Arsenal’s ‘dark arts’? What nonsense. It was game management and they deserve huge credit for it, writes MARTIN KEOWN

I can’t stand the term ‘dark arts’.

You see a team doing what they have to do – like Arsenal heroically handled that second half against Manchester City – and it’s conveniently shoehorned into that derogatory narrative, with negative connotations rather than positive ones.

I prefer the term ‘game management’, of which there was plenty to commend in Arsenal’s performance on Sunday. Mikel Arteta’s men do not deserve the criticism they have received for the manner in which they squeezed a result out of the Etihad Stadium.

They should be commended for the clever way in which they kept City in check, with Pep Guardiola’s great winning machine even relying on John Stones to score their final Premier League goal to avoid losing.

Arsenal were leading 2-1, down to 10 men after a ridiculous red card for Leandro Trossard, with 45 minutes left against one of the best teams in the world, the champions, looking for a fifth consecutive title. What else could they do but make sure they defended their slim lead with everything they had?

Arsenal deserve no criticism for the way they tried to get a result at Manchester City

Mikel Arteta’s team should be commended for the clever way in which they kept the champions in check

It’s like asking Frank Bruno to let Mike Tyson go. You’re begging to be knocked out. I’ve heard the holier-than-thou comments from various voices in the game, as if what Arsenal did was ugly and unfair.

I love Bernardo Silva as a footballer, but he even said: ‘There was only one team that came to play football.’ I’m sure he said that out of frustration after watching Arsenal pull the shutters down on their goal until Stones came to their rescue.

But don’t try to tell me City would have been scornful of using the same tactics if they had found themselves in this predicament at the Emirates. Arsenal didn’t have to go looking for another goal.

They had their lead. They had to protect it at all costs and Arteta’s men tried to manage the game with a 5-4-0 formation because they had no other choice.

This wasn’t a case of the ‘always the same Arsenal, always cheating’ claim that Manchester United fans used to like to throw at us. This was a necessary approach, brilliantly executed until Stones came along with that equaliser.

Bernardo Silva (right) claimed after the final whistle that ‘there was only one team that came to play football’

Time on City’s side

It wasn’t as if Arsenal arrived at City with a plan to disrupt the game at all times. It was Rodri who stepped in for Kai Havertz within seconds of kick-off, remember, not the other way around.

The ball was in play for 35 minutes and 23 seconds at the Etihad in the second half, more than in any other Premier League match this season. Arsenal critics may well quibble that they created stoppages and that David Raya took his time with goal kicks.

But the statistics show that City still had plenty of time to try and break through the Thames Barrier created by the visitors. Whatever time was lost, referee Michael Oliver gave it back and then some at the end.

The stats show City had plenty of time to break through despite time-consuming claims

Exhausting pressure takes its toll

Arsenal players have been accused of faking injuries, but there is a problem with that. Those who went down claiming they had cramp, such as Gabriel Martinelli, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori, were replaced. When City come at you, it is as relentless as it is tiring.

Martinelli would have much preferred to be in attacking mode, but he had to show total defensive determination in the second half, along with Timber and Calafiori. If those two had been fit enough to stay on the pitch, I suspect Arsenal would have secured their first ever win at the Etihad.

Believe me, it’s a lot easier when you’re the team that dominates the ball. When you’re doing all the defending, it’s incredibly taxing and it was inevitable that Arsenal’s players would need treatment as time went on.

Raya was another one who went down with an injury, and that’s another debate. Whether that was a legitimate concern, or a reason to give his team a timely breather, we can’t say for sure. As we all know, goalies aren’t forced to leave the field like outfielders, so that’s a loophole that can be exploited.

But still, every Premier League team has done this, including City, I think.

Arsenal players have been accused of faking injuries, but it’s tiring when City come knocking

Walker is the culprit, not Oliver

The referees could have made the match run a lot smoother overall, but I’m not going to criticise Oliver for what happened to Kyle Walker.

If anything, it’s more Walker’s fault than the referee’s. Getting back into position as quickly as possible is defending 101. He dawdled when he could have sprinted to man his space, from which Martinelli set Calafiori up for a goal.

I like to watch games with a notepad next to me. One note I made before all this happened with Walker was how slow City players were to get back to their positions for restarts. If you work early, you defend less, that’s the rule.

But there was something lazy about those scenarios and I’m sure Arsenal’s pundits noticed that before punishing City.

I admire Walker as a defender. But you can’t rely on referees to wait for you. First and foremost, get back in position and save the yelling at your teammates for later.

Kyle Walker was to blame for Arsenal’s equaliser – getting back into position is defending 101

Gabriel and Saliba enjoy the Haaland test

When I wrestled strikers for a living, I had a little black book in my head of opponents I could fight. I was a contact defender and knew who would collapse like a house of cards if I got the chance and who would take me on.

If Ruud van Nistelrooy was at one end of the spectrum, Mark Hughes was at the other, giving as good as he got when we were on. Erling Haaland has shown that he is not someone who will shy away from the battle with Gabriel and William Saliba in the future. He has already been the ultimate test of professionalism.

Now he is practically their personal enemy as the rivalry only intensified on Sunday, particularly when Haaland committed an act of disrespect by throwing the ball at Gabriel’s head after Stones had scored.

Arsenal’s clashes with Manchester United always had a sharp edge, a sense that we didn’t like them and they didn’t like us, and so fireworks were expected. Under Haaland’s leadership, the same bad feeling is now developing between English football’s newest elite rivals.

It was bubbling and almost overflowing when Haaland collided with Thomas Partey after the restart, but I think the respect between Arteta and Guardiola kept it in check. It helps that these two former colleagues are such good friends, which was certainly not the case in the early days of Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson.

Instead of turning on each other, Arteta and Guardiola turned their fire on Oliver. But make no mistake, when these two titanic teams meet again, there will be no love lost between Haaland and Gabriel or Saliba.

Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba will relish the challenge of beating Erling Haaland

Trossard’s red card was harsh

Arsenal struggled in the early stages and showed character by coming from behind to go 2-1 up, then the game changed with a card.

That second yellow card for Trossard was harsh. If he had wanted to knock the ball out of play in anger, he could have done so, by sending it to row Z. But he didn’t. In that split second after Oliver blew his whistle, he kicked it in the direction of Martinelli, who was looking through at goal. He was committed to the action.

No one has given more yellow cards this season than Oliver, who could do with a bit more patience with players. After that, Arsenal had to play like the world was against them and they tried to hold on to their victory by any means necessary.

They weren’t at the Etihad to make friends. They were there to try and win. For me, this was a second-half performance that deserved applause, not the condemnation they received afterwards.