Arsenal 0 Manchester City 0: The Mack Truck in Front of City’s Goal is Blocking My View
By: Sairax | January 5th, 2011
It was a frustrating game to watch, no doubt. Don’t let the scoreline fool you though, we did play well today. It reminded me a bit of last season’s game at the Emirates, though we were much more aggressive going forward today. Echoes of Inter and Chelsea parking the bus in front of Barcelona crossed my mind. However, you can only play the team in front of you, and the team in front of us came to defend and catch us on the break once or twice if they could. We remained patient throughout the match and kept trying to get forward. At the end we tired a bit and our subs didn’t make too much of an impact, but we were also very unlucky today. We fought hard, but Man City’s defense proved to be too strong and resolute for us to grab the winning goal.
The first half started at blistering speed. Not even a couple of minutes had elapsed before Nasri and Jack exchanged passes before Fabregas received the ball and shot just wide. We were piling on the pressure and got another chance with Jack pouncing on a deflected shot by van Persie. Robin went on to hit the post and Theo was constantly finding his way in behind Zabaleta and the Man City defense. In the 27th minute we came oh so close by hitting the post not once, but twice. Nasri crossed a lovely ball into Fabregas who smacked it against the bar followed by Theo rattling the bar on the rebound. If Theo’s ball had gone in it wouldn’t have counted anyway since he was offside, but our general play was fast and furious. City were sitting deep and hanging on for dear life.
Man City’s best chance came shortly after when Tevez made a beeline for our goal, but he ended up shooting over the net. The half was almost all Arsenal. We kept pressing and pushing. After the first 20 minutes, the intensity went down a little and Man City gathered themselves and managed to retain their shape and gain some composure in defense. We weren’t hesitant to shoot. Jack managed a great strike, but it was straight to Joe Hart who couldn’t catch it, but almost pushed it back into the path of Song. City’s other chance came through a corner where Tevez was left free, but it came to nothing and we ended the half with some regret at not taking our chances and cursing our luck.
Half Time Stats (courtesy of Orbinho): Arsenal v Man City – Shots 9-4; On target 3-0; Fouls 3-8; Duels Won 49%-51%; Passing % 85%-73%; Possession 62%-38%
The second half saw Man City look even less ambitious to find the net as it seemed like they had 8 men behind the ball at all times. It can be incredibly difficult to penetrate a defense like that. Basically you can send in crosses from out wide or try to thread the ball through the eye of the needle in the middle of the pitch. Arsenal kept trying to find the answer and unlock the Man City defense, though the play had slowed down from the first half and Man City barely ventured forward.
Robin managed a long range shot in the 49th minute that went soaring over the bar. Theo was fed out wide by Cesc but was being closely watched by Zabaleta. City weren’t taking any chances in conceding. Another good chance came shortly after when van Persie and Cesc exchanged passes from a short corner, but van Persie ended up shooting from a tight angle instead of finding a teammate. I was getting worried by this point. Was it going to be one of those days? (It was.) Man City took off Jo and brought on Adam Johnston who added a bit of energy down their right flank. He had a few runs at Clichy, but he dealt well with him, and our defense did much better at covering each other when someone moved out of position. I could see the players yelling at each other a lot more and generally communicating better, which was good to see.
Theo was taken off in the 70th minute for Arshavin, which clearly upset him. He walked off the pitch shaking his head wondering at what more he had to do to stay on, I suppose. I thought at the time that it would be a good change. Theo’s pace was a threat, but Zabaleta was beginning to contain him better in the second half. Also, Theo’s skills on the ball failed him more than once. He tends to get the ball stuck under his feet at times and he wasn’t picking out great options when he got in a goal scoring or assisting position. I thought that with Arshavin coming on, he could worm his way into the Man City area, as he is capable of doing, and cause a bit of a scare to their defense. It didn’t really turn out that way though as his substitution made little impact. Perhaps he could have moved out left where Nasri was having less of an effect, but that could have left Clichy exposed to Johnston’s quick runs.
In the end, we came out with no goals and Man City didn’t even have one shot on target. Bendtner was brought on for Jack, though it made little difference with him being stuck out wide. Going into extra time we saw both Sagna and Zabaleta sent off for a clash on the sidelines after Zabaleta tackled Sagna. There didn’t seem to be anything in that particular tackle. Sagna had been fouled several times during the game, so maybe he was fed up. Words were definitely exchanged and Sagna just lost his head and headbutted Zabaleta. It was disappointing to see, especially since he was having such a good performance and you would hope he could have contained himself for the few minutes left in the match. I’m not sure if either player deserved to be sent off, but I can understand Sagna getting the red. We’ll miss his services in our upcoming games.
Full Time Stats (courtesy of Orbinho): Arsenal v Man City – Shots 15-5; On target 5-0; Fouls 6-13; Duels Won 55%-45%; Passing % 84%-75%; Possession 62%-38%
Player Ratings:
Fabianski 6 Quiet night picking flowers and dancing a jig around his goal. Ok I’m not sure he was doing that, but then again I barely saw him the whole game.
