Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva, speaking to TNT Sports after the match, certainly didn’t hold back in his assessment of Arsenal.

He said: “There was only one team that came to play football. The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately. It all started in the very first second. In the first action we realised what was going to happen.

“We had a player injured after they sent him to the ground twice in ten minutes. We had a goal conceded after the referee called our captain and then didn’t allow him to recover his position. The second goal is already their usual block to our keeper allowed by the referee.

“And then the referee allowed a sequence of time-wasting events. The thing that bothers me the most is having a lot of meetings with the FA at the beginning of each season. They tell us they will control this kind of situation and will stop them, but at the end it doesn’t have any worth. They say a lot but nothing happens.”

When asked about City’s rivalry with Liverpool compared to the rivalry with Arsenal, he added: “Maybe that Liverpool have already won a Premier League, Arsenal haven’t. That Liverpool have won a Champions League, Arsenal haven’t.

“Liverpool always faced us face-to-face to try to win the games, so by this perspective the games against Arsenal haven’t been like the ones we had and have against Liverpool. So yes, maybe a different rivalry.”