Manchester City players Kyle Walker and Erling Haaland were involved in a heated tunnel scuffle with Arsenal‘s set piece coach over an apparent handshake snub as the Gunners triumphed over Manchester City 1-0.
Arsenal inflicted Manchester City’s second consecutive defeat, the first time Pep Guardiola’s side has lost consecutive games in five years.
Walker and teammate Erling Haaland were spotted approaching a group moving into the tunnel after the game.
After appearing to ignore Nicolas Jover’s gesture, the right back squared up to the Arsenal set-piece coach, who had worked for the Manchester club between 2019 and 2021.
Haaland then attempted to pull his teammate away before additional staff and security intervened. It followed Gabriel Martinelli’s second-half winner in the 86th minute, which ended a 12-game losing streak against City in the league.
Speaking on the scuffle, City coach Pep Guardiola said, “I know what happened, but I won’t say anything. They know it.”
However, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insisted after the game that he had not seen the altercation.
Commenting on the cause of the altercation, former Manchester City defender Micah Richards said, “It looked like he was going to shake his hand, but Kyle didn’t really want to.
“We’re in October; if we were in March or April, I could understand the frustration. They probably don’t want to go to Arsenal and lose, but it’s not the end of the world.”
Ex-Arsenal winger Theo Walcott, also working for Sky, said a ‘”nerve had been hit in the post-match fracas.
“We always look at City, and they’ve been very professional and not reacting in situations.
“And that’s where I feel like a nerve’s been hit here, and he’s definitely caught it there.”
