Manchester City Vs Arsenal - Half Time Report
It was a clash of two modern era titans as Manchester City welcomed Arsenal to the City of Manchester Stadium for a mouth watering clash in the English Premier League. It was time for two teams who have not won a trophy in a while to deliver a statement
of intent and both the managers were ready for an intriguing battle of wits.
Manchester City went into the match on the back of 3-1 win in the Europa League against Lech Poznan and Arsenal were on a high after beating Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. There was no shortage of belief as both the teams believed that they could
win the tie therefore both managers fielded an attacking line up.
Despite his hat trick against Poznan, Emanuel Adebayor had to be content with only a place on the bench as Roberto Mancini went for Carlos Tevez as the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
The back four consisted of Micah Richards playing in an unfamiliar right back position while in the centre of the defense were Vincent Kompany and Jerome Boateng and Dedryk Boyata as the left back.
Mancini again played three defensive midfielders in his line up as he played De Jong and Barry as the shield ahead of his defense and employed David Silva, Yaya Toure and James Milner just behind Tevez.
Arsenal also went into the game with the same formation as Baracry Sagna, Yohan Djourou, Sebastian Squillaci and Gael Clichy took their positions in the back four while Song and Denilson played as the holding players in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
The attacking four consisted of Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Andrei Arshavin playing behind Maruane Chamakh.
Match kicked off to a blazing start as Manchester City came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and they could have had an early lead in the game as a determined run down the touchline by Carloz Tevez saw the Argentinean drill a low ball across the
face of the goal and the on running David Silva could only guide the straight into the hands of Fabianski.
Arsenal took a little time in settling into the game and the moment they did, Cesc Fabregas played a defense splitting ball to Maruane Chamakh who was brought down just on the edge of the box by Dedryk Boyata and it was almost impossible for referee Mark
Clattenburg not to send him off.
Only 5 minutes were clocked on the pitch and City were already a man down due to supreme recklessness.
Despite being at a man disadvantage City continued their attacking displays with Carloz Tevez leading the line in inspired form.
But it was Arsenal who drew first blood in the game through Samir Nasri.
Samir Nasri just outside the City area conjured up a delightful goal. Nasri played a lovely one-two with Andrei Arshavin and fired past an advancing Joe Hart from eight yards out.
Gareth Barry was at fault for the goal as it was him who let the Frenchman get around him before releasing a torpedo from his right foot.
The goal was Nasri’s seventh in 7 games.
The match was being played at a frantic pace with fouls flying in from all around and inside the first 35 minutes there were as many as 5 players going into the referee’s book apart from the red card.
Fabregas, Song, Djourou, Song and Gareth Barry were the unlucky ones to be booked early on in the game.
It was a delicate situation for Arsenal to be in as three of their central midfielders booked inside the first half hour and with Mark Clattenburg employing a no nonsense policy Arsenal will have to careful for the rest of the game.
In the 39th minute of the game Arsenal had the chance to go into the break with a two goal lead as the Gunners were awarded a penalty after a foul on Cesc Fabregas by Vincent Kompany.
Fabregas stepped up hoping to make it 2-0 but the kick was acrobatically saved by Jo Hart.
As the match headed for the half time break City had a chance to restore the parity in the game but Kompany fired his header high and wider over Fabianski from a Silva corner.
Despite playing more than 40 minutes of the half City went into the break only 1-0 down and the game still does not look out of their reach.
Arsenal will really have to work hard if they are to inflict the first home defeat of the season on Mancini's men.
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