Manchester City 0, Arsenal 3: Fabianski and Samir Nasri shine for the Gunners (Part 1)
Arsene Wenger’s squad registered their first clean sheet in an away game since January, as they overpowered Roberto Mancini’s wealthy team at the Eastlands. The Gunners scored three vital goals against the Citizens, who were down
to 10 men for most of the game. The three points from the dominating win moves Arsenal to second place, still five points away from league leaders Chelsea.
It was expected to be a crackling fixture, and the match started at a frantic pace. Manchester City’s new boy Boyata was handed a starting eleven place against Arsenal, and he provided a super pass to his skipper in the opening
minute. Tevez crossed the ball towards David Silva, who displayed extraordinary skill by back heeling the ball towards the goal, but Lukasz Fabianski saved it easily.
The home side looked to be running the game until the fourth minute, when Arsenal skipper provided a superb through ball to release Chamakh. Boyata was the last defender behind Chamakh and ruthlessly tackled him from behind. The
harsh tackle had halted a definite goal-scoring scenario for Arsene Wenger’s team, but Boyata was given marching orders and Arsenal awarded a free-kick just on the edge on the box. The incident set the tone for an energetic encounter: the sending off of Manchester
City’s player was followed by a number of hard tackles and challenges by players from both sides. The referee had little option but to brandish a number of yellow cards.
Four of the Gunners, including their skipper Cesc Fabregas, defensive midfielder Alex Song, defender Johan Djourou and Samba star Denilson were all shown a yellow within the next half hour. On the other side, Gareth Barry and Nigel
De Jong were handed yellow card warnings, as one-man-down Manchester City started to show resilience.
However, Manchester City’s resilience was short lived, as Nasri scored the first goal of the match in the 20th minute. The French midfield prodigy has been in tremendous form throughout this campaign, and he showed why he is one
of the most vital players for the Gunners. Arsenal’s technical intelligence was on show as Nasri and Arshavin did some one-to-one passing in City’s box before Nasri smashed the goal past Joe Hart, who could do nothing about it.
Manchester tried hard to fight back after the goal, but found it tough against Arsenal’s number advantage and slick passing. City’s players combined excellently at the front on more than one occasion but could not find the result.
Both of Arsenal’s centre halves did not look too solid at the back, but they managed to deal with the threat of Manchester’s attackers.
Just a few minutes before half time, Manchester City veteran defender Vincent Kompany hauled down Arsenal skipper, Cesc Fabregas, at the edge of the box, and as a result, penalty was awarded to the visitors. The Gunners could have
put the game to bed had Cesc scored the penalty, but the Manchester City keeper saved brilliantly to keep his team in the contest.
At half time, the Gunners were a goal up and possessed the one-man advantage, but had to be careful considering they had four players booked in the first half.
Arsenal started off brightly in the second half – their passing and movement was even better than in the first half – but the visiting team was quite reluctant to take a shot on many occasions.
(To be continued)
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