Why Manchester City and Arsenal have been rivals for decades

Why Manchester City and Arsenal have been rivals for decades

 

Key Takeaways
Man City raided Arsenal for key players in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, exploiting their financial situation.
Former Arsenal man Arsene Wenger called out City for financial fair play violations, sparking controversy.
Current head coaches Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola were a coaching partnership at City from 2016 to 2019
Arsenal’s rivalry with Manchester City has come to the forefront of English football over the last few years, with the pair of clubs battling it out for the Premier League title in each of the past two seasons. Their latest meeting, a 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium, was fiery and full of tension, with one red card, plenty of bookings and that last ditch equaliser from John Stones. However, the rivalry goes further than the last couple of years, and this article explores the origins of the rivalry and how it has since developed.

The Man City Raid on Arsenal
Emmanuel Adebayor celebrating
English football changed forever when Man City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour in 2008 and Arsenal were one of the first clubs to feel the force of City’s newfound financial clout. In the 2009 summer transfer window, City swooped for Arsenal’s star striker Emmanuel Adebayor and centre-back Kolo Toure.

One of the most vivid memories of Adebayor’s spell at City was his goal against Arsenal and the Togo forward went and ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the fans of his former club. Adebayor had already incensed Gunners fans with what seemed like an attempted stamp on Robin Van Persie and the goal by the number nine really rubbed salt in the wounds.

That wasn’t going to be the last time that City came to Arsenal’s door for players to join their football revolution. Samir Nasri made the move from North London to the North West in 2011 for a fee in the region of €27.5 million and was a key part of the side that won the title in the following season. Full-back Gael Clichy also made the move north in the same transfer window and Bacary Sagna also joined the club in 2014.

It was clear that City were exploiting the financial situation at Arsenal, with the club having plenty of debt left from the construction of the Emirates Stadium and as a result for the bulk of the 2010’s, Arsenal could only watch other sides have success with Arsene Wenger doing incredibly well to keep the side in the Champions League for as long as he did. The quintet had varying degrees of success at City, with Clichy and Nasri doing the best in terms of trophies won for the cityzens. It seems that this raid laid the foundations of the rivalry that we now see today, with memories of those transfers, particularly Adebayor’s, still sticking in the minds of the Gunners faithful.

Arsene Wenger’s Outburst
Arsene Wenger at Camp Nou
Continuing the theme of going back in time, it seems like yesterday when Arsene Wenger walked off into the sunset in 2018, but, yes it really has been six years since the long-coat wearing Frenchman bowed out of football management. However, the Arsenal icon didn’t make a quiet exit as he displayed his fury regarding Man City’s financial clout in 2017 but that was not the first time he made comments regarding the men from Manchester.

In 2011, the Guardian reported that the Frenchman publicly accused Man City of breaking UEFA’s financial rules, something that is prompting a lot of conversation to this day. He openly spoke about the sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways and encouraged then UEFA president Michel Platini to act on the deal.

“It raises the real question about the credibility of the financial fair play,” Wenger said. “That is what this is all about. They give us the message that they can get around it by doing what they want. It means financial fair play will not come in. It is as simple as that. I can understand how they do it but it raises the real question. The difficulty and the credibility of the financial fair play is at stake.

“Plus, if the financial fair play is to have a chance, the sponsorship has to be at the market price. It cannot be doubled, tripled or quadrupled because that means it is better that we don’t do it and we leave everybody free. That can be defended as well, but if they bring the rules in they have to be respected.”

Wenger continued to take part in a war of words with City and just before he left Arsenal in 2018, he was unhappy with comparisons between his invincibles side and City’s 2017/18 side, who went on to become the only team to reach 100 points in a Premier League season, a record that still stands to this day.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, he said: “Look, we had no petrol but ideas, they have petrol and ideas, so that makes it more efficient,” he said. “So, everybody expects and projects that they will last. Why not? It can happen, but there is still a long way to go. At the moment I think everything goes for them inside the games, but maybe as well they have the quality to turn it in their favour.”

