Recap: Manchester City vs Arsenal
English Premier League giants Arsenal emerged from their tussle against big-spenders Manchester City with all three points in the bag after they claimed an important 3-0 victory on Sunday, 24 October.
City were reduced to ten men after just five minutes when Dedryck Boyata pulled down Arsenal forward Marouane Chamakh and, while captain Cesc Fabregas missed a penalty, the Gunners deservedly won through strikes from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas
Bendtner, who was making his return from injury.
Roberto Mancini set out his City side with the intention to shock and awe and, in the early going, that’s exactly what they did. Captain Carlos Tevez almost created the opening goal in the first few minute, but David Silva could not guide his flick past
Arsenal keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
However, City’s fortunes soon took a turn for the worse. Fabregas delivered a smart pass into Chamakh, only for the Morocco international to be felled by Boyata who was shown a red card and left his side to play with ten men for the vast majority of the
game.
Arsenal in control
From then on, it was almost all about Arsenal. Arsene Wenger’s men were in total control and while Johan Djourou missed a glorious chance with a header after 18 minutes, they did not have to wait long for the opener. A clever move involving Bacary Sagna
and Andrey Arshavin allowed Nasri to fire past Joe Hart from eight yards and claim his seventh goal in seven games.
City then pressed forward, but could not find an equaliser with Micah Richards and Vincent Kompany both missing.
However, Kompany almost proved to be his side’s villain when he felled Fabregas inside the area. The 2010 FIFA World Cup winner dusted himself down to take the resultant penalty, but Joe Hart was able to parry the ball.
After the break, Arsenal piled on the pressure but it took 20 minutes before the lead was doubled. More clever passing left City defenders for dead and while a Fabregas pass to Chamakh was snuffed out by Wayne Bridge, Alex Song pounced to rifle home his
team’s second from 14 yards.
Balotelli makes debut
While Mario Balotelli replaced Gareth Barry after 75 minutes to make his EPL debut, he could not help his side claw back into the match despite helping to create a good chance for Emmanuel Adebayor.
The victory was sealed in the 88th minute when Bendtner beat the offside trap to slip the ball past Hart.
The win has moved Arsenal to 17 points, level with City and Manchester United but the Gunners are in second place by virtue of their superior goal difference. Chelsea are top with 22 points.
After the match, Wenger spoke of his delight at picking up the three points. He told reporters that: "For us it was important to us to get a win in a big place, to strengthen belief of the squad and continue our march forward.
'I hope victory will give us confidence'
"I think we did it today with calm intelligence and overall the needed performance to play against 10 men. I think collectively we completely dominated the game. I hope that will give us the belief and confidence to take into other games."
Referring to the Boyata incident, he said that: “It looked to me that it was a sending off from the bench and the referee had no option. After the sending off it became electric and we got some yellow cards quickly. It was important that we did not get a
second yellow.
"I asked the players at half-time to focus on playing in a positive way and to try to score a second goal, to focus on playing football and not just defending our advantage."
Mancini was proud in defeat, saying that he was pleased with the performance, despite the result.
'Proud of my players'
He said that: "I think against Arsenal it is difficult to play 11 versus 11. Ten against 11 is worse but it is my opinion that we if played 11 against 11 we would have won this game. I am very proud of my players because I think they played very well. They
tried always to score, always to defend very well. I think they showed we are one of the best teams in the Premier League."
However, the Italian did not believe that Boyata’s sending off was justified, saying that: "I do not agree with the referee. I thought the rule is always the last man, if there is a clear opportunity to score a goal, it is a red card. But I think when Chamakh
touched the ball, the ball was probably going out or on the way to the keeper."
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