Football Special Report: Manchester City vs. Arsenal- Arsenal player ratings (Part 1)
Last weekend, the north London giants, Arsenal, secured their fifth victory of the season and moved back into second place with a forceful three nil away win against one of the strongest team of Barclays Premier League, Manchester City.
In what was destined to be an action-packed, physical, electrifying fixture, the game lived up to its hype from the opening moments with Manchester going treacherously close in thanks to neat one to one passes between their captain Tevez and Silva. However,
the Gunners goalkeeper made a reflex save.
Arsene Wenger’s team looked vulnerable in defence early on, before in the fourth minute Arsenal found their attacking rhythm when skipper Fabregas played a scintillating, inch perfect pass through the Manchester defence onto the onrushing Chamakh, only for
the Arsenal striker to be brought down by a rash challenge from behind by Manchester City young gun, Dedryk Boyata.
The rigorous tackle on Chamakh by Boyata had halted a definite goal scoring scenario for the Gunners which afterwards guaranteed Manchester City defender getting a straight red card from referee. Arsenal now boasted the extra man and began to scream into
attacking life.
The mouth-watering fixture began to become all the more physical with a number of hasty challenges occurring and frequent cards dished out. Five of Arsenal players were shown a yellow including their captain Cesc Fabregas and on the other side, Manchester
earned two yellows cards and one straight red.
With one man advantage, Arsenal started to dominate the game by keeping most of the possession. After dominating the possession, Arsene Wenger’s men received their breakthrough through playmaker Nasri, who exhibited great movement after combining with Arshavin,
to score a goal from twelve yards out.
Arsenal young French prodigy, Samir Nasri, showed great composure as a number of Manchester defenders and keeper Joe Hart were closing in quickly.
Manchester City was threatening but was unsuccessful to really penetrate the Gunners goal. Just few minutes before half time, Arsenal captain was hauled down by Vincent Kompany inside the box and was awarded with a penalty. Unfortunately, Arsenal skipper
failed to take advantage of that golden opportunity, with Manchester City’s inspiring keeper, Joe Hart made a relatively simple save.
It was looming that Fabregas’ penalty miss may come back to hurt the Gunners with Manchester beginning to gain momentum and pursue the visitors goal. Manchester City did enter the pitch with more attacking intent and enjoyed most of the possession in starting
minutes of second half.
However, an injury sustained to Manchester City skipper early in the match saw Tevez leave the pitch just after half time.
Just twenty minutes after the first half, the Gunners had all but secured the victory when Alex Song scored a second goal after a tussle in the Citizens box. It was well taken shot by the Cameroon international, who efficiently took the chance and fired
home from outside of the boot.
In the dying stages of the match, Arsenal’s Danish striker, Nicklas Bendtner, substituted the very impressive Marouane Chamakh. It was an excellent change from the legendary manager of Arsenal, as Nicklas Bendtner added a third late on to add salt to Manchester
wounds despite the big spenders efforts to secure a consolation goal.
The triumph over one of the big four relieves pressure from Arsenal manager and reinstates Arsenal existence as genuine title candidates. Though, Roberto Mancini’s men can complain and possibly taunt that had they remained with eleven men and maintained
fitness, three points would have stayed with them.
To be continued..
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