Arsenal Reportedly Pushing for Man City’s Charges
Man City’s 115 Charges Closely Looked at by Pundits

When it was announced that Man City had been charged with 115 financial charges by the Premier League, the shockwaves sent tremors across the top tier of English football. With points deductions being handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest last season, the scrutiny has increased more upon the Premier League to deal with City’s charges.

As there is with all football in the 2020s, social media is awash with speculation regarding Arsenal’s stance on the Man City case, with some theorising that Arsenal are part of a red cartel with Manchester United and Liverpool, pushing for City to be punished. As those are the teams who are most likely to benefit from City punishments then it’s not out of the realms of possibility.

The biggest indication of this so far has been the fallout of the City case against the Premier League in relation to the Associated Party Transaction Rules that were introduced in Autumn 2021. After it was revealed that the tribunal ruled that the APT rules were unlawful, evidence was revealed from the hearing that Arsenal were among eight teams to give evidence against City.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for City though, as the Premier League are still claiming they won the case as the rules weren’t nulled altogether. It also acts as an interesting precursor for the hearing into the 115 charges and in terms of the rivalry, it does show that Arsenal are wanting City to be punished.

Pep Guardiola vs Mikel Arteta
Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta on the touchline at Manchester City
Now back to on-field matters, the current head coaches of both teams, Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta, were once by each other’s side every weekend, but now they are fierce rivals. Arsenal and Man City have spent the last two seasons tussling out for the title, but this is very much the master vs the apprentice.

Very much like their respective coaches, Man City are seasoned pros at winning trophies and Arsenal are looking to burst on to the scene and announce themselves to the world but they sometimes lack ruthlessness and that winning touch. There have been examples across those seasons that have emphasised this, think Arsenal’s capitulation in 2023 or City’s magnificent run of going 23 games unbeaten after their defeat against Aston Villa last season.

 

Arteta has transformed things at Arsenal, turning themselves from also-rans to giving them real hope of ending a seemingly endless wait for a fourth Premier League title. The Spaniard’s coaching career began under the tutelage of Guardiola at Man City, with the two making for a fantastic coaching partnership, shown by Arteta’s three-year spell as assistant manager yielding two Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two Carabao Cups.

When Unai Emery was sacked as the North London club’s manager in 2019, Arteta moved to the Gunners and while things in the Premier League didn’t get off to the best of starts with back-to-back eighth place finishes. However, he won the FA Cup in 2020 just months after joining the club, drawing first blood in the rivalry with his former boss Guardiola with a 2-0 semi-final win against City.

Arteta then started reversing the fortunes in the Premier League for the Gunners, with the side coming ever so close to securing Champions League football in 2022, but they lost out to bitter rivals Spurs. However, the next season was when the rivalry as we know it started to take shape.

Arsenal were eight points ahead of City at one point and it looked like Arteta was leading them to a first title since the Invincibles in 2004, but it wasn’t to be and Arsenal lost both games with City, a 3-1 defeat at the Emirates and a 4-1 defeat at the Etihad, which ultimately swayed the momentum firmly towards City. However, in 2023/24, Arsenal took it to the final day, finishing just two points behind City and Arteta picked up four points against his mentor.

The latest chapter in this rivalry was written just a couple of weeks ago, but we saw the first glimpses of some angst between the former coaching duo in the fallout of September’s 2-2 draw. The Guardian reported that Guardiola was privately fuming with Arteta after the former City assistant said he had ‘all the information’ about his former club in response to a comment about his side’s deployment of the dark arts in the crunch clash.

This irked Guardiola due to him mentoring Arteta and allowing him to take the Arsenal job despite it coming halfway through a season and reservations from those in the club. This disagreement showed the first signs of fracture in their friendship so the reverse on February 1 could be intriguing.

 

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