Manchester City vs. Arsenal rivalry born in Premier League classic that had everything you would want

Sunday's edition had goals, controversy and much more

MANCHESTER -- At the end of one of the great Premier League games, what do we have? Emphatic proof of Arsenal's defensive prowess, as if it were needed. Manchester City's indefatigability brought to life in John Stones becoming the first blue shirt in what felt like a lifetime to be second to a first ball. Most of all, perhaps this is the moment that a titanic rivalry truly kicked into gear.

Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta embraced at the final whistle as if this had all been a game to them, playing at hostilities as only friends can. Ahead of them on the Etihad field, there was nothing playful about the three or more set-tos between red and sky blue shirts. Over the 90 preceding minutes these players had developed what occasionally appeared to be a deep loathing for each other. A game that had lasted all of four seconds before the first stramash ended in the 98th minute, Erling Haaland cravenly lobbed the ball at the back of Gabriel's head while the man who might have been Arsenal's most remarkable match winner mourned a last-gasp hammer blow. 

Perhaps the emnity had begun earlier than that. At the end of last season Rodri had made plenty of headlines in his assessment that Arsenal had not really wanted to win on their last visit to the home of the champions. Arteta and his players will doubtless have noted the gusto with which City celebrated their own point, one earned in spite of themselves after 52 minutes where they seemed to have no idea how to break down a 10-man block. Before all that, Rodri seemed destined to be the story of the game, he and Kai Havertz seemingly intent on manufacturing a collision with themselves from kickoff. Instead, the Spaniard was a red herring, though the injury he suffered early in the first half is as significant as an injury to the knee can be then it may that his collision with Thomas Partey is the incident that has the biggest impact on the title race.