There was some delicious needle to Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Manchester City in last weekend's clash at the Etihad.
Arsenal brought the "dark arts" in the second half after Leandro Trossard's soft red card, and Mikel Arteta's side got under their opponents' skin. "Stay humble, huh?" was Erling Haaland's message to Arteta, just seconds after the City forward had hurled the ball into Arsenal defender Gabriel's head during the wild celebrations for John Stones's 98th-minute equaliser.
City's players made little attempt to conceal their contempt for Arsenal's approach, which involved all 10 players camping behind the ball, protecting their 2-1 lead. "Only one team came to play football," said Bernardo Silva, who accused Arsenal of gamesmanship. Asked if Arsenal were the masters of the "dark arts", Manuel Akanji said: "Yeah, but we always won the title and I don't think it's going to be different this year."
There are times when we need footballers to be role models, and others when we should relish them behaving like petulant children, and Sunday's game felt like the latter.
Arsenal vs Man City clashes bring an edge of animosity never seen between Klopp and Guardiola
The antipathy between the players only added to the spectacle of the best teams in the country coming together in a clash of styles, even if Trossard's dismissal fundamentally changed the nature of the contest.
The Arsenal-City rivalry has been warming up for the past two seasons without really coming to the boil, all the while feeling like the champions maintained a psychological edge.That may remain the case unless Arsenal can eventually dethrone City but the rivalry increasingly feels on a more even footing and more intense.
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool and City shared a tremendous series of battles but the respect between the squads and managers meant there was never the spice of the rivalry, say, between Arsene Wenger's Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.
Provided lines are not crossed, these showdowns for the biggest prizes are always more compelling when there is genuine animosity. Arsenal should be hugely encouraged by City's reaction to the game, which demonstrated that the champions view them as a very real threat.
As friends, Arteta and Pep Guardiola will surely remain respectful but part of the rivalry's appeal is Arteta's transformation into a kind of Darth Vader figure, rejecting his mentor's path in favour of what the City boss would consider the dark side.
Since resigning as the Catalan's assistant to take the Arsenal job, Arteta has faced accusations that he is a "lite" version of his compatriot, but the visitors' set-up on Sunday could scarcely have been further from Guardiola's football ideal.
In fact, Arteta's approach was reminiscent of Guardiola's historic rival, Jose Mourinho, who was happy to protect a lead with men behind the ball — most notably in Inter Milan's 10-man victory over Guardiola's Barcelona in the second leg of the 2010 Champions League semi-final.
Arteta is not morphing into Tony Pulis and one of the strengths of his Arsenal side is their adaptability; they will take the game to opponents with eye-catching football when necessary. Equally, though, their approach at City was not a one-off, and the previous weekend they won 1-0 at Tottenham with 36.3 per cent of possession and another Gabriel set-piece goal. Maybe this is the most intriguing element of how Arsenal's challenge to City might unfold.
It has been widely assumed that Guardiola's possession-based football had killed off the counter-punching tactics favoured by Mourinho, but Arteta's Arsenal are demonstrating that it is not necessary to always have the ball to compete. Rather than trying to beat Guardiola at his own game, Arteta appears to believe that Arsenal can vanquish City by playing a completely different way, which only adds to the rivalry.