Sagna 6 Was having a really good game, but it was ruined when he got sent off at the end of the match. Now we’re without reliable Bac for Leeds this weekend in the FA Cup, Ipswich in the Carling Cup, and West Ham in the league. He could be missing a worse run of matches, but still, it was a stupid thing to do and he should have tried to keep his composure.
Djourou 7 Very solid at the back. Not much more I can say since didn’t have a whole lot to do.
Koscielny 6 Still gets caught out of position at times and lacks a bit of pace. He is very good at tackles on the ground though and managed to recover on the small mistakes he made.
Clichy 6.5 He had a good game. Looks much better when he has a winger in front (in this case, Nasri) to help out defensively. Was more no-nonsense when clearing the ball from our area, which was a frustration with him earlier in the season. Crosses still weak.
Song 7.5 MOTM Another great performance by Songinho. Solid defensively, got back to cover for our backline when he was needed, and looked comfortable linking up with the midfield in attack. If he keeps playing like this, perhaps we’ll keep a few more clean sheets this season.
Walcott 6 It wasn’t his best game. As I mentioned earlier, it was really his skill on the ball that was letting him down. He tends to get ahead of the ball at times and didn’t get too many good shots in. Never stopped working though, and constantly got back to help defend.
Nasri 6.5 Not as influential today, though when we have all of our best players fit, he doesn’t have to take the reins and carry the whole team on his back. He’s still an important part of the attack and our pass and move play. Where he didn’t enjoy as much success was when he tried to dribble his way into the City area where the City defense were able to contain his threat easily. Perhaps he is better used out wide on the right, or when interchanging with the other 3 members of the attack.
Wilshere 7 It’s quite amazing how a player who just turned 19 can fit in so seamlessly with the likes of Fabregas, Nasri, Song, and van Persie. He was always calm, twisting away from defenders, and looking for a teammate to retain possession. Didn’t have too many forays forward, but that wasn’t his main duty. Could do better when he’s faced with a scoring opportunity.
Fabregas 7 Was pulling the stings again, trying to find that golden pass. He found a few good passes but the goal never came. Remains the best player to play in the hole behind the striker.
van Persie 6.5 Fans seem to be very divided on him at the moment. His movement on and off the ball is fantastic and he does get into great positions. He isn’t an out and out number nine, big man in the box type, which means that he isn’t going to be that target for crosses like Chamakh or Bendtner. I still think that he gives us something that no other striker does, but he really needs to get a couple more goals and at least make the keeper work. Could have been taken off or at least moved when Bendtner came on.
Subs:
Arshavin 4 He had a good 20 minutes to make something happen and instead all I saw was him misplacing passes and getting dispossessed. Very disappointing.
Bendtner 4 Was deployed out wide on the left when really he would have been better off as the big target man in the box for the last few minutes while we tried to cross the ball into the box. Made little impact on the game.
Are you all ready for some Sairax-brand positivity? Ok here goes. We still have a game in hand on City and squeezed four points out of them this season when we only got one last season. Chelsea and the spuds both lost their matches today, which opens the gap between us and them. The biggest issue is that we are still 4 points behind Man Utd who have a game in hand on us. Luckily, they still have to face Chelsea at home and away as well as Man City at home and the spuds away. We also have another chance to take some points off of them when they come to the Emirates in April. There’s still hope, but Man Utd are definitely in the drivers seat.
Maybe some of you don’t want to hear this but we played a good game today. It was very much a team performance where no one player had to step up to save our butts. Defensively we had a decent game, though we were never really threatened. I think that with the chances we missed, quite a few balls off the post, and Man City’s stubborn defense, we were a bit unlucky to come away without a win. It happens though. They concentrated so much on not conceding and rode their luck quite a bit at times themselves. At the end of the day, not a terrible result, but one that is extremely annoying. If we keep playing in this same manner I still think we have a good chance at stringing together a very good run of results for the next couple of months. We don’t have another league game for a while with FA Cup and Carling Cup matches around the corner, so we’ll just have to accept the result and focus on pushing ahead in the cup competitions. Keep the faith.
***************
Don’t forget to follow the Arsenal Offside on Twitter for the latest news, links, and updates!
Some Related Stories:
Category: 
-
J___V
-
Gigi_man
-
J___V
-
Geoff Partrige
-
FredJacob
-
J___V
-
Gigi_man
-
bapdum
-
Chris
-
FredJacob
-
Gigi_man
-
Unstoppble2509
-
Gigi_man
-
FredJacob
-
Gigi_man
-
bapdum
-
Gigi_man
-
Shirish K.
-
Guest
-
FredJacob
-
Darren_V
-
Gigi_man
-
FredJacob
-
third eye
-
third eye
-
FredJacob
-
Sairax
-
FredJacob
-
Sairax
-
FredJacob
-
bapdum
-
Shirish K.
-
Sairax
-
Perryvs
-
Sairax
-
Tom Burns
-
Darren_V
-
Zito_v2
-
Perry S.
Home 
