Call it dark arts. Call it anti-football. Call it doing what it takes to win.

Arsenal tried it all against Manchester City on Sunday in the latest chapter of the Premier League’s new heavyweight rivalry, and came within seconds of victory.

“There was only one team that came to play football,” grumbled Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva after an intense, stirring and incident-filled 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium. “The other one came to play to the limits of what was possible and what the referee allowed, unfortunately.”

City’s equaliser through John Stones in the eighth minute of second-half injury time prevented Arsenal, who played the entire second half with ten men, from what could have been a decisive victory for a team closing in on Pep Guardiola’s repeat champions.

City’s players know that too.

Hence Bernardo’s outspoken post-match comments about Arsenal. Note Erling Haaland throwing the ball at the back of Arsenal defender Gabriel’s head during City’s wild celebration following Stones’ late intervention. Also watch Pep Guardiola kick his chair in the dugout after feeling a sense of injustice at the manner in which Ricardo Calafiori scored Arsenal’s equaliser.

Arsenal have started to get on City’s nerves.

The return leg will take place at the Emirates Stadium in early February.

“As a football game it’s a great spectacle for the Premier League,” City captain Kyle Walker said of the new rivalry with Arsenal, who have finished runners-up for the past two seasons. “Probably not so much certain things — I think it’s part and parcel of the game and, let’s say, the dark arts.”

Stones spoke of Arsenal’s attempts to slow the game down by what he saw as feigning injuries so that manager Mikel Arteta could “get some information on the pitch.”

“I wouldn’t say they’ve mastered it, but they’ve been doing it for a couple of years, so we knew to expect that,” Stones said. “You can call it smart or dirty, whatever you want to call it, but they break up the game and it throws off the rhythm.”

In that sense, Arteta seems to have taken a page from the handbook of former Chelsea and Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho. Mourinho was of course once a great rival of Guardiola and sometimes took his cynical game to the extreme.

Arteta’s Arsenal can play beautiful football too. But with captain Martin Odegaard injured and Leandro Trossard sent off against City in first-half injury time, the Gunners knew it was time to change their approach to the other extreme.

“It’s incredible what we’ve done,” said Arteta, who knows City and Guardiola inside out, having once been his compatriot’s assistant at the Etihad Stadium.

For Silva, the games against Liverpool, City’s big rivals before Arsenal, were more fun to play.

“Liverpool always faced us to try to win the games,” said the Portuguese playmaker, “so from that perspective the games against Arsenal are not like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.”

Silva was one of several City players who became angry in what was an incendiary confrontation from the start. At one point he curled his finger into a “0” as he faced Gabriel – apparently referring to the fact that Arsenal have not won a Premier League title since Silva joined City in 2017. Arsenal’s last title came in 2004.

Asked about the difference between playing against Liverpool and Arsenal, Silva said: “Maybe Liverpool have won a Premier League but Arsenal haven’t. That Liverpool have won a Champions League but Arsenal haven’t.”

Will this be the season Arsenal end their wait for the league title?

After five games, Arsenal are fourth, two points behind leaders City. Arsenal have just emerged from visits to Tottenham and City – two of the toughest away games – with four points in the week, either side of a 0-0 draw at Atalanta in the Champions League.

The stage could be set again for another title battle between City and Arsenal.

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AP football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer