Forget Mikel Arteta and Arsenal – Man City and Pep Guardiola are the original masters of football's dark arts.

Arsenal and Mikel Arteta have become known as masters of the 'dark arts' in the Premier League, but that title cannot be mentioned without Man City.

That's according to the talkSPORT resident. Arsenal fans in our new Internal bullies show, who insist that Pep Guardiola's team is the original owner of the dark side of football.

Those dark arts were on display in the recent clash between title rivals, with several frustrated City players criticizing the Gunners for their tactical fouls and waste of time. the 2-2 draw.

The irony will not have been lost on many fans: throughout their dominant run of winning six of the last seven league titles, city ​​man They themselves employed the same tactics.

Even Arteta himself suggested that He learned the dark arts of football during his three years in Manchester. as Guardiola's assistant director.

Responding to John Stones and Bernardo Silva accusing his team of wasting time during the recent draw, the Gunners boss responded: “I've been there (at City) before. I was there for four years. “I have all the information, so I know.”

It seems Arsenal fans are quickly tiring of the recent narrative that the team is boring and committed to ruining the viewer experience.

On talkSPORT's new Arsenal show Inside Gooners, featuring Darren Bent – Podcaster Clive Palmer has questioned recent talk about the north London club.

He said: “We can play in different ways, so if you want eight behind the ball we can do that, if you want to build in the midline and keep people in their half we can do that.

“If you want high pressure, we can do it, we can do it in the middle of the block. We can do all parts of the game and that should be a positive thing.

“But suddenly it's used as something that we can maybe defeat ourselves with, because there seems to be a path by which we must succeed and that path is very narrow.

“Maybe do it the Arsene Wenger way, nice and elegant and maybe take a beating from time to time, but really what we are doing should be admired by more people.”

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Rival fans have accused Arsenal of sitting too still, but when we look at league games with all 11 men on the pitch (no red cards), Arteta's team averages 56.25 per cent possession.

That's not far off from the 56.25 percent and 59.8 percent of the previous two seasons, when Arsenal were praised for displaying a spectacular style of play.

Not only are the Gunners the team that kept the most clean sheets last season with 18, but they are a team that has created more big chances than their title rivals so far this campaign.

Arsenal, despite being reduced to ten men twice, are fourth with 23 big chances created, while Man City are sixth with 19.

They also don't have the club captain or his creative spark. Martin Odegaard due to injury, who also led the team in assists last season with ten in the Premier League.

While Arsenal rank highly for restart times or delays during games so far this season, this comes from a small sample of six matches, and it should be considered that both Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard have been sent off, which requires a change in tactics and approach to the game.

Fellow panelist and journalist Julien Laurens believes that all the “top teams” delve into the dark arts.

The French football journalist said: “I think a lot of the best teams do it when they have to, when they need to.

“I remember a Manchester City match against Atlético de Madrid in the Champions League in which the result was 0-0 and they had to hold on to the result.

“They played with 11 men behind the ball and stayed on the field for a long time.”

In April 2022, Manchester City traveled to the Metropolitano stadium aiming to protect their 1-0 aggregate lead. They started well but the second half was a tireless defensive ordeal.

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Guardiola's team fell behind and only fired two shots compared to Atlético's 13 in the second half. They also made 15 clearances in the final 45 minutes.

In the 88th minute Felipe got in Phil Foden taking him off the field of play, but he retreated, forcing the referee to delay the restart.

It was a quick moment of play that erupted into a fight as Atlético's players were angry at the loss of time. Stefan Savic was also sent off for grabbing the hair of unused substitute Jack Grealish.

Rodri also confirmed in 2019, a month before Arteta left the club to take up Arsenal's top job, that he learned the dark arts from Guardiola when discussing his transfer to Manchester.

He revealed: “I'm learning new things, how to go, when to stay, when I have to make a tactical foul, when I have to jump. “It’s good for me to learn these things.”

Watch the first episode of talkSPORT's new show Inside Gooners on our YouTube channel