45 min Saka releases the overlapping Rice, who wins another corner for Arsenal. They’re dominating the game just now.

44 min City have lost much of their snap since the equaliser, though they are still dominating possession. Half-time will come at a good moment for them.

42 min: Chance for Arsenal! Gabriel decides to play Beckenbauer, strolling forward and sliding a slick return pass to release Martinelli on the left. He gets behind Walker and cuts the ball back sharply to Trossard, who shoots over from 15 yards on the stretch. It was an awkward ball to take first time but we’ve seen Trossard score not dissimilar chances in the past.

Martinelli has been Arsenal’s most dangerous attacker by a fair distance.

41 min “I’d like to know what the ref said during that break,” says Mark Childs. “Walker (and Saka) has just been instructed as captain ‘tell your players to calm down’, then shouldn’t he be given the time to do so?”

I don’t know about that, but he should have been given more time to get back to right-back. You can understand why City were so angry.

40 min City have had 72 per cent of the possession, which is remarkable, although Arsenal are probably having their best spell of the half as I type.

38 min: Chance for Arsenal! Saka curls a fantastic inswinging corner to the far post, where Gabriel heads over from barely four yards. What a chance! Ederson was out of the game, on the floor after running into Martinelli, so Gabriel only needed to get over the ball to score.

37 min Timber plays a good return pass to Saka, forcing Gvardiol to concede a corner. It’s Arsenal’s first, I think, and we know how dangerous they are at set-pieces.

36 min Doku gets involved for the first time, playing a quick give-and-go with Gvardiol before hitting a shot from the edge of the area that deflects behind. Savinho’s inswinger is headed away by Havertz.

34 min One big plus for Arsenal is that Timber has played Doku beautifully so far. Talking of Doku, he seems to kick the ball away but isn’t booked by Michael Oliver.

Trossard is given a yellow card for a tactical foul on Savinho. No argument with that.

32 min We’ve just seen a replay of the Arsenal goal. Kyle Walker was fuming because the referee called him and Bukayo Saka over in their role as captains, then allowed Arsenal to release Martinelli from the free-kick before Walker was able to get back.

Walker was also a bit slow to return to his position before the free-kick was taken. I can see both sides!

31 min Arsenal’s goal was a thing of peculiar beauty but that aside they have done very little in possession. They’ve defended a lot deeper since Haaland’s goal and are doing that part pretty well.

30 min A crisp 30-yarder from Walker is saved comfortably by Raya, diving to his right.

29 min Savinho beats Calafiori again and crosses early towards Haaland. Saliba gets across to make an important header. Calafiori has had a pretty torrid time in his day job, but his side hustle is going swimmingly.

28 min After a couple of minutes of frothing and foaming, City have picked up where they left off before Rodri’s injury. There’s still a spiteful edge to the match though, and there’s a fair chance it won’t end 1-1 or 11v11.

27 min “I know you’ve got the pace to handle Haaland, but isn’t he a bit taller than you?” says Joe Pearson. “No offence.”

Yeah but you know what they say: the first two feet are in the head.

26 min Imagine.

25 min Well that’s changed the mood. Until that point City had been rampant.

24 min It’s very rare that a player finds the top corner with an outswinger rather than an inswinger. Even rarer when it’s a left-back making his full debut.

City are furious about something but Riccardo Calafiori has just scored a screamer on his full debut. Partey took a quick free kick to find Martinelli in space on the left. He made good ground, then cut inside and laid the ball back to Calafiori just outside the area. Calafiori walked onto the ball and curled an extravagant left-foot shot that beat Ederson and nestled in the far corner. What a goal!

Pep Guardiola kicks a seat in frustration, while Ederson has been booked. City weren’t happy because they thought the free-kick was taken 10 yards away from where the original foul took place.

21 min: Man City substitution Mateo Kovacic replaces Rodri and immediately dispenses some three-fingered tactical advice.

The break allows Michael Oliver to have a word with both captains. It has been a very niggly start to the game.

21 min “Just as the Great White Shark is a brutal, efficient hunter killer, so Haaland is regarding scoring goals,” says Mary Waltz. “Who can stop him?”

Me, but Mikel won’t answer my bloody WhatsApps.

20 min Rodri is on his feet and limping very slowly to the touchline. His afternoon is over; let’s just hope it isn’t a serious injury.

18 min Rodri is sitting up now but looks pretty distressed – more, I suspect, because of the nature of the damage rather than the actual pain. He jarred his right leg as he fell and immediately clutched it when he hit the floor.

17 min The players were jockeying for position at a corner. Partey was tracking Rodri, they collided and then Rodri fell really awkwardly. I fear he has injured knee ligaments.

16 min Rodri is down again, this time holding the back of his leg. The City players have called for the physio. This doesn’t look good at all.

16 min Arsenal are under all kinds of pressure, and at the moment this game feels more 2022-23 than 2023-24.

15 min: Gundogan hits the post! It was a fine free-kick, curled round the side of the wall. Raya flew desperately to his left and the ball thumped off the outside of the post. Had that been on target I think it would have gone in.

14 min The impressive Savinho is fouled 20 yards out by Gabriel. It’s a fair way to the right of centre, but not enough to rule out a shot. Savinho and Gundogan are over the ball…

12 min City look bang up for this, almost as if they are the hunters rather than the hunted.

