In last night's 5th round of the Premier League, Manchester City hosted Arsenal in a thrilling draw, with both sides shaking hands with a score of 2-2. After the match, City players Akanji, Stones and Rodriguez expressed their views on many topics of the match in an interview with Manchester Evening News.
In response to Arsenal's delaying tactics after playing a man short, Akanji was blunt: "That's the way they want to play, they always try to create drama whenever they play us and it clearly worked last night. Although we're unhappy with the draw, we still maintain our position as league leaders and are unbeaten so far. We were outnumbered in the second half, but the opposition's ten players defended intensively in the box and made it difficult for us to break through."
Stones, on the other hand, offered his opinion on Arsenal's "dark arts": "Arsenal do have a knack for it, but history has shown that we have always won the title with the last laugh. I believe this year will be no exception. The season has only just begun, and our goal is still to defend the league title. We won't focus too much on Arsenal because we won't be playing them directly for the next six months. We will focus on our own game and wait for the time to prove ourselves again."
Rodney spoke at length about Arsenal's defensive strategy at the Etihad Stadium and responded to the criticism he received: "Regarding delays, it is indeed a difficult issue to control, and it depends on the referee's scale of punishment. However, it is natural that scoring a goal becomes extremely difficult when facing a team that has a heavy presence in the penalty area. We did our best, but the two goals we conceded changed the course of the game. In addition, Arsenal are also good at interrupting the rhythm of the game to affect our play, they frequently fall to the ground in order to get a free kick opportunity, which really caused us a lot of trouble. But we can't directly intervene in these behaviors and can only hope that the referee will be able to control these kinds of situations better throughout the season."
