Why Arsenal v Man City is the Premier League’s most bitter rivalry | OneFootball

If the Arsenal and Manchester City squads are readying themselves for “war” on Sunday, the mood isn’t that different off the pitch. There are few polite niceties there. This is probably the club relationship with the deepest animosity in the Premier League, and even worse than some notorious rivalries from the past.

September’s 2-2 draw had more fallout than any other match this season so far, and that’s despite this campaign’s many refereeing controversies. One official at a rival club even marvelled at how the fallout had gone into “day six”. That 2-2 had opprobrium about referees and much more, including a farrago over footage of Arsenal executive vice-chairman Tim Lewis leaving his seat without shaking hands with City counterparts. There was some irritation about that in north London, especially since they feel City’s senior figures don’t always welcome them.

The champions meanwhile see Arsenal as one of the clubs most actively in opposition to their ownership. Crucially, some of this has filtered down to the dressing rooms.

Antipathy is so strong that, when details came out about City Football Group pursuing Arsenal target Sverre Halseth Nypan through its Spanish club, Girona, some around the Emirates suspected it was just to drive up their price. Girona’s interest was nevertheless genuine.

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John Stones’ dramatic late equaliser saved City earlier in the season (Getty Images)

As petty as some of that sounds, recruitment forms a central theme ahead of this match, fittingly coming just before deadline day. That’s both in terms of where the teams are and what recruitment represents.

It should be stressed that key figures at Arsenal, including Lewis, outright believe that states or state-linked figures shouldn’t own football clubs, as is the case with Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour. Others in the game fairly say the same should apply to billionaires like Stan Kroenke. There is nevertheless another dimension to that, given how people in the Premier League see Arsenal as essentially leading a group of American ownerships in pushing the stance that sporting competition can’t work properly if it includes state-linked ownership. The argument is that you are ultimately dealing with a greater level of power, which is almost impossible to regulate.

Sources close to the top of the Premier League say that this is a split that has become increasingly apparent over the last two years, amid wider developments in global football and the announcement of the Premier League charges against City in 2023. This is in some ways the future of football: the US against the Gulf. Such dynamics give City more ground for complaints that other clubs target them, even if it isn’t “a cartel”. The Premier League was duty-bound to investigate the 2018 Football Leaks that precipitated these charges. What is perhaps more relevant is how some clubs would push for the strongest possible punishment if guilt is proven. Or, as Pep Guardiola put it, for City to be “wiped off the face of the Earth”. The champions are meanwhile part of their own voting bloc, which includes Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest.

This runs deeper. People at Arsenal still talk bitterly about how their club was the first big victim of “the sportswashing era”. Arsene Wenger coined “financial doping” amid a period where City signed a series of Arsenal’s best players. Some players on Sunday would gladly emulate Emmanuel Adebayor’s notorious celebration from September 2009, especially after the bad blood of the 2-2 earlier this season. Those at the Etihad meanwhile talk of how they were instantly made to feel like outsiders at Uefa meetings after the 2008 takeovers.

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Emmanuel Adebayor’s infamous celebration in front of Arsenal fans in 2009 (Nick Potts/PA)

Even the arguments about state-linked ownership, however, ultimately settle on clubs’ ability to compete – which comes back to the market. City figures would willingly point to how much Arsenal have spent on transfer fees, such as their signing of Declan Rice. Those at Highbury state their wage bill is still much lower. For the 2023-24 season, where Mikel Arteta’s team lost the league by two points, his squad’s wage bill was around £318m compared to City’s £400m.

There also remains resentment about Arteta’s move from City to Arsenal in December 2019. The Etihad hierarchy have never been happy with how that process went. Arsenal subsequently found extreme resistance to Arteta’s attempt to bring over two staff members, including set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover. That same staff, meanwhile, have long noted how Guardiola and his team don’t quite “pat them on the head” like they used to.

All this further fires the emotion around the game, as well as – crucially – the different positions of the clubs.

One of the reasons there has been such frustration at Arsenal is because there had been such focus on finally besting City. It even influenced recruitment decisions, like having a more robust midfield. Instead, a series of factors have combined to ensure Arteta’s team are off where they were last season, but in a campaign where City have fallen off. That has created this angst, as Arsenal are aware they will be criticised if Liverpool effectively leapfrog them to the title.

That awareness is also driving a message to keep calm and look at the bigger picture. Arsenal feel that years of recruitment planning has put them in a place where they are only a few details away from having an elite team for half a decade. They do want a forward in this window, having enquired about Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins. That is nevertheless measured against an insistence on ensuring any signing is in-keeping with that more calculated long-term planning. The ideal player up front is Benjamin Sesko, but Leipzig’s Champions League chase means it would cost an extra £50m to get him now rather than in the summer.

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Arsenal want a striker to sharpen their attacking options (Getty Images)

That could impinge plans to “complete” the squad by bringing in Spanish midfielder Martin Zubimendi, a Sesko-style striker and a wide forward such as Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, who Arsenal greatly admire. The danger is of course in constantly looking to the future.

City, after years of being so well run, could meanwhile be criticised for not looking to the future enough. This January’s business feels like a belated squad overhaul that was long needed. Guardiola’s Champions League-winning side had gone stale. Other clubs have still been a bit baffled by some of the business, as well as Erling Haaland’s new contract, especially as regards what they mean for the hearing.

They probably don’t mean anything, given that nobody yet knows how it will conclude. All anyone outside the hearing can really say is that it is known to have been a “very disciplined” process so far. City’s business can even be interpreted in terms of both main potential outcomes. If they are cleared, there is no issue with expenditure. If they are found guilty and heavily punished, they’ve already future-proofed the squad.

More immediately, they now have a squad with more depth and pace for Sunday, and probably more than Arsenal given the injuries. Against that, however, Arteta’s side look far more defensively robust than a porous City. The latter have a profound fragility that is there to be exploited. Even Brugge did it. City also have that sense of superiority that comes from being repeat champions. That is what Arsenal want. That is why Arsenal took solace in “rattling” them after that 2-2. Both are in each other’s heads. Neither, however, are in top spot.

The Premier League’s most acrimonious rivalry has suddenly become a sub-plot in a larger story. Given football's modern geopolitics, though, that isn’t just about chasing down Liverpool.