does pose questions for Arteta. Calafiori, who was influential box-to-box, leaving Declan Rice behind as cover as he influenced in the centre, didn’t find the defensive contribution to match. He was at fault by allowing James Justin freedom to strike a superb equaliser. He struggled to deal with the pace Facundo Buonanotte brought as Leicester started to drive at Arsenal in the second half.
Kai Havertz lacked the ruthless finishes that could have put Arsenal out of sight. To go with a spurned first half header was a half-hearted attempt to defend a free kick before Justin’s header was deflected off him for Leicester’s first goal.
This was certainly not super-human football: the kind Arteta said he had left City with inside knowledge on.
Leandro Trossard (right) put the home side in front in the 94th minute before Kai Havertz made the scoreline more comfortable six minutes later
‘I haven’t seen a human being work as hard as the coaches and everybody in that football club to be consistent in winning,’ he reflected.
There’s pressure and then there’s real pressure. ‘I wouldn’t mind being in Mikel’s shoes,’ Cooper reflected, when asked for his thoughts on Arteta’s difficult week, after a defeat which leaves his side grounded fifth bottom with a mere three points. But this was an object lesson in how to take the temperature down.