dyton mupawaenda
TWO Arsenal stars broke a never-before-seen Premier League passing record against Manchester City.
Arsenal looked on the way to a famous 2-1 victory at the Etihad despite going down to ten men.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring on nine minutes before Riccardo Calafiori sensationally levelled with a left-footed strike.
Gabriel then nodded the Gunners ahead from a corner just before the break but there was still time for Leandro Trossard to be shown red.
Two yellows saw the Belgium international sent off and Arsenal left with the almighty task of holding onto victory.
And they looked on course to doing so up until John Stones’ late leveller EIGHT minutes into added time.
Forward Kai Havertz was forced to help defensively — as was makeshift full-back Jurrien Timber.
And it came at the cost of creativity as neither recorded a single successful pass during the match.
It broke an Opta record for outfield players who played 89+ minutes of a Prem match and failed to complete a single pass.
Sensationally, it happened twice in the same game as Havertz failed with five attempts and Timber with six. The points were shared in Manchester as Gunners boss Mikel Arteta hailed his side’s valiant defensive effort. Arteta said: “It’s impossible. It’s very hard already against 11 players, impossible.
“Because we are put under pressure to defend with six in our box time and time and time after time. That’s it.
“Unbelievable, I’m so proud of them. “When you survive like that many minutes, to concede like that the way we did, because we had to play 97 minutes then 99, I was very disappointed.
“But at the same time, I have to be proud of them.” — Sun.
Bongani Ndlovu
Mathew Masinge