Mikel Arteta lashes out at Michael Oliver in frosty interview as Arsenal deny Manchester City victory

Mikel Arteta was visibly furious with referee Michael Oliver after 10-man Arsenal's dramatic 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Sunday night.

The Gunners were on the verge of a resounding victory at the Etihad before John Stones' 98th-minute equaliser. Arsenal led 2-1 after a brilliant first-half comeback before Leandro Trossard received a second yellow card and was sent off.

The Belgian forward pulled Savinho's shirt for his first yellow card before kicking the ball eight minutes into first-half injury time and receiving his marching orders from Oliver.

Arteta was furious on the touchline, pulling his sweater over his head in disbelief. And he was just as frustrated in his frosty post-match interview with Sky Sports.

“There were two incidents, very similar. In particular, one was very different with a different result which forces you to play a game that nobody wanted to watch,” Arteta said.

The Arsenal boss was apparently referring to the fact that Jeremy Doku was not booked for kicking the ball at another point in the first half.

Asked if he was talking specifically about Doku, the Spaniard declined to go into detail but added: “I'm not talking about anything, I'm just saying what happened. I think it's very obvious. I don't need to talk about it.”

“I think it's very clear. It's very obvious, I hope that's what 100% of people think.

“It's not my job to come here and judge what happened. My job is to survive in the toughest environment you can have in football (10 men away at Manchester City) for 55 minutes.

“My job was to make things happen to survive. The rest is not my job and this is already the second time this has happened in five games, which is really very worrying. You want to see the best Premier League.

“It is [Trossard kicking the ball away] is less than one second. The previous [Doku’s] It's more than a second. That's all. It's simple.”

Erling Haaland's 10th goal of the season – and his 100th in total for City – had put the hosts ahead nine minutes into the game, but the Gunners responded brilliantly through Riccardo Calafiori's superb curling shot and Gabriel Magalhaes' close-range header.

The game turned on its head when Trossard was sent off. City had 28 shots against a London side reduced to 10 men in the second half, but Arsenal held on and looked set to record a memorable victory at the Etihad until Stones' last-gasp equaliser.

Arteta was proud of his team despite the result and added: “It's unbelievable what the players did, the way we played in normal conditions which were already super, super difficult.

“That's why City haven't lost here in 40 games. Then we were down to 10 men for 55, 56 minutes. That's the story of the character of our players and I'm very proud of them.

“[The red card] makes the situation impossible. It is very, very difficult to play [vs City] With 11 players, it's impossible with 10. With 10, you have to defend your penalty area over and over again.

“The players did an incredible job, I'm very proud of them. When you survived for so many minutes, to concede a goal in the last minute like we did because we had to play 99 minutes, it's very disappointing.

“But at the same time, I couldn't be more proud of them and the way they competed today.”

Asked about Arsenal's slowing down of the game in the second half, with players regularly suffering from cramp, Arteta replied: “It's not for me to comment.”