Pep Guardiola Breaks Silence On Kyle Walker, Erling Haaland 'Brawl' After Arsenal Loss

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has reacted to Kyle Walker and Erling Haaland's scuffle with an Arsenal coach.

After Arsenal defeated Manchester City 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, a fight broke out between the visiting side's players, Haaland and Walker, and Nicolas Jover, a member of the Gunners' coaching staff.

A late winner from Arsenal forward Gabriel Martinelli, which deflected in off City's Nathan Ake, saw the defending champions suffer a second straight loss in the 2023-24 Premier League. It was also the first time since 2018 that City lost two league games on the trot.

The scuffle at Emirates Stadium

Following Arsenal's 1-0 win, which took the Gunners to second place in the league table, City's full-back Walker was seen enraged with Arsenal's set-piece coach Jover. As the City players made their way from the field to the tunnel, Walker turned to confront Jover, who previously worked at the Etihad Stadium between 2019 and 2021.

Soon, Walker was joined by teammate Haaland in the fight, with the Norwegian forward supposedly making a gesture towards Jover, telling him to calm down with his hands. It is still unclear what the Arsenal coach said to Walker. However, it's clear the City duo was not happy with it.

At the post-match conference after City's 1-0 loss in London, when head coach Guardiola was asked about the incident, the Spaniard replied: "I know what happened but I won't say anything. They (Arsenal) know it."

Haaland was already frustrated with the game, where Arsenal's William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes effectively marked the striker out of the match, who finished the game with zero shots on or off the target.

Pep Guardiola reacts to City's loss at Arsenal

Speaking of the defeat, Guardiola said that both teams were neck-to-neck, and in the end, "one deflection made the difference". In fact, it was the visitors who first went close to scoring twice early on through Josko Gvardiol and Nathan Ake.

"It was a tight game. Congratulations to Arsenal for the victory. We started really well in the first minutes, they started really well in the second half. With Martinelli, they increased the rhythm. We didn't create much, they didn't create much. We defended really well, both teams.

"How many [chances] did they have? We didn't have much. It is what it is. In football it happens, they did everything but in football, at this level, the details, margins and quality are the difference," added Guardiola.

Going into Sunday's clash, both teams were without key players, including Kevin de Bruyne, Rodri and Bukayo Saka, who could be seen in videos trying to calm everyone down during the scuffle near the tunnel.

In addition, City were forced to play midfielder Bernardo Silva out of position. The Portuguese player was deployed in an unfamiliar defensive midfield role in the absence of Rodrigo, who served the third and final match of his suspension.

With the victory over the reigning champions, Arsenal climbed to second place in the league table with 20 points, the same as leaders Tottenham. Only these two North London clubs are now unbeaten in the league in the ongoing campaign. City are placed third with 18 points, one more than fourth-placed Liverpool FC, who were tied in a 2-2 draw at Brighton FC earlier in the day.

An international break is currently underway. Guardiola-managed City will next return to action on Oct. 21 with a home league meeting with Brighton. After this, the Etihad side will travel to Bern to take on Young Boys for their Group G UEFA Champions League game. With two wins from two matches, City are at the top of their group: 3-1 wins over Serbia's Crvena Zvezda FC and RB Leipzig.