“He step on my toes THREE times in the match but the Ref didn’t blow the whistle to give him yellow card, but he went ahead to give Kovacic a yellow card”- Man City Defender Jasko Gravidol explains how unfairly City were cheated against Arsenal yesterday

Josko Gvardiol explains how Man City gameplan came unstuck at Arsenal

Manchester City were on course for a hard-earned draw at Arsenal until a late Gabriel Martinelli shot deflected in off Nathan Ake to hand the Blues a second defeat in a row.

Manchester City weren’t dangerous enough going forward at Arsenal, according to defender Josko Gvardiol.

City matched Arsenal in a tight game of few chances until Gabriel Martinelli’s shot hit Nathan Ake with five minutes remaining to wrongfoot Ederson and hand the three points to the Gunners. It was City’s first back-to-back defeats in the Premier League since 2018, and ensured they lost all three games without the suspended Rodri over the last two weeks.

In truth, City weren’t bad at the Emirates, with neither side creating any clear-cut efforts on goal. However, Arsenal’s late slice of fortune handed them a first victory over City in 12 league meetings, and City’s approach has been questioned in the aftermath.

Assessing what went wrong at Arsenal, defender Gvardiol insisted the overall performance was good, and that City largely stuck to the game plan. But with Arsenal edging the result, City’s lack of creativity in attack may have ultimately cost them.

“I cannot say something went wrong – we played good the whole game but maybe not enough,” he admitted. “We knew we needed to have a lot of patience and calmness on the ball. We were doing good for most of the game.

“Every game we prepare in the best and we were ready for today. We could have done better but it is what it is – it’s behind us. We have to be more dangerous in the last third

“Of course, we cannot be happy with the result. It’s a hard one – especially two losses in a row. We played good, we controlled the ball but unfortunately the goal at the end – we are sad but we have to do more.”

Without Rodri, City have lost three games in four when the influential Spaniard was suspended, but he will be back after the international break along with John Stones, who returned from injury off the bench at Arsenal.

“We are missing Rodri for sure,” Gvardiol said. “We all know his qualities. He’s coming back soon, and we are happy about it. We saw [Stones’] qualities also in the last 15-20 minutes. We are really happy about him and for sure he’s going to be one of the key players in the future.”