TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - If it was Arsenal’s intention to mark a decisive departure from recent flaccid lunchtime collapses against the Premier League’s top four, then Arsène Wenger will perhaps draw some satisfaction from Manuel Pellegrini’s reaction at the end of a keenly fought 2-2 draw at the Emirates, which left Manchester City’s manager furious with the performance of Mark Clattenburg, as reported by The Guardian.
The referee has history with City, after some contentious decisions in the 3-2 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield last season. Here, Pellegrini was adamant the referee had missed fouls in the buildup to both of Arsenal’s second-half goals, most notably a pull on Vincent Kompany by Danny Welbeck before Alexis Sánchez’s equaliser.
“The referee didn’t want to whistle,” Pellegrini said. “There was clearly a foul. Welbeck pushed Kompany, he didn’t have any intention to play the ball. Arsenal scored both goals with fouls. But I’m very happy the way our team played, we are very happy with the draw. We had more possession and more attempts to score goals, so I’m very happy with my team. On a normal day we have to win this game.”
Pellegrini also felt City should have had a penalty for handball by Jack Wilshere – albeit the ball seemed to hit ribs and arm all of a piece, from close range – and revealed he had been forced to substitute Sergio Agüero after 66 minutes because his centre-forward was so incensed at a yellow card given to him for protesting about Arsenal’s equaliser.
If Pellegrini was unusually testy this was perhaps tribute to Arsenal’s high-pressing vigour in coming back from a goal down to lead briefly against the champions; and also a reflection of how well City had played in periods, dominating possession and looking potent breaking down the flanks.
“It was a game of top quality between two very good teams, played at tremendous pace,” Wenger said, praising in particular Wilshere and Sánchez, who both produced expert second-half finishes. “These were two players who had a very good game today, Sanchez and Wilshere were rewarded for that performance.
“[Wilshere] is coming back, physically, to his best level but unfortunately it has taken time to find that little fraction of a second that is so important in the modern game. It looked for the first time today he found it over the whole 90 minutes.”
Wenger’s complaints were less with the referee, more with City’s play in the first half, as Arsenal looked to break out of defence. “It was systematic fouling,” he said. “We have great pace in our team and they stopped that. It was not an easy game to referee.”
If there was encouragement in Welbeck’s energetic debut (“he looked dangerous”), Wenger confirmed that Mathieu Debuchy had suffered a badly strained ankle and would be out of action “for some time”.
THE GUARDIAN | THE OBSERVER | BR
