Mikel Arteta and Arsenal came agonizingly close to pulling off a sensational 2-1 victory over Manchester City, while playing the 2nd half down a man after Leandro Trossard picked up his 2nd yellow colliding with Bernardo Silva, possibly not hearing referee Michael Oliver’s whistle and kicking the ball away. It’s wild Arsenal had another post-whistle incident after the Declan Rice mess just a couple of weeks back. Going down to 10-men scupperred any shot Arsenal had at putting together an attack going forward. They mostly had to absorb wave after wave after wave of Man City attack. Unfortunately, the Gunners battled hard and gave it their all but conceded an equalizer in the dying seconds of additional time and had to settle for a 2-2 draw. John Stones found himself with the ball at his feet at the edge of the 6-yard box and shot it past David Raya to sent the Etihad Stadium into delirium. Hopefully Arsenal won’t rue the chance to deal an early season blow to the reigning champions.

The match started out very physically with Kai Havertz and Rodri coming together 1-2 seconds into the match with the latter staying down for a couple of minutes before play continued. A few minutes later Erling Haaland crashed into William Saliba with the Frenchman staying down. The play was aggressive which whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Haaland, around the 9th minute, was able to shake free and find space between the two Arsenal center-backs when Gabriel Magalhães got a little too wide left. Savinho, who was active and in attack-mode all match, put in the pass that Haaland ran onto and poked past David Raya for the opening goal.

The Gunners fought back, weathered the Man City onslaught and found themselves a goal after taking a free-kick quickly to Gabriel Martinelli. He sped down the left-flank to the edge of the City box, cut-back and found Riccardo Calafiori (making his 1st Premier League start), who sweetly shot past Ederson to score his 1st Premier League goal. It was a spectacular piece of skill and technical ability. This jolted Manchester City into action, who then piled on the attack.

Saliba, Big Gab, Calafiori and Jurrien Timber were forced to defend cross after cross after cross into the box, from open-play and corner-kicks. The group did very well to repel these advances and communicated much better to stop Haaland from getting on the end of one of the many crosses.

Going forward, Arsenal were much better than against Atalanta and actually generated a handful of half-chances before Big Gab headed home a corner-kick. Bukayo Saka hit in a sweet cross that Gabi thundered home for a 2-1 lead right before halftime. It was all going according to plan for Mikel Arteta.

An Arsenal clearance saw Leandro Trossard, already on a yellow for a foul on Savinho, and Bernardo Silva come together. The Belgium was the aggressor and clattered into Silva, knocking him to the ground. Michael Oliver whistled for a foul, but Trossard kept playing and kicked the ball away, possibly in frustration or because he couldn’t hear the ref whistle for play to pause. Either way, a yellow card was immediately brandished and he was sent off. Arteta couldn’t hide his emotion and tried to hide in/rip off his sweater in frustration. His team put together a very impressive first half and were leading 2-1 heading into the dressing room, but now down to 10-men he knew it was going to be a slog in the 2nd half.

Bukayo Saka was sacrificed for Ben White at half and the Gunners went to a back 5. There was no way around it, Arsenal had to go into a deep defensive shell for most of the 2nd half and batten down the hatches.

They had virtually no possession and couldn’t hit Manchester City on the counter, or even mount any type of attack. It was all defend, defend, defend. For the most part it worked as they kept their shape, not letting City into the box and forcing them into long-range efforts that didn’t trouble David Raya too much. The Etihad crowd was getting antsier and antsier the further the clocked ticked down, mostly due to the less than stellar chances created by the home team.

Finally though, the breakthrough happened in the 97th minute with John Stones slotting home off a Mateo Kovačić shot that was saved but deflected back into play.

It started when Manchester City took a quick corner, played it short to Jack Grealish, who then dribbling into the Arsenal box, unsettling the defense and creating a few precious gaps.

As an Arsenal supporter, it was tough to see the goal go in and everyone drop to their knees in exhaustion, frustration and hurt. They had done everything perfectly up to that point and gave it their all defending the Man City offensive.

Even though both teams came away from the match with a point, it still felt more brutal for the Gunners as they let the three points slip from their grasp.

Many kudos and plaudits to the players who fought and defended to the very end, but jeez do they need to refrain from putting themselves in a position to be a man down for an entire half.

Title contenders can overcome these types of situations from time-to-time, but it feels like Arsenal put themselves in these positions far too often. It’s something Arteta needs to iron out of his team if they want to win a Premier League.

Next up for the Gunners is a home match against Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup, which means a heavily rotated side. It’d be nice to compete for all 4 trophies, but Arsenal simply don’t have the depth to do so. So it’ll likely be players who are coming back from injury like Gabriel Jesus, haven’t gotten a ton of minutes like Raheem Sterling and some youth products like Ethan Nwaneri; a hodgepodge of underutilized players.

The matches are coming thick and fast now with only a few days rest in-between. The players will have to flush the disappointment from their minds and focus on the next match. No room to mope or play ‘coulda-shoulda.’ It’s on to the next game, full speed ahead.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!