Match Review: Man City 6 Arsenal 3 - Premier League 14.12.13
Where do you start? It’s been a bit of a rubbish week for us and the thrashing at the Etihad rounds it off with a majestically crap flourish. This has been gleefully pounced upon by the print media, with broken cannons making their triumphant return. The Mirror even questions how Arsenal can possibly be offering Wenger a new contract, despite us being top of the league and having picked up more points than any other team in 2013. The knives are out, the chasing pack and the media smell blood, it feels like this could be a big month or so for us. Everyone wants to see us fail and this result has given them ammunition.
Both teams were pretty much at full strength. City's stars had been rested in midweek and returned to the line up fresh, while Arsenal started Walcott after a long time out injured, but Gibbs wasn’t in the squad. As anyone could have predicted, City game out of the blocks with purpose and intent. They were instantly onto the front foot, attacking and probing from the first minute. I thought we did really well to keep them at bay and after about 15 minutes, we started to pass the ball better and gained a bit of a foothold in the game. So of course, this was when City took the lead.
The goal started with a ball aimed over the top of the defence towards Negredo, which was headed out for a corner by Koscielny. It looked like Negredo was offside, but the linesman gave a corner. Na$ri took the corner and Monreal missed his header at the front post, allowing Demichelis to flick the ball onto the back post. Koscielny was ball watching and failed to pick up Agüero’s run, allowing the Argentine to volley home. It was reminiscent of the game against Man U, falling asleep at a set piece and conceding a goal that we never should have. The zonal marking came under fire again and to be honest, I’m not a fan of it, I’ve never liked it. For me, the best way to defend a corner is to make sure that each man is accounted for and someone on your team attacks the ball, like Giroud has done at times. You need someone to aggressively defend the ball when it comes in, the zonal system is just too static for me, the attacking team can win the ball far too easily. But that is just an opinion, many people like it and I’m sure it can work, it’s just not for me.
What was apparent from early on was how City were in control in midfield. The Flamini - Ramsey pivot was being overpowered and overrun by Fernandinho and Touré. The whole midfield seemed lethargic and lacking in intensity, we failed with eight of the tackles we attempted in the midfield area and only succeeded with 3 or 4. On the other hand, City were successful with seven in the midfield area and rarely failed with them. But on 31minutes, we won a tackle that set in motion the equalising goal. Aaron Ramsey robbed Touré on the halfway line and gave Arsenal a break against the two centre backs, finding Özil sprinting forward on the left hand side. The German faked a pass and held the ball up long enough to cut back for Walcott on the edge of the area. Walcott’s first time effort wasn’t cleanly struck, but the keeper wrong footed himself and the ball bobbled into the net. Against the run of play and a slightly fortunate finish, but they all count.
Unfortunately we didn’t kick on from the equaliser. I expected to see us really pull our socks up having dragged ourselves level, but instead we conceded after only seven minutes of being level. The left hand side of our defence has been routinely left exposed this season and City took advantage. Zabaleta took advantage of the space, sprinting forward as Monreal tucked in and wasn’t tracked by Wilshere. Touré found him with an exquisite ball and City’s player of the year for last season, fired the ball beautifully across goal for Negredo to finish. It was a double blow, as Koscielny suffered a deep cut to his knee, trying to prevent Negredo from scoring and was stretchered off. He now looks certain to miss the game against Chelsea and maybe even the West Ham and Newcastle games. We went in 2-1 down at half time, having played poorly and needing to raise our game.
When you’re trailing against the best home side in the league and the most potent attacking threat, it is usually advisable not to give them gift wrapped goals. However, we seemed to be in the Christmas spirit early. Just five minutes into the second half, Özil was trapped in the left corner and played a pass towards Flamini. Flamini misjudged the ball and only succeeded in tapping it into the path of Fernandinho, who nonchalantly strode forward and curled into the net from 25 yards. It was an absolute travesty of a goal to give away and epitomised the lazy and sluggish nature of our midfield performance up until then. Our passing and movement had been poor and City were repelling us with ease.
Thankfully, the third goal proved the spark for Arsenal to suddenly start playing. We started attacking with pace and purpose, stretching the City defence and looking dangerous for the first time really. We’d created some good chances beforehand despite playing poorly, but now we looked like we meant business. Theo Walcott was the main threat, looking to get in behind the City defence and we should have been given a penalty from one of these instances. Wilshere tried to clip the ball through to the winger and Zabaleta intercepted, but with a combination of thigh and arm. It was a clear penalty, the arm stopped the ball from getting through to Walcott, but as has been the case many times this season, the officials got the decision wrong. No penalty, much to the anger of the Arsenal players, who were rightly aggrieved.
