HERE SunSport’s whistleblower Mark Halsey picks out the key incidents from Sunday’s fiery Prem clash at the Etihad.
From Manchester City star Kyle Walker’s fury at Arsenal’s equaliser to that disputed dismissal of Gunners ace Leandro Trossard, our former man in black gives his assessment on the 2-2 epic.
HAVERTZ & RODRI
The tone was set after just eight seconds when Kai Havertz ran into Rodri and the City midfielder fell to the ground holding his face.
But Havertz did nothing wrong as he is absolutely entitled to run into space.
In fact, you could argue that Rodri was the one fortunate to escape without a booking.
He was trying to get Havertz sent off — and you never want to see that.
WALKER REACTION TO ARSENAL EQUALISER
Kyle Walker had every right to feel aggrieved over Riccardo Calafiori’s 22nd-minute goal.
Ref Michael Oliver called the City captain over for a chat after the Gunners had been awarded a free-kick, which is fine.
But the issue is he allowed Thomas Partey to take the set-piece quickly and, with Walker out of position, Arsenal ended up scoring.
Walker was rightly furious. When a referee calls a player over, he must allow him to get back into position.
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Oliver should have restarted the game once Walker had returned to his right-back spot.
The goal came because Walker was out of position and Gabriel Martinelli exploited the space before teeing up Calafiori.
TROSSARD SEEING RED
Leandro Trossard was deservedly sent off as he kicked the ball 50 yards away after conceding a free-kick and therefore delayed the restart.
The Belgian has clearly learnt nothing from team-mate Declan Rice being sent off for the same thing against Brighton last month.
Neither Trossard or Gunners boss Mikel Arteta can have any complaints.
But all we want is consistency and City’s Jeremy Doku did exactly the same thing earlier in the game and went unpunished.
He also kicked the ball away and was not booked.
ARSENAL PHYSIO
Protocols mean a physio or doctor can only enter the field of play to give a player treatment when given the green light by the referee.
Arsenal’s physio ran onto the pitch to treat Jurrien Timber and would have been cautioned had Oliver not given him permission.
So he did nothing wrong there.
Given the intensity of the game and with what is at stake, on the whole I thought Michael Oliver performed well.