The FA have launched an investigation after Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne was pelted with objects by Arsenal fans on Wednesday.
De Bruyne was one of the key architect’s of City’s 3-1 Premier League win at the Emirates Stadium, picking up a goal and an assist. He was also involved in an altercation with Mikel Arteta, after the Arsenal manager kicked the ball away as he was trying to take a throw-in.
After being substituted for Kalvin Phillips in the 88th minute, De Bruyne had to walk around the pitch to get to the City dugout. During his walk, plastic bottles and other objects were thrown at him by angry Arsenal fans.
The FA has now confirmed they will investigate the incident, which was included in referee Anthony Taylor’s report. The body will work with Arsenal to assess CCTV footage and try to identify the fans responsible.
A spokesperson for Arsenal told Mirror Football: "We are studying CCTV and if we are able to identify the culprits, they will be subject to strict sanctions. This is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
De Bruyne, who was not hit by any of the objects thrown at him, was calm throughout and later made light of the incident on social media. He posted two pictures on his Instagram story with the captions “Beer anyone?” and “Thanks!”.
City’s win saw them overtake Arsenal and go first in the Premier League table on goal difference, although the Gunners do have a game in hand on their rivals. De Bruyne was one of the stars of their crucial victory, opening the scoring with a deft lob over Aaron Ramsdale following a poor back-pass by Takehiro Tomiyasu.
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Bukayo Saka hit back from the penalty spot after Eddie Nketiah was fouled by Ederson, but City scored twice late on to win it. Jack Grealish fired past Ramsdale via a deflection from Tomiyasu before De Bruyne picked out Erling Haaland in the six-yard box and the Norwegian fired into the bottom corner.
City picked up the vital win despite Pep Guardiola lamenting his own “horrible” tactics. "My tactics because I decided something new and it was horrible," he told Amazon Prime when asked what frustrated him most with City's performance.
"Second half was more like we are. We let them play the build up, our shape, we let them play. When you let them play with Jorginho, Xhaka, Alex [Zinchenko], they found the players in behind, Odegaard, the runners outside up top.
"In the second half we adjusted and it was good, go in more aggressive to Odegaard and we controlled more of the ball, we played more, we played more, and Erling helped us a lot because we had to use more long balls and used his power to keep the ball.
"In the first half they had one more man in the middle, it was hard to control it and that’s why we suffered, but in the second half we were there."
