Erling Haaland led the way for Manchester City in front of goal as usual as he netted his 100th goal for the club in the 2-2 draw against Arsenal.
Haaland was top of City's shot count with six in Sunday's feisty clash with the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium but the next entry from a team boasting a raft of attacking talent is something of a surprise.
Centre-back Ruben Dias fired off five shots, with right-back Kyle Walker responsible for four. The middling quality of these efforts was a source of frustration for City fans as the clock ticked down with Arsenal 2-1 to the good thanks to strikes from two of their own defenders — full debutant Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel.
This was largely because of how high up the pitch City's back four ended up as the Gunners conducted a brave rearguard during the second half following Leandro Trossard's needless red card.
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It felt strange to see Guardiola leave Rico Lewis as an unused substitute and only call upon eventual stoppage-time hero John Stones in the 78th minute when their defensive team-mates on the pitch were sometimes as laboured in possession as they were scattergun with their shooting.
However, at his post-match news conference, the City boss hinted at why he did not remove any of his starting backline, aside from Walker eventually making way for Stones. Despite being in Arsenal territory for the vast majority of the second half, Guardiola was delighted with their defensive work — namely not giving Arsenal cheap free-kicks.
"We were so smart to don't make quick actions, we were so smart not to concede fouls," he said.
"The long balls, the actions and the second balls – don't touch them [Arsenal players]. And that is really good because the game continued, continued, continued.
"When we lost the ball, when they had the second ball in front of the second ball behind, we didn't make fouls. With fouls that can stay one minute late and we didn't concede much.
"We were so smart, so brilliant to interpret these kind of things."
The stats from the game back this up. Dias committed a solitary second-half foul, while the other members of the back four – Walker, Josko Gvardiol and Manuel Akanji — did not make a single infringement over the course of the contest.
If Guardiola had introduced more ball players they might have broken through Arsenal's stubborn defences sooner than when Stones eventually snatched a point in the 99th minute.
However, it also ran the risk of players not fully up with the speed of the game giving away free-kicks that would have allowed Arsenal to burn up valuable minutes. Ultimately, the decision to keep Arsenal actively defending for long stretches paid dividends when Jack Grealish picked the lock and fellow substitute Stones found the finish.
