Man City’s defensive display at the Emirates shows they can compete for the title, says Reijnders | OneFootball

Tijjani Reijnders said it was a “bummer” that Manchester City conceded an injury-time equaliser at Arsenal and said it was not the plan for them to have a record low share of the ball for a Pep Guardiola team.

City had just 32.8 percent of possession, the least a Guardiola side has ever had in a top-flight match as they drew 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

Reijnders set up Erling Haaland’s ninth-minute opener and they fought a rearguard action until Gabriel Martinelli struck in the 93rd minute.

But the summer signing said they did not want to play like that. He explained: “Of course not, we always want to have more ball possession but this game had to be like this. We did pretty well defending, didn't give away many chances and it's a bummer that they scored in the last minute.

“We had much less of the ball than we are used to but games can be like this and then you have to be disciplined. Defending in that way we did very well.”

City ended up playing a 5-4-1 formation and Reijnders added: “It's also because they brought a lot of attacking players into their team so we had to adapt. We almost gave nothing away until the last goal. We're disappointed to go home with one point.”

Tijjani Reijnders says Man City did not plan of letting Arsenal have most of the possession at the Emirates Stadium (REUTERS)

The former AC Milan midfielder believes City showed they are title contenders, even though they are now eight points behind league leaders Liverpool.

He said: “That's our goal - to play for titles. It was a tough week and in the end we did well this week. Everyone knows this game has something more and today we wanted to show who was the strongest and go away with the three points. It was a well-fought battle and we can keep going from this.”