Finally the pressure did tell though and this time, it was Ramsey playing the ball over the top for Walcott. The Englishman controlled the ball and finished magnificently into the top corner, to bring us back into the game. It was a deserved goal that had been coming and gave us a chance of getting a result from the game. Unfortunately, the self destruct button was pressed again.
It took just three minutes for the two goal cushion to be reestablished. Jesus Navas beat Monreal far too easily down the right hand side and fizzed the ball into the box for Silva to finish amidst some static Arsenal defending. Silva’s finish was a gorgeous one, but the Arsenal defence were statuesque, Vermaelen’s positioning was poor and Mertesacker was caught on his heels. We surrendered, bottled it at a moment where we could have kicked on and made something of the game. From then on, it was a City training exercise.
The fight drained from us after the fourth went in. The hope that Theo’s goal gave us was brutally extinguished as quickly as it appeared. Wenger tried to find another goal, putting on Gnabry for Flamini, which was surprising given that Cazorla and Rosicky were on the bench. It was even more surprising when Bendtner came on for Giroud. It was to no avail, Gnabry barely touched the ball and while Bendtner was ok up front, we didn’t really look like we believed we were capable of rescuing the situation. We made sure of this by gifting City another goal, just to make sure. Wilshere was robbed in the middle of the park, summing up his day in grim fashion. Fernandinho stormed forward and played a one-two with Na$ri and despite Mertesacker getting in a tackle, the ball broke kindly for the midfielder to clip the ball into the net.
We did get forward a bit after that and Bendtner thought he’d headed his second of the season in, only to be flagged for offside. Mertesacker had more success and met Sagna’s cross to make it 5-3. But of course, City then when straight up the other end and Milner went tumbling to win the softest of soft penalties. Touré stepped up and stroked it home to complete the misery. Another truly miserable day in Manchester.
What frustrates me more than anything is our inability to cope with these big games. It’s not all the big games, we’ve achieved some fantastic results against the likes of Dortmund, Liverpool and Bayern Munich. It’s City, Man U, Chelsea even Sp*rs away. There’s something about these games that just cripples us, we get stage fright. When it matters, we can’t beat these teams. We can point to whatever we like in terms of fatigue, or poor officiating, but the simple fact is that we just fail to turn up against these three teams, we bottle it. It’s something that we’re now going to have to face up to if we want to stay top, because defeat, or even a draw against Chelsea will see us knocked off the summit and our lead evaporate. Chelsea are definitely are very much beatable at the moment and if we play like we know we can, I’d back us to win well. But Chelsea always raise their game us, for once, we need to raise our game against them.
Stat of the game
Out of 24 attempted take-ons, Arsenal were successful with just 10
Teams
Manchester City (4-2-3-1/4-4-2)
Pantillimon, Zabaleta, Demichelis, Kompany, Clichy, Touré (Y), Fernandinho, Na$ri (Garcia 90’), Agüero (Navas 50’), Silva (Y) (Milner 71’), Negredo
Subs
Hart, Garcia, Lescott, Navas, Milner, Dzeko, Kolarov
Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny (Y), Sagna, Koscielny (Vermaelen 42’), Mertesacker, Monreal, Flamini (Gnabry 72’), Ramsey, Walcott, Özil, Wilshere, Giroud (Bendtner 76’)
Subs
Fabianski, Jenkinson, Vermaelen, Gnabry, Rosicky, Cazorla, Bendtner
Player Ratings
Szczesny - 6/10 - Gave away the penalty but not much he could do for any of the goals
Sagna - 6/10 - Had a relatively good game compared to his colleagues
Mertesacker - 5/10 - Left exposed, but definitely not at his commanding best
Koscielny - 5/10 - See above but for only 42 mins
Monreal - 5/10 - Left exposed aswell and had a torrid time with Zabaleta and co
Flamini - 5/10 - At fault for the third goal and struggled to control the midfield
Ramsey - 6/10 - Did ok, good assist, but too many stray passes
Walcott - 7/10 - Took two goals well and looked our biggest threat, good to have him back
Özil - 5/10 - Good assist, but missing for most of the game and looked furious at the end
Wilshere - 4/10 - All over the place and will likely face a ban for giving the crowd the finger
Giroud - 5/10 - Holds up the play well, but keeps squandering big chances
Subs
Vermaelen - 5/10 - Had just as torrid a time as the other defenders
Gnabry - 5/10 - Barely touched the ball until he gave it away before the City penalty
Bendtner - 6/10 - Actually did fairly well for the time he was on
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