Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and his players could not hide their pain in the pouring Mancunian rain as a statement win they would rate higher than any other was snatched away at the death.
The clock read 97 minutes and 14 seconds – those 14 seconds crucial to chaotic conclusion – when John Stones rewarded Manchester City’s increasingly desperate efforts with an equaliser.
City manager Pep Guardiola led celebrations that smacked of victory rather than a point claimed at the last, this in itself a testimony to the tortuous experience this increasingly mature and steely Arsenal put them through.
Arsenal were heartbroken but when the bitter disappointment disperses they can look back on this brilliantly organised and brave performance, laced, it must be said, with high levels of gamesmanship, as further compelling evidence that they are the real deal.
This was billed as the clash of the Premier League heavyweights, the opportunity to inflict early psychological blows with City and Arsenal primed for a title race to the finish.
For once, the hype and high expectations were justified, with even the weather obliging with biblical conditions and black clouds overhead that set a mood of foreboding.
Erling Haaland, with inevitability, crowned a ferocious City start after nine minutes with his 100th goal in 105 starts – but that was as good as it got for the champions until Stones stepped in.
City’s peerless midfield man Rodri, who had already been pole-axed by Kai Havertz’s shoulder seconds after kick-off, limped away 21 minutes later following an awkward tangle with Thomas Partey at a corner.
Seconds later Arsenal were level, Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori making amends for letting Savinho escape too easily for Haaland’s opener, with a sumptuous finish that left Guardiola in a rage, kicking his seat in frustration at referee Michael Oliver allowing a quick free-kick and his players for being caught by it.
Gabriel repeated the treatment meted out to Tottenham by heading Arsenal ahead from a corner at the far post in first-half stoppage time before the moment that shaped the rest of this gripping game.
Leandro Trossard followed up a clumsy barge on Bernardo Silva by booting the ball away. It was a lesson not learned after Declan Rice was sent off for a similar offence against Brighton recently. As the saying goes, he gave the referee a decision to make and he made it. Off he went.
Trossard can have no complaints but Arsenal can cry injustice, as they did against Brighton, about inconsistency as City’s Jeremy Doku escaped punished for the same offence earlier.
It changed the entire emphasis for the visitors, who had to revert to a rearguard action after overturning City’s lead and taking control.
The stage was set for a siege on the Gunners’ goal and so it proved. Pretty much every gaze inside a frantic Etihad Stadium was fixed on one side of the pitch for that 53-minute second half.
Arsenal only had 22% possession overall, their second lowest recorded since 2003/04, after 20% against City in August 2011. The picture of the second half is accurately painted by the fact they only had 12.5% possession.
It is a measure of Arsenal’s defensive discipline that they could spend so much time without the ball against a side of City’s quality and survive for so long, although not quite long enough.
They retreated into their area but such was their organisation, courage, numbers and willingness to throw themselves in front of anything, that seconds ticked down to what would have been their first victory here since January 2015 and Guardiola’s first home loss in the league since Brentford won in November 2022.
The champions got their goal – but only just.
City managed only one shot on target against Arsenal in March’s goalless draw at the Etihad. Plenty more came in here but keeper David Raya confirmed his growing stature and importance with confident command of his area and an ability to use all parts of his anatomy.
Arteta was rightly proud amid the pain, insisting his side had performed “a miracle” in holding out for so long.
“Absolutely I am proud,” he said. “The way the players performed in normal conditions was excellent.
“It was difficult, which is why they have not lost here for 40-something games. Then there is the context that we are thrown into playing with ten men for 55 minutes. That tells you the story and the character of our players.”
It was a display of defiance that would have brought tears to the eyes of those old Arsenal warhorses Tony Adams and Martin Keown, not to mention the suspicion among City fans that the dark arts of delay were being utilised as play was interrupted by injury breaks to Raya and others, infuriating the home support.
The time is coming to end the regular questions about the Gunners’ mettle, character and stomach for the fight.
Arsenal’s early fixture list handed them three hazardous assignments away to Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester City. The first two were won in gritty fashion while they were only seconds away from what they could have rightly regarded as a landmark triumph in the third.
The Stones scramble prevented Arteta’s side claiming top spot in the Premier League and ensured City returned to the summit but everything on show here should give the Gunners, if it were needed, further confidence and self-belief that the ability to make the leap to champions is within their grasp.
It remains to be seen what wider significance that late concession of two points to the side they are trying to eclipse assumes for Arsenal but, in extremis, they showed again there is much to admire in what Arteta is building.