11 min Last season Erling Haaland didn’t have a shot on target against Arsenal in either league game. That was then and this is now. That was such a good goal. The turn from Savinho to lose Calafiori was delicious, Haaland’s first-time finish almost disdainful.

What a fantastic goal. It was made by Savinho, who turned Calafiori thrillingly on the halfway line, darted infield and slid a perfectly weighted pass into the space between Saliba and Gabriel. Haaland was too quick for the pair of them and toebunged the ball impatiently past Raya from 12 yards. Ruthless and brilliant.

7 min: Chance for City! Bernardo Silva, on the right, curls a fast cross towards Gundogan on the edge of the D. He flips the ball beautifully over Gabriel on the run, only to slash a volley wide from 10 yards. As Gary Neville says on Sky, the first touch was the harder part.

7 min We still haven’t seen a decent angle of that Rodri/Havertz incident. It may well just have been a collision, but for a few seconds it looked like Havertz might be sent off in record time.

5 min As for the actual football, both teams are pressing high up the field when they can. The ball is a bit of a hot potato.

4 min Now Haaland flattens Saliba, jumping for a high ball he was never going to win. Michael Oliver settles for a free-kick.

4 min Arsenal have started with the same system they used at Spurs last week, with Havertz and Trossard playing as a pair of false nines.

2 min Rodri is back on his feet and pointing a finger, presumably at Havertz. The incident has been cleared by VAR. The images aren’t great so there’s no evidence that Havertz raised an arm or anything like that, though Rodri was clearly unhappy.

This is really weird. City played the ball back to Ortega, and Havertz ran straight into Rodri. It’s being checked by VAR but the camera angles aren’t great.

1 min Rodri has gone down holding his face after barely 5 seconds.

1 min After a minute’s applause for the late Sir Howard Bernstein, City get the game under way. If you like to picture these things, they’re kicking from left to right.

“This is such a copy-and-paste game,” says Jeff Sax. “For the last two seasons the same things have been written about both teams, and the result has been the same. If this isn’t boring, what is?”

That’s not strictly true, unless you mean the outcome at the end of the season. The last four league games have all been different:

• Arsenal 1-3 Man City

• Man City 4-1 Arsenal

• Arsenal 1-0 Man City

• Man City 0-0 Arsenal

As the players take the field, here’s a reminder of the teams.

Manchester City (possible 4-1-2-3) Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol; Rodri; Bernardo, Gundogan; Savinho, Haaland, Doku.
Substitutes: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Stones, Kovacic, Grealish, Nunes, Foden, Lewis, McAtee.

Arsenal (possible 4-2-4-0) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Partey, Rice; Saka, Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli.
Substitutes: Neto, White, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Kacurri, Jorginho, Nwaneri, Sterling, Jesus.

Referee Michael Oliver.

Bukayo Saka will captain Arsenal today. Martin Odegaard, Jorginho and Gabriel Jesus – who wore the armband against Atalanta in midweek – are all either injured or on the bench.

The early Premier League game was a thriller, with four goals and both managers being sent off at the Amex Stadium.

Read Pep Guardiola on Arsenal and that other business

If you are pressing [then it is] long balls, they win the second balls. In the final third they have the ability to play 1,000 million passes and find the pockets and find the right space. If they can run, they can run. Martinelli, Saka, Ødegaard and whatever.

They are a top team because all the departments that a team needs to be solid, they do it. They are good at that. But we are good, too.

Barney Ronay on City’s charges

It is still hard to see any outcome that genuinely benefits the Premier League. Three things can happen from this point. First, City are found guilty and punished to a significant degree. This would represent a potential disaster for the Premier League, which would find its entire recent history discredited, its broadcast rights undermined and integrity open to question. It would also leave a champion club, the richest in the world, in a state of open, vengeful warfare with their own co-members. Hello? Is that the Super League? Yeah. Are we still on?

Irresistible force, meet immovable object

Here’s Mikel Arteta’s take on today’s game

We all know we need a big performance to beat them… We want to improve in certain areas but in order to do that it’s important that we have to be much, much better. We have been really open about discussing that. But the chances have to be created because the process has to be good.

Jonathan Wilson reflects on that 0-0 draw in March

There is, of course, no definitive answer. Had Arsenal opened up, that might have handed a chance to City, lifted them above Arsenal and had everybody condemning Arteta for his hubris. It’s not a case of right and wrong but, with hindsight, and given that at the time of the Arsenal game, City hadn’t won any of eight matches against the sides who would finish in the top six, might that have been an opportunity missed?

“Morning and breakfast greetings from California,” writes Mary Waltz. “Yes, its way too early to say this, but just from a confidence standpoint isn’t it a must win for Arsenal to show they are on the same level as City?”

Erm, wouldn’t a draw do that? I don’t think it’s a must-anything for either team, although it’s probably more important for Arsenal that they don’t lose.

Pep Guardiola on Rico Lewis (who he has left out today)

You ask any player: ‘What is your position?’ And they say: ‘I play holding midfielder. I play winger. I play that.’ Rico plays football. If you put him in one position, he knows exactly what he has to do. He’s so intelligent… I’ve been a manager for 14, 15 years, training unbelievable players. To find one like him in the pockets, he is one of the best I’ve ever trained.