Erling Haaland becomes ultimate wind-up merchant as City-Arsenal rivalry turns deliciously spiteful

If anyone still deemed this a bloodless rivalry, those thoughts were banished by the manner of Manchester City’s stunning 98th-minute equaliser. It was not only that the champions sucker-punched Arsenal with a short corner, worked in a blur from Jack Grealish to Mateo Kovacic to the surprisingly lethal left boot of John Stones. It was the fact that during the euphoric melee that ensued, Erling Haaland decided, on the day he reached a century of City goals in only his 105th match, to hurl the ball at the back of Gabriel’s head.

Blink and you would have missed Haaland’s temerity. Even Gabriel looked nonplussed by it all, having dragged his shirt up over his forehand in despair at Arsenal’s concession of a goal after clinging on for 52 minutes with 10 men. Mikel Arteta’s players had reason to feel aggrieved, to ask why the Norwegian was shown leniency for his split-second indiscretion when Leandro Trossard was sent off for his own rush of blood for kicking the ball away and delaying the restart.

One simple truth is beyond dispute, though. After concerns last season that City and Arsenal’s immaculate technicians tended to cancel each other out when they met, this top-of-the-table confrontation has finally morphed into a genuine tear-up, with lashings of tension, spite and exquisite football. This is how it used to be when City and Liverpool collided at their zenith, with Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp embracing one another in the aftermath of a 2-2 draw at the Etihad in 2022, as if in mutual congratulation at how far they had shifted the dial.

A little over two years on, a similarly captivating drama unfolded at the same venue, with the same scoreline. Except this time there was scant evidence of a love-in. Guardiola lashed out at his expensively-upholstered chair at one point, livid that referee Michael Oliver had not allowed City to set properly over a free-kick, enabling Riccardo Calafiori to unleash a sumptuous angled strike beyond Ederson. Arteta, likewise, did not seem in much mood for backslapping when it was all over, thunderous at how Arsenal’s resilience had not culminated in the famous win he believed it deserved.

Not that his relationship with Guardiola would ever tip over into open hostility, you feel. Memories of the old sorcerer-and-apprentice dynamic they enjoyed here at City are too fresh for them to be convincing as antagonists. But the theatre that the pair are serving up this season is compelling. While City’s pursuit of a record-extending fifth successive Premier League title might sometimes appear a fate preordained, a first-half injury to Rodri – with the midfielder’s recent worries about how his body would hold up under the weight of fixtures coming to fruition – has thrown that prospect into some jeopardy.

As for Arsenal, they look ravenous for the fight. Even without Martin Odegaard, they hustled and harried City throughout the first half, showing their usual set-piece mastery in setting up a second goal through Gabriel, a carbon copy of his headed winner against Tottenham the week before. They were versatile, too, switching from creative wide play to massed defence as the stakes required, holding firm against City’s wave upon wave of second-half attack despite a bare minimum of possession. It was with much justification, in the circumstances, that Arteta declared he was “very proud” of his team.

This was the moment that a delicious double act finally delivered on its potential. On one side you had City in the rare position of having to rely on raw self-belief to salvage a point, with Bernardo Silva screaming for joy with Guardiola after Stones’ last-gasp flourish. On the other, you had Gabriel and William Saliba, Arsenal’s twin titans at the back, at their insuperable best in frustrating City, coming within seconds of sabotaging the hosts’ 48-game unbeaten streak at home. Never before, surely, had City so lustily celebrated a draw. That was because they realised, with piercing clarity, the scale of the threat that Arsenal now present.

True to form, Roy Keane was less than impressed, arguing that Arsenal gave City too many chances to strike back. But how exactly are you supposed to defend when a man down at this impregnable fortress? Arsenal resorted to desperation, even sending on the injured Ben White to help protect the lead. Ninety-nine times out of 100, Arteta reasoned, a side in his players’ position would have folded. The knowledge that they did anything but should fortify his resolve over the daunting months ahead.

Such is the frantic search for an edge between these clubs, even personalities we thought we knew are revealing hidden sides to themselves. Take Haaland: this looked as if it would be a serene occasion for him when he produced the crispest finish within only nine minutes, reaching the landmark of 100 goals without even breaking sweat. But as the pressure mounted and the tempers frayed, he could scarcely resist joining the fray. Picking the ball out of the net after Stones’ goal, he tossed it at an unsuspecting Gabriel with perfect slyness. Before this, we might have caricatured Haaland as the dead-eyed Nordic assassin. Now we see him as the ultimate wind-up merchant. Such are the shifts in perspective that the great games can bring.