Football Update: EPL News- Arsenal Wins Comfortably Against Manchester City
Samir Nasri, Alex Song and the substitute, Nicklas Bendtner, scored for Arsenal to give their team a comfortable victory over resurgent Manchester City. The victory is particularly important because the match was being played in the City of Manchester Stadium.
Things could have been worse for City, but their veteran keeper, Joe Hart, saved a penalty to save his team some humiliation.
Chelsea was at top of the Premier League table, as they had won their fixture on Saturday. City needed to win this match because the gap from top was five points. Arsenal also wanted to win the match, as they had slipped out of the top four. Arsene Wenger,
the manager of Arsenal, took no chances as he left the returning Theo Walcott and Nicklas Bendtner on the benches. Also, another player came back from injury, i.e. Laurent Koscielny, but he was also confined to the bench.
Mancini also kept almost the same team he played last week. Emmanuel Adebayor was left on the bench, once again, despite scoring a hat-trick in the midweek Europa Cup match. Also, in the heart of the defence, Joleon Lescott was left out giving the place
to Dedryck Boyata. This was a decision that would prove fatal for Mancini, in deciding the fate of this particular match.
As soon as the match started, Manchester City was on an attack against Arsenal. Carlos Tevez and David Silva looked threatening on a couple of occasions, but they could not capitalize on the opportunities. However, in the fourth minute of the match, Manchester
City received a set-back, as Boyata was sent off for bringing down Marouane Chamakh. It was a good decision by the referee, because of the fact that Boyata was the last man and he had to challenge the opposition striker, who was going straight for goal.
Arsenal received a big boost after this sending off, as City went on the back-foot. However, the game soon became a physical battle, and five players were shown yellow cards in the opening half, including four players from Arsenal. It was a tough night for
the referee, who kept silent on a couple of occasions, despite seeing rash challenges.
The first goal came for Arsenal in the 20th minute, as Nasri played a great one-two football with Andrei Arshavin. Consequently, he shot a ball over Joe Hart for the first goal of the match. It was poor defending on City’s behalf, as the goal
can be blamed on the early red card, which left spaces in the defence.
Although, Arsenal had taken a lead, but City were hanging in there for almost the entire first half. Micah Richards came close to scoring as he took his shot after beating two Arsenal defenders. However, the ball was on his left foot, while the resultant
shot also missed the target by some inches.
In the 39th minute of the match, Arsenal got an opportunity to increase their lead by two goals. Cesc Fabregas was challenged on the inside edge of penalty area by Vincent Kompany. Referee made the right decision as he awarded a penalty. However,
Joe Hart came to the rescue of his team, as he brilliantly saved the penalty shot taken by Arsenal’s captain, Cesc Fabregas.
In the second half, Mancini brought Wayne Bridge and Adebayor in, replacing Yaya Toure and Carlos Tevez, respectively. However, the goal did not come for City, despite having some half chances. In the 66th minute, a pass from Fabregas was not
cleared properly by Bridge, and the loose ball came to the feet of Alex Song. The young midfielder made no mistake as he took the shot and fired it into the goal for Arsenal’s second of the evening.
As Mancini’s subs could not produce a goal, Arsene Wenger introduced one of his own super-subs in shape of Nicklas Bendtner. Fit-again Bendtner scored Arsenal’s third of the night, from a tight angle in the 88th minute of the match. The match
ended with a victory for Arsenal, as they genuinely outplayed their opponents. The great news for Arsenal is that Lukasz Fabianski looked in good form, as he made some good saves in the game. This might save Wenger some money, as he was thinking about buying
a new keeper in the winter transfer window.
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