Tempers flared after Arsenal’s win over Manchester City and one player was ‘right in the middle of it’
Arsenal beat Manchester City 3-0 in dominant fashion to win the Community Shield on Sunday.
It was the latest chapter in the growing rivalry between the two best sides in England. And it turns out that rivalry spilled out into the game’s aftermath.
Speaking on Arsecast, James McNicholas has revealed that there was a bit of post-match needle between Arsenal and City players after the game in Cardiff.
And one Arsenal player in particular was at the very centre of it.
Myles Lewis-Skelly was involved in post-match needle with Manchester City
“There was a bit of needle postgame, McNicholas said. “I don’t know how picked up it was, but there were a lot of strong words between Arsenal players, City players.
“It won’t surprise anyone to hear that Myles Lewis-Skelly was right in the middle of that.”
Obviously, there’s been a lot of noise around Lewis-Skelly’s future in North London in recent weeks, after he was reportedly offered to Chelsea and Manchester United through intermediaries.
But on Sunday, he started in central midfield, and played a pivotal role in the opening goal with a brilliant disguised pass to Riccardo Calafiori.
Now, apparently, he had plenty to say after the final whistle too.
There’s clearly a heated rivalry between the players of both clubs now, and it goes beyond just Gabriel and Erling Haaland.
Lewis-Skelly had of course mocked Haaland in the 5-1 win at the Emirates a couple of seasons back, after the Norwegian told Mikel Arteta to ‘stay humble’ earlier in the reverse fixture which City won 2-2.
The Arsenal players won’t have forgotten about Rayan Cherki’s showboating semantics in the Carabao Cup final earlier this year either.
City fans may play the Community Shield down as a glorified friendly, but as McNicholas notes, it was an important match for the players.
“Their fans may call it a friendly because they lost, but they paraded those Community Shields when Pep said his goodbyes and they were trying to show off how many trophies he won. So if you live by that sword, you die by that sword.”
Arteta has now extended his flawless record in the competition, having won all five Community Shields he has competed for as both a player and a manager.
