Manchester City rescued a point in the dying embers thanks to a 98th-minute strike from substitute John Stones against Arsenal at The Etihad on Sunday.
In an emotionally charged evening in Manchester, Pep Guardiola’s side found themselves chasing the game – despite taking the lead through Erling Haaland – thanks to goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel.
The Spanish head coach turned to Stones off the bench and deployed the England international in the box, which paid dividends when he was first to react to a loose ball to find the back of the net in stoppage time.
There were a number of underwhelming performers on the pitch for City, as they attempted to break down Arsenal’s low block following Leandro Trossard’s sending-off, and Ruben Dias was amongst them.
Ruben Dias' struggles against Arsenal
The Portugal international could do little about the two goals that the Gunners scored but it was not his defensive work that was the issue with his performance on Sunday.
After Arsenal went down to ten men and sat back behind the ball in a 6-3 shape, Dias – along with Manuel Akanji and Kyle Walker – was tasked with handling the ball around the edge of the box in an attempt to break them down.
With no Kevin De Bruyne on hand to take control of the situation, the ball constantly fell to the centre-back in a central position around 20 to 25 yards out and he did not know how to unlock the defence.
In the end, Dias had five shots at goal – more than Jeremy Doku and Savinho combined (four) – and only managed one shot on target, whilst he had 126 touches of the ball and did not create any ‘big chances’ for his teammates.
Kyle Walker, however, is the player who should be worried about his place in the team after his display against the Gunners in this 2-2 draw.
Kyle Walker's "stinker" against Arsenal
The England international was worse than Dias and must now be ruthlessly ditched from the starting XI by Guardiola, in favour of Rico Lewis, moving forward.
The Express, who handed Dias a rating of 6/10, awarded Walker a dismal player rating of 3/10 and described his showing as an ‘unmitigated disaster’.
Meanwhile, analyst Ben Mattinson claimed that the full-back had a “stinker” at the back due to his role in both of Arsenal’s goals in the first-half.
Walker switched off and allowed Gabriel Martinelli to get in behind for the first goal before losing his duel with Gabriel from a corner to allow the centre-back to smash a header into the back of the net.
Goals + assists
0
Shots
4
Touches
124
Duels won
2
Dribbles completed
0
As you can see in the table above, the veteran defender also had plenty of the ball but did little with his, as he failed to complete any dribbles and failed to score with any of his four efforts on goal.
Lewis, who had started all four games and provided one assist in the Premier League before Sunday, should now be brought back into the XI after Walker’s struggles against Mikel Arteta’s side.
Signed Sinclair instead: Man City wanted star who was later worth £130m
The Cityzens missed out when they failed to land the wing sensation in 2012.
ByDan EmerySep 20, 2024