Arsenal fall again to City despite Arteta fully embracing his inner Mourinho | Arsenal

The expectation – or perhaps the fear – had been that Manchester City against Arsenal would be like their two league encounters last season: of undoubted quality and tension, but a little tepid, lacking the blood and thunder necessary to live on in the memory of the neutrals. Instead, what unfolded was a classic, a game of a million subplots, of controversy, brilliance and dullness that became, ultimately, almost a recreation of José Mourinho’s game. Inter eliminate Pep Guardiola's Barcelona in the 2010 Champions League semi-final.

Arsenal had kept nine clean sheets in their 11 away league games this year, with victory over Tottenham last week coming from a header from a corner after a stifling defensive display, making it clear that Mikel Arteta, though he served an apprenticeship as Guardiola’s assistant, is by no means a Guardiola clone. Many even said he has a streak of Mourinho (who was, of course, also an England player). Educated in the Barcelona method before adapting it) but, even so, few thought that on Sunday afternoon he would have embraced the role with such enthusiasm.

In 2010, Inter visited the Camp Nou with a 3-1 lead in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final and, after Thiago Motta was sent off after 28 minutes – a decision the team hotly debated – they retreated into their bunker, defended deep, barely bothered to pose a threat on the counter-attack, wasting and wasting time at every turn. Inter lost 1-0 but that was enough to go through on aggregate, which in their own eyes was Mourinho’s finest hour, so much so that he had a life-size picture of his celebratory sprint with his finger in the air in his office when he was Real Madrid manager.

Inter had 19% of the possession in that game; Arsenal had 12% in the second half on Sunday. Predictably, City were furious with Arsenal's cunning (and rightly so: what can be almost comically cheeky in a one-off game would soon lose its charm if it became habitual) with John Stones calling them “smart or dirty” and Bernardo Silva accuses them to play “to the limit of what is possible and permitted by the referee.”

But what was most extraordinary was City's poor handling of the situation. In the second half, they had 28 shots, 13 of them from defenders, the last of which was John Stones's last-minute equaliser, which followed Gerard Piqué's last-minute goal in 2010. Another four were from Mateo Kovačić, who has scored just 18 league goals in a career that began six months after Mourinho's triumph at the Camp Nou. Eighteen of the 28 shots were from outside the area. Only one, before the goal, had an xG greater than 0.1.

In part, that's a testament to how well… Arsenal Arsenal defended diligently, adopting a 5-4-0, at times a 6-3-0, formation just outside their own area. There was a moment in added time when the ball came to Ruben Dias on the edge of the area and, for once, there was no one in a position to block him. It was a real chance, but Dias was so exhausted after four long-range misses, the last of which had drawn a groan of frustration from the crowd, that he stopped and played a sideways pass instead.

But it also highlighted the oddity of modern City. Guardiola is the great manipulator of formation; his entire philosophy is based on creating overloads and putting players in the positions where they can be most effective. Yet the two players who had the most touches in the second half were Dias and Manuel Akanji (152 between them, compared to 120 for all Arsenal's outfielders combined); while both are fine players, are they really the men most likely to be able to break through a low block? Of City's 13 league goals this season, 10 have been scored by Erling Haaland, which on the one hand speaks to his extraordinary ability, but on the other, with due caveats about the few games he has played, can hint at dependency. At the very least, it speaks to how far Guardiola has moved away from his old vision of a team of 11 diminutive, almost interchangeable midfielders.

The other player City are relying on is Rodri, and his injury may prove to be the biggest consequence of the game. The only team City beat in the league without him last season was Luton. He is vital to City's game and if he is out for a prolonged period it will make it difficult for them to control games.

Arsenal would almost certainly have accepted a draw before kick-off and after Leandro Trossard was sent off. There was something magnificent about their resilience, but it was not enough, which is becoming an unfortunate cliché for Arsenal. A win would have put Arsenal above City; as things stand, the feeling, given the way the game unfolded, is that for the second season running, they may have missed an opportunity at the Etihad.

• This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, the Guardian US's weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will respond better in a future edition.