Arsenal made significant progress despite conceding a 98th-minute equalizer in a highly competitive 2-2 draw against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League on Sunday, as stated by manager Mikel Arteta. The London club played the entire second half with ten men after Leandro Trossard was sent off in first-half stoppage time for kicking the ball away, having already received a caution. They narrowly missed out on maintaining their 2-1 lead, which was established by first-half goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel, as John Stones equalized for City in the dying moments. Arsenal had the opportunity to climb to the top of the table with a first league victory at The Etihad since 2015, which would have been a significant statement in this year's title race. Arteta expressed his pride in his team's resilience in the face of adversity.
"They put their heart and soul into every single action and at the end to be punished in the last minute, it was the 99th, they are gutted," Arteta told reporters. "But as well, they know that they have made another big step today as a team and individuals to be able to do what they've done today here. We were given a context to the game that made it almost impossible for 56 minutes, but we adapted to that context in the best possible way." The team's competitive spirit was described as unbelievable by Arteta. Arteta avoided commenting on Trossard's second yellow card but mentioned that he expects 100 Premier League games to be "10 against 11 or 10 against 10 or nine."
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola praised his players for their intelligence in attacking Arsenal's goal, opting not to cross long balls into Arsenal's dominant center backs. "We were so brilliant, to interpret these kind of things and afterwards it was a question of patience, a question of talent, question of luck," Guardiola said. "(Arsenal keeper David) Raya made three or four important saves and the ball didn't drop but the last one John was there." Guardiola was also asked about Arsenal's tactic of disrupting play as the minutes ticked down. "They bring us this type of game Arsenal and we have to handle it. They bring in that type of game. Had to handle it, and we did it," he said. "We did really well. They wanted to stop the game. We were patient enough. At the end we were fortunate."
