Arsenal vs. Manchester City: Advantage Manchester United? Part 1
Wednesday night saw two of the Premier League’s heavyweights lock horns in a tantalizing contest that saw the 2nd position up for grabs.
Roberto Mancini’s men travelled to the Emirates Stadium at North London in their quest to test Arsenal’s resolve after the latter’s home victory against defending champions http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786. Manchester City earlier hosted the Gunners this
season and were thumped 3-0 on the night. However, the scoreline did not show the entire story as the Blues were down to 10 men within the first ten minutes of the game.
This time it was a completely different ball game. Manchester City, obviously familiar to the Arsenal threat came after doing their homework on Arsene Wenger’s men. The game started off with both sides opting for the 4-3-3 formation
– to an extent, however. The home side opted for 3 front men spearheading the Arsenal attack with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mancini-c23323’s system was merely set in place
in order to ‘match’ their opponents and subsequently keep them in check. Carlos Tevez was apparently upfront on his own with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/James-Milner-c17706 and central striker Jo supporting the Argentine – interestingly, the latter two dropped back into midfield to revert back
to a 4-5-1 whenever the Gunners looked to make inroads into the Manchester City half.
The Arsenal team were able to exercise their home advantage and took firm grip of the match. Wenger’s men were dominating possession with Cesc Fabregas given license to run into the final third with ample support from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873
on the right-hand side and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Wilshere-c17463 played from a much deeper position and impressed with the ease through which he was able to orchestrate
the Arsenal attack with his calculated long passing of the ball. Alexander Song was at his usual best. The http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cameroon-c2865 was quick to shield his back four when Arsenal were exposed on the counter and also looked to give the Gunners a quantitative edge while going
forward.
Manchester City looked rather rugged around the edges – literally. Mancini had opted for strength over speed in wide positions. Centre Forward Jo was asked to play on the left wing with James Milner operating
from the opposite end. Yaya Toure, often seen as a holding or defensive midfielder in his days with Barcelona, was promoted to play off the central striker – a supporting striker, by the looks of it. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gareth-Barry-c14423 dropped deep in a rather Wilshere-like role
to be able to pull the strings with his long passing and upset the relatively vertically challenged Arsenal defence. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nigel-de-Jong-c27882, on the other hand, looked to physically bully the Arsenal midfield and cut down space for the attack-minded Arsenal players
to run into.
The home and away team setups, as aforementioned, looked like mirror images of one another, aimed at ‘matching’ each other. Mancini’s approach could be argued as a rather defence-minded one; typically seen from mid-table teams
travelling to the Emirates in order to put off the Gunners’ from playing their usually high tempo and one touch brand of football. While a side like Bolton or Blackburn could be excused of being setup in such manner, a club of Manchester City’s calibre, quality,
finances and title ambitions should have rather looked to take the game to Wenger’s side. However, justifying the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 Milan manager’s selected starting eleven, a counterargument could focus on the fact that the Blues were without their playmaker David
Silva and were in danger of losing their second spot to the home side if the latter were to win at home.
To be continued.
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