Akanji accuses Arsenal of tactical fouling in Manchester City draw

Manuel Akanji has accused Arsenal of using fouls to stop Manchester City in Sunday’s goalless draw and questioned why the referee, Anthony Taylor, did not penalise them more often.

The result at the Etihad leaves Liverpool two points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the league and third-placed City a further point back with nine matches remaining.

Mikel Arteta’s side defended in a low block and with aggression. Asked if he felt they had often done so illegally, Akanji said: “Definitely. When we got through sometimes they stopped us with the fouls. If there’s no action to it [from the referee], it’s hard.”

Akanji wondered why Taylor did not step in. “I don’t understand. One in the first half [from Kai Havertz] was a very late tackle on Stefan [Ortega],” he said.

“For me it is clearly a yellow card. I don’t want to say just against us. There were also some decisions against them that I didn’t understand why he gave a foul.

“There are some rules and I think there are clear yellow cards where it should be. I remember with Jorginho when he’d already done a tackle [which was a foul] and did the second one and he didn’t even give a yellow card for one [foul]. I didn’t understand some of the decisions but, in the end, we still should be able to score a goal.”

City’s aim of a record fourth successive title is now out of their hands but the Switzerland international remains sure they can achieve it.

“How many games do we have left? Nine, so yeah 27 points to get. That’s our goal to get all of them and then we’ll see how it ends,” he said.

“I’m confident. Obviously we wanted to win and didn’t get the three points but it’s still all open and to play for.

"Nine games in the Premier League, we’ve got a quarter-final in the Champions