Josko Gvardiol reflects on Arsenal draw after last-gasp Manchester City marking mishap | OneFootball

Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol has dissected his side’s disappointing 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

City held a narrow advantage over the Gunners for over 80 minutes and seemed on the cusp of a third huge win in a week but Gabriel Martinelli’s 90+3rd minute chipped effort over Gianluigi Donnarumma found the net and stole parity for the hosts.

Pep Guardiola’s men set up in uncharacteristically conservative fashion in north London at the weekend as the Manchester City manager named an unchanged lineup for the third game in the space of seven days – following home wins over Manchester United and Napoli.

A ninth minute Erling Haaland opener gave the visitors the all-important lead as the in-form Norway international started and finished a clinical Manchester City attack on the break after being teed in by summer signing Tijjani Reijnders.

City have recovered from their pre-international break slump in form with seven points in a week’s worth of games against Manchester United, Napoli and Arsenal – and had it not been for a minor lapse in concentration towards the end in north London on Sunday, Guardiola’s side would have enjoyed a perfect week.

The Blues made a slow start to the 2025-26 season with defeats against Tottenham and Brighton in their opening three Premier League games, leaving huge question marks over the financial outlay made to fix the squad in the summer.

Gvardiol has started at centre-half alongside Ruben Dias in each of Manchester City’s last three games and spoke to the club’s official channels after the weekend draw against Arsenal to reflect on his side’s recent run of results.

“Each season the league is getting stronger and stronger and it’s going to be difficult,” the 23-year-old Croatia international said.

“It’s the early stage of the season and there’s many games to play so we’ll see. We need to take it game by game and just be focused on ourselves.

“We can pick so many positive things. Every player gave 100% to fight, every duel, every second ball. That’s what we’ve missed a little bit and me as a defender; I can tell you that I’m really happy to see my team next to me fighting for every ball.”

City return to action on Wednesday as a trip to Huddersfield awaits the Blues for their Carabao Cup third-round fixture, with Guardiola’s side set to face Kyle Walker and Burnley at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.

“Today (on Sunday against Arsenal) we’ve shown we’re capable of doing those things and we just need to keep going that way. It’s been a tough week. Three games in seven days, so I think we did a great job this week,” Gvardiol added.

“We haven’t lost a game (in the last week) so I think we just need to keep going that way. The next game is the Carabao Cup so hopefully we recover well and we’ll go through.”

Having played out of position and provided a capable solution to Manchester City’s left-back frailties for a large chunk of his first two seasons at the Etihad Stadium, Gvardiol is finally establishing himself as a regular starter at centre-half.