ARSENAL 1 - MANCHESTER CITY 0
Watching Arsenal should come with some kind of health warning. Seriously.
But on this fine Easter Sunday evening we have plenty to cheer about, after we saw through a well-deserved 1-0 victory over Manchester City. In truth, we made much harder work out of it than we should have. The game should have been wrapped up long before Mikel Arteta’s 87th minute strike, but in the end that was all it took to take home the points, and see us return to 3rd place in the Premier League.
It was a game we dominated from pretty much start to finish.
Bags of early possession didn’t really come to much, before Robin van Persie was denied off a corner by both Thomas Vermaelen and then the cross bar. The Belgian would have been commended for an expert defensive clearance had it happened in our own box. Sadly it wasn’t, and RVP’s header was definitely goal bound until TV5 unfortunately got in the way.
But whilst the tempo and possession stayed well and truly in our favour, City were difficult enough to break down and the first half played out without any more genuine chances.
There was plenty of controversy, however. Mainly surrounding the world-renowned clown that is Mario Balotelli. On around the 20th minute, the lunatic striker flew in towards Alex Song and his studs found our man’s shins. He wasn’t even near the ball, and it didn’t look like an attempted tackle. It was horrific, and the referee didn’t even blow his whistle for a foul.
I have no idea how none of the officials, including the linesman and 4th official, neither of whom were too far away, managed to see the tackle, and advise the predictably poor Martin Atkinson that it should have been a red card, let alone a damn free kick. But as nothing was given, you’d hope the FA would be able to review it post match. And ban the dirty bastard.
There was another equally poor tackle from the Italian before half time on Bacary Sagna, which brought out Balotelli’s first of two very well deserved yellow cards. But at half time, the main talking point was how he shouldn’t have been on the pitch regardless. It was one of those feelings where there was a fear that it would come back to haunt us, and he’d probably score the winner or something.
Luckily not.
The second half plodded along, with City coming out the blocks slightly faster. Andre Santos came on for Kieran Gibbs, who appeared to pick up a knock. And van Persie again hit the post after another delightful over the top through ball from Song.
City slowly began to drop off the pace, and were clearly suffering by the insufferable laziness of Balotelli, as we were enjoying our best football down the right hand side. Sagna and Theo Walcott were combining excellently, with bags of space to exploit, and Gael Clichy seemed unable to cope on his own due to the lack of support he was receiving from the bloke apparently playing in front of him.
On our way to victory, we even allowed a calamity moment you’d normally expect David James to somehow be involved in. Walcott hit