Arsenal’s tactics weren’t dirty, the real masters of ‘dark arts’ were ‘nasty’ Diego Costa and ‘b******’ Cesc Fabregas

ARSENAL are the masters of the “dark arts”? Give me a break.

I’ve been around and seen teams act way worse in the Prem. None of this is new.

Alan Pardew’s Newcastle were great at it. Cesc Fabregas was a horrible b*****d. John Obi Mikel used to foul you, help you up and step on your calf as he did it.

At Watford we had meetings about Chelsea’s Diego Costa who was so nasty we tried to be really nice to him on the pitch to try and get him on side.

And I will never forget wiping out Martin Skrtel early doors in 2015 and hearing the noise he made when I hit him. I thought: ‘I’ve got you’. We ended up beating Liverpool 3-0.

It is not “dark arts”. It is just trying to wind people up to gain an advantage.

All Arsenal did against Manchester City was manage the clock, trying to give their players a break and they did it really well. It was basically a pre-season drill.

When you go to Old Trafford, when you go to Anfield, anywhere you go, you would try to dampen the crowd, wouldn’t you?

Yes they shut up shop, but don’t most teams at the Etihad? Does that make them all dirty and masters of the “dark arts”?

Just because Man City want you to come out and play, does that mean everyone needs to fall in line? They want everyone to play their game and the refs to call it their way.

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You can’t have it all your own way. You’ve got the best players, the best manager and the best facilities. Every now and again teams will come and try beat you up.

Don’t get me wrong, Arsenal took it a step too far at times with their time wasting basically from the start of the second half, but it is something they had to do. They had ten men.

But the reason Arsenal and Mikel Arteta are getting so much heat for this so-called “dark arts” is because the likes of Pep Guardiola, John Stones and Bernardo Silva spoke about it.

Silva was squealing like you wouldn’t believe post-match – I could hardly make out what he was saying. And are you telling me Stones didn’t get involved in that sort of stuff at Everton?

But people turn into sheep and latch on to it because a great manager and great group of players start talking about it these ‘dark arts’ and it being a dirty Arsenal performance.

Were there actually any properly dirty tackles in that game? Not one. It was a football match, and a great one at that.

‘STRANGE’

Erling Haaland chucked the ball at Gabriel’s head and people are calling for a review? Come on, what are we doing? He didn’t get hurt – it’s a football.

I like Haaland, he is a nasty winner. I have got to say though, the “stay humble” line to Arteta was strange. If he had said that to me, there would have been a bit of action in the tunnel.

Football has just become a bit sterile and boring. Everyone’s nice and lovely. Is it not about winning?

Arteta is tired of coming second and wants to get over the line however he can. He has got it into his players that they need more fight and resilience and they have listened.

‘RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS’

City are just using this as a distraction tactic because, dare I say it, they looked like they were running out of ideas and didn’t have a Plan B before they got lucky with the equaliser.

And nobody is talking about it but that red card for Leandro Trossard massively helped City, because for me, without it Arsenal would have gone on to win that game.

When Rodri went off, it was a massive psychological blow and Arsenal smelled blood. Are you telling me they wouldn’t have scored from another set-piece with 11 men on the pitch?

Arsenal are showing they can do things in a different way and it is great for football.

Yes, they can play nice stuff, but they can also bully you now. You haven’t been able to say that for a long, long time.

If I was an Arsenal player, I would be putting two fingers up at the whole world. They’re proving they’re no longer soft. I quite like it.

They’re a really good outfit, they just need to cut out some of the nonsense and stop celebrating every little thing they do and focus on the bigger picture.

It is getting spicy between Arsenal and City, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it impacted the friendship between Arteta and Pep sooner rather than later.

There would have been no glass of wine shared after last weekend.

You can’t keep competing against someone and the other one wins all the time. There’s going to be some resentment that builds up.