Arsenal Fall Apart In Crazy Few Minutes Against Manchester City

Arsenal seemed to fall apart in a crazy few minutes against Manchester City, as they gave away a penalty and had a man sent off either side of nearly scoring.

Arsenal probably weren't expected to get much joy against Premier League leaders City on Saturday afternoon, with Pep Guardiola's side going into the game eight points clear of their closest rivals Chelsea.

But the Gunners were brilliant in the first half, may have had an early penalty, and went into the break leading 1-0 thanks to Bukayo Saka's excellent goal.

Mikel Arteta's team kept things going at the beginning of the second half but things suddenly started falling apart in the 53rd minute, when Bernardo Silva was brought down in the box by Granit Xhaka.

The referee initially decided there was no penalty but VAR called him over to watch the screen and he soon changed his mind, awarding the spot kick and showing the Swiss midfielder a yellow card.

Granit Xhaka was not happy after watching the replay of his challenge on Bernardo Silva... 👀

Penalty given. Penalty scored to make it 1-1. pic.twitter.com/7dyG4pRR8D

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) January 1, 2022

Just after Riyad Mahrez equalised from the spot, Arsenal centre back Gabriel managed to pick up a yellow card for stupidly scuffing up the penalty spot before the penalty was taken.

With City level it might have been expected that the defending champions would go on and win, but they almost found themselves behind a minute later.

A mix up between Ruben Dias and Ederson saw the defender loop a header over his goalkeeper and looking like it would be a comedy own goal, only for Nathan Ake to clear off the line and Gabriel Martinelli to miss the follow up effort.

This Nathan Ake clearance 👏👏👏#ARSMCI pic.twitter.com/UVfmNsE2dy

— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) January 1, 2022

A minute later and the crazy moments finished off with Gabriel really regretting his numbskulled decision to mess with the penalty spot moments earlier.

The Brazilian blocked Gabriel Jesus on the centre circle as City attempted a counter attack, bringing him down, and picking up a very obvious second yellow card.

#ARSMCI second yellow card Gabriel pic.twitter.com/54emf500JL

— SUPER FAST FOOTBALL GOALS (@Kevin55885253) January 1, 2022

Arsenal fans seeing Gabriel get a booking for scuffing up the penalty spot & then get a second yellow pic.twitter.com/QUQhKKFLNx

— ODDSbible (@ODDSbible) January 1, 2022

Gabriel gets the silliest red card since Raul Jimenez

— Simon Bajkowski (@spbajko) January 1, 2022

That Gabriel red card was the most obvious thing pic.twitter.com/1EKf9Fdchp

— 🍇 (@pepe_19i) January 1, 2022

Gabriel red and Arsenal are self sabotaging here.

— Godfred Akoto Boafo (@eastsportsman) January 1, 2022

In fairness to the London side, after a crazy few minutes that really could have seen them implode in annoyingly typical fashion, they did manage to compose themselves shortly after the Gabriel red card, however it wasn't to be for them.

Deep into injury time, Rodri scored the winner for City and left Arsenal wondering what might have been.