'I don't understand' - Man City defender Manuel Akanji aims dig at Arsenal over tactical fouling

Manuel Akanji believes Arsenal were given free rein to carry out a masterclass in tactical fouling at the Etihad by Anthony Taylor's refusal to show any yellow cards for a litany of fouls in the game.

Manchester City regularly found their momentum halted by Arsenal committing 20 fouls during the 90 minutes, stopping attacks in their infancy and slowing the game down at every possible opportunity. Despite that high number, Taylor only booked Gabriel Jesus for throwing the ball away and David Raya for time-wasting.

It was a plan that worked for the Gunners, who would have been happy to leave the Etihad with a point, having lost 4-1 here last season when they were also top of the league and targeting a first title since 2004. The streetwise edge they brought to this showdown showed an improvement from a year ago and suggested they could last the course in an engrossing title race.

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But they were given the green light to carry out their tactics by Taylor's refusal to show a yellow card for persistent fouling, which infuriated the Etihad crowd and angered City's players.

“I don’t understand. One in the first half [from Kai Havertz] was a very late tackle on Stefan. For me it is clearly a yellow card. I don’t want to say just against us. There were also some decisions against them that I didn’t understand that he gave a foul for," said Akanji.

“There are some rules and I think there are clear yellow cards where it should be. I remember the action with Jorginho when he’d already done a tackle foul and did the second one and he didn’t even give a yellow card for