Mikel Arteta appeared to warn his players over their pointed celebrations at Erling Haaland in Arsenal's 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City at Emirates Stadium.
Gabriel Magalhaes reacted to Martin Ødegaard's second-minute opener by screaming in Haaland's face before Myles Lewis-Skelly followed his first senior goal -- and Arsenal's third of the afternoon -- by mimicking Haaland's meditating celebration.
The incidents seemed to be a response to Haaland's behaviour in September's reverse fixture -- which ended in a 2-2 draw -- where the Norway forward threw the ball at Gabriel's head after John Stones' stoppage-time equaliser before telling Arteta to "stay humble" as the teams congregated after the final whistle.
Asked about the celebrations and how much of a factor September's game was, Arteta said: "I don't know, I haven't seen that, and there's nothing that I want to discuss about that, down to the players, but they know my view on it, and we have to focus on us."
Pushed to explain what his view was, Arteta replied: "We have to focus on us and to leaving anything that happened there, just part of the game on the pitch and the feeling, whatever happens there. I think I've been in football a long time. Just leave it, there is nothing there to do."
Told of Arsenal's focus on Haaland in their celebrations, Pep Guardiola smiled and said: "That's good, that's good, that's good."
Midfielder Declan Rice defended Lewis-Skelly's goal celebration and said: "It's football antics. Things happen on the pitch. He celebrated. It's obviously the Haaland celebration. I know he has respect for him, the whole team has big respect for him because of what he's done, he's a big player."
Haaland cancelled out Ødegaard's opener with a 55th-minute header before Arsenal ran riot as Thomas Partey, Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and substitute Ethan Nwaneri all found the net to give Arsenal their biggest win over City for 22 years.
The Gunners are six points behind leaders Liverpool, who have a game-in-hand on Wednesday week against Everton.
