{"id":2976,"date":"2025-09-21T19:52:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/2025\/09\/21\/late-martinelli-strike-earns-arsenal-a-1-1-draw-with-manchester-city\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T19:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:52:05","slug":"late-martinelli-strike-earns-arsenal-a-1-1-draw-with-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/2025\/09\/21\/late-martinelli-strike-earns-arsenal-a-1-1-draw-with-manchester-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Late Martinelli Strike Earns Arsenal a 1-1 Draw with Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal salvaged a 1-1 draw with Manchester City thanks to Gabriel Martinelli&#8217;s stoppage-time lob, capping a match that featured an early City opener and a tactical second half. Erling Haaland put the visitors ahead nine minutes in after Tijjani Reijnders found him on the edge of the box; Haaland took a simple touch into the area and clinically beat David Raya.<\/p>\n<p>City controlled possession for long periods. Reijnders, Rodri and Phil Foden pressed high and helped Manchester City impose a disruptive game state that limited Arsenal&#8217;s offensive rhythm. When Arsenal threatened, it was intermittent. Noni Madueke produced the best chance of the first half in stoppage time, forcing Gianluigi Donnarumma into a near-post save. Viktor Gy\u00f6keres struggled for service throughout.<\/p>\n<p>Unai Emery made two changes at half time, bringing on Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka, and Arsenal started the second period more positively. Pep Guardiola reacted by reinforcing his defence and setting up in a low block aimed at protecting the lead. Late in the game Arsenal introduced Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri; Guardiola responded by bringing on John Stones.<\/p>\n<p>With just five minutes left in stoppage time, Eze chipped a ball over the top that Martinelli met and lobbed over Donnarumma to secure a point for Arsenal. The result leaves both sides having dropped points, a day that proved advantageous for Liverpool as two perceived title contenders failed to take maximum points.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal player ratings (out of 10):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GK: David Raya 6.8<\/li>\n<li>RB: Jurri\u00ebn Timber 7.4<\/li>\n<li>CB: William Saliba 7.7<\/li>\n<li>CB: Gabriel 6.9<\/li>\n<li>LB: Riccardo Calafiori 6.9<\/li>\n<li>CM: Mikel Merino 6.4<\/li>\n<li>CM: Mart\u00edn Zubimendi 6.6<\/li>\n<li>CM: Declan Rice 7.2<\/li>\n<li>RW: Noni Madueke 6.0<\/li>\n<li>ST: Viktor Gy\u00f6keres 6.0<\/li>\n<li>LW: Leandro Trossard 7.3<\/li>\n<li>SUB: Eberechi Eze (46\u2019 for Merino) 7.3<\/li>\n<li>SUB: Bukayo Saka (46\u2019 for Madueke) 7.1<\/li>\n<li>SUB: Gabriel Martinelli (80\u2019 for Timber) 7.0<\/li>\n<li>SUB: Ethan Nwaneri (84\u2019 for Trossard) N\/A<\/li>\n<li>SUB: Cristhian Mosquera (90\u2019 for Zubimendi) N\/A<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Subs not used: Kepa Arrizabalaga (GK), Ben White, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Christian N\u00f8rgaard.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City (4-1-4-1): Gianluigi Donnarumma; Abdukodir Khusanov, R\u00faben Dias, Jo\u0161ko Gvardiol, Nico O\u2019Reilly; Rodri; Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders, J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku; Erling Haaland. Subs included James Trafford (GK), John Stones, Matheus Nunes, Nathan Ak\u00e9, Rico Lewis, Divine Mukasa, Nico Gonz\u00e1lez, Oscar Bobb, Savinho.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martinelli&#8217;s stoppage time lob rescued Arsenal in a 1-1 draw after Haaland&#8217;s ninth-minute goal. End.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,238,172],"tags":[826,841,414],"class_list":["post-2976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-manchester-city","category-epl","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-david-raya","tag-eberechi-eze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}