Manuel Akanji – Manchester City defender express his grievances towards Arsenal over tactical foul play

Manuel Akanji has stated that Arsenal used tactical fouling to thwart players from Manchester City during th 0-0 draw on Easter Sunday. Playing the entire 90 minutes, Akanji expressed his confusion over why referee Anthony Taylor wasn’t issuing more free kicks and yellow cards during the crucial encounter at the top of the table, given that Arsenal had committed multiple tactical fouls during the match.

Akanji said afterwards: “When we got through, sometimes they stopped us with the fouls. If there’s no action [from the referee], it’s hard. I don’t understand. One in the first half [from Kai Havertz] was a very late tackle on Stefan. For me, it is clearly a yellow card. I don’t want to say just against us. There were also some decisions against them that I didn’t understand why he gave a foul.

“There are some rules and I think there are clear yellow cards where it should be. I remember with Jorginho when he’d already done a tackle [which was a foul] and did the second one and he didn’t even give a yellow card for one [foul]. I didn’t understand some of the decisions but, in the end, we still should be able to score a goal.”

Liverpool ultimately benefited from points dropped by both City and Arsenal during a busy Premier League weekend. The Reds came from behind to secure a 2-1 win over Brighton right before kick-off at the Etihad Stadium. With just nine games remaining, it enabled Jurgen Klopp’s squad to take a three-point lead over City and a two-point advantage over Arsenal.

Pep Guardiola has acknowledged that Liverpool is the favourite, though. The Premier League title competition is still ongoing. In the remaining games of the season, City and Arsenal will concentrate on applying as much pressure as they can to Liverpool.

In the upcoming two games, City will play Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, while Arsenal will play Luton and Brighton. After that, both teams have to concentrate on Europe since on April 9, the Champions League quarterfinals will begin. City will play Real Madrid, while Arsenal will play Bayern Munich.