I have to credit Arsenal for the manful and organised way they set about the task that was asked of them in the second half at Manchester City last weekend.
To a man they defended. Every one of their creative players put in a major shift. It won’t surprise you to know that I will always have time for qualities like that. ‘Bravery’ is a term overused in football, though there was certainly some of it in that defensive display.
But while I respected it, I cannot say I liked it. Generally, when a team have a player sent off, like Arsenal did, it becomes a game of retreat. The vast majority of teams operate with two banks of four, leave one player up, and try to get some sort of possession higher up the field.
Arsenal chose a very different route by parking the bus in their own 18-yard box. It descended into a bore-fest.
I can’t say I ever remember witnessing a gulf like that between the country’s best and second-best clubs — with one allowing the other team such utter dominance. Arsenal were already playing second fiddle to a superior City side when they had 11 players. When they went to 10, the gulf was huge.
Arsenal defended resolutely with ten men against Manchester City and nearly took a win
However, there was a huge gulf on the day between the country's top two clubs as Arsenal played with a foolhardy and dangerous approach by the way they parked the bus
Sitting back in the way they did might have given Manchester City a psychological edge
I know City are the very best at keeping the ball and are the very best passing team at this moment in time. And I know Mikel Arteta will point out that his team were only 30 seconds away from winning the game, having kept City out until the 98th minute.
But I believe playing that way was foolhardy and dangerous because of City’s qualities. If you play 100 games like that, 95 times you will concede because there’s so much action in the box and the ball only once has to fall to the wrong person. On Sunday, it was John Stones.
I know how I would have felt, on Sunday night and a few days afterwards, if I’d been a player in that Arsenal team, having left Manchester knowing that City had been so much better than my own side.
No one in Mikel’s squad will be admitting it. But the big-player mentality is that you think you are the best player on the pitch. The best in your position in the country. No one in that Arsenal team will have enjoyed being dominated like that. Despite the big shifts put in for the cause, I simply don’t know what they take away from that game, other than the obvious point.
I fully understand that when you go down to 10 men, it has to be a different approach. But the negativity Arsenal showed may psychologically damage them going forward, as they must feel inferior to Manchester City after that. They have to park that now and get back to the football we’ve seen from them in the past few years.
City’s players accused Arsenal of employing ‘dark arts’ in the game, though nothing I saw in that second half particularly surprised me. Time-wasting has always been part of the game and every team is guilty of it on occasions. It’s nothing near as bad as the exaggerated ‘simulation’ that we see every weekend in our football.
I also just don’t know when referees will wake up to what Arsenal do at set-pieces and corners. An accurate kicker of the ball delivers it under the crossbar, where aggressive players attack it, pinning and fouling the goalkeeper. It happened again at City. Gabriel Martinelli walks in, turns his back on the goal to obstruct Ederson and Gabriel scores. Do that anywhere else on the pitch and it’s a foul.
If I was facing Arsenal, I would be taking three or four of my team-mates in front of the referee and pointing out to him what’s about to happen. Arsenal are getting away with it every week. They rotate the blockers, so the dummy referees don’t see it and deal with it.
No Arsenal player will like being dominated in the manner they were by Pep Guardiola's side
City accused Arsenal of employing 'dark arts' though time-wasting is nothing new
Leicester need to be aggressive in the six-yard box as Arsenal were with City keeper Ederson
Arsenal played a brand of football not expected from a side believing they can win the title
City top the table and are two points clear of Arsenal who sit behind Liverpool and Aston Villa
If Leicester are to deal with that, they need to be as aggressive in the six-yard box as Arsenal are — and that includes the goalkeeper. Very rarely does a goalkeeper get a foul given against him if someone’s messing him around. For me Ederson got pushed over too easily.
I’ve always considered Arsenal one of the classiest football clubs in this country and their football has generally reflected that. They just played a brand of football last weekend that you do not expect from a team believing they can win the title. I expected more. I hope it was a one-off and they won’t go down that road again.
Well-stacked City can cope without Rodri
Rodri’s absence will be a worry for Manchester City, whose three league defeats last season all came when he was absent. No one was to blame for that injury. It was just a coming together. These things happen in football with highly trained athletes.
It’s bad enough having Rodri out for the season but Pep will also have factored in that Kevin De Bruyne, his mischief-maker in chief, will miss some important games this season. De Bruyne is such an athletic and dynamic player that, at 33, he will surely sustain muscle injuries.
But this is the reason why all the big teams carry such big squads nowadays. The Liverpool team I played in won the First Division title with 15 players in 1978-79 — days when we were actually allowed to tackle each other.
The TV money and European revenues mean the big clubs are equipped with two quality players for every position, which was never the case in our football. When do you ever hear the expression ‘he’s a utility player’ these days? So, I don’t buy this talk of ‘an injury which might see them off’.
Missing Rodri and De Bruyne — the two most important players they’ve got — will test City. But no one will be giving the champions any sympathy — and neither should they want it.
Pep Guardiola confirmed Rodri will miss the season after injuring his knee against Arsenal
Memories of famous Liverpool vs Forest clash
It’s 20 years since Brian Clough died, and a new documentary shows our Liverpool team leaving the field with his Forest players after they beat us in the first round of the 1978 European Cup.
There’s no obvious sign of needle there, though as reigning European champions we were devastated to lose.
Things weren’t always that way between us. That tie was the start of Clough’s team having the Indian sign over us. The needle did creep in when we were bashing them up, in terms of possession, but only drawing against them. And that’s how it should be.
A new documentary shows Liverpool players leaving the field after they suffered defeat to Brian Clough's (left) Nottingham Forest side in the first round of the 1978 European Cup
Challenge put back until May
I had a wonderful evening up in Airdrie this week doing an event for my charity, DEBRA UK. I’m disappointed to report that injuries and weather have put paid to the charity Channel swim and Dover to London cycle I and some team-mates were planning, which I’ve mentioned here.
It was always a narrow window for us, waiting on the right weather and tides. But a big thank you to all who have contributed to the cause. Our plan is now to tackle the challenge next May.
For more information visit www.debra.org.uk.