���˿���

Leandro Trossard followed up a clumsy barge on Bernardo Silva by booting the ball away. It was a lesson not learned after Declan Rice was sent off for a similar offence against Brighton recently. As the saying goes, he gave the referee a decision to make and he made it. Off he went.

Trossard can have no complaints but Arsenal can cry injustice, as they did against Brighton, about inconsistency as Manchester City’s Jeremy Doku escaped punished for the same offence earlier.

It changed the entire emphasis for the visitors, who had to revert to a rearguard action after overturning City’s lead and taking control.

The stage was set for a siege on the Gunners' goal and so it proved. Pretty much every gaze inside a frantic Etihad Stadium was fixed on one side of the pitch for that 53-minute second half.

Arsenal only had 22% possession overall, their second-lowest recorded since 2003-04, the lowest also being against City when they managed just 20% in August 2011.

The picture of the second half is accurately painted by the fact they only had 12.5% possession but it is a measure of Arsenal’s defensive discipline that they could spend so much time without the ball against a side of City’s quality and survive for so long - although not quite long enough.

Read Phil's full piece