Arsenal hammers City as Gabriel renews hostilities with Haaland

Erling Haaland experienced an uncomfortable return match against Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, with two opponents — including a teenager — teasing him after goals and the crowd at Emirates Stadium reminding the striker of his provocative comments in the teams' last meeting.

Resentment clearly lingered more than four months after a 2-2 draw between the teams at City's Etihad Stadium in their first meeting, which ended with Haaland throwing the ball at Arsenal defender Gabriel after a late equalizer and telling Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to “stay humble, eh?”

It came back to bite Haaland on Sunday as City was thrashed 5-1 by Arsenal.

Gabriel didn't waste his chance to get his own back on Haaland, celebrating in the face of his rival immediately after Martin Odegaard gave Arsenal a 1-0 lead inside two minutes.

Midway through the second half — and after Haaland had equalized for City — Lewis-Skelly scored to put Arsenal 3-1 up and marked the goal by sitting down, crossing his legs and delivering a “Zen” celebration, one often used by Haaland.

In that 2-2 game in September, Haaland used words that appeared to belittle Lewis-Skelly during a confrontation early in the match.

The 18-year-old Lewis-Skelly, who plays at left back, was only available for Sunday's game after having a red card controversially awarded against Wolverhampton last weekend rescinded.

The Premier League didn't hesitate to flag up the needle that still clearly existed between the teams.

On its official X site followed by more than 45 million people, the Premier League posted a picture of the incident between Gabriel and Haaland alongside the words: “The latest chapter in the long-running Erling Haaland vs. Gabriel series.”

In one second-half incident after Gabriel won a free kick, he grabbed the shorts of Haaland then refused to accept the hand of the City striker, who was attempting to help the Brazilian up. Minutes later, Haaland approached Gabriel and pointed to the Premier League badge on his jersey, likely indicating that he and City have won the title and Gabriel hasn't.

Later, one Arsenal fan was seen holding up a sign with the words “Stay humble, eh?"

And when the final whistle sounded, Arsenal played Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” loudly around the stadium.

“This is a thing that’s been building up over a certain amount of time,” Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said. “With the Etihad at the start of the season and everything that went on there, you do have that fire in your stomach.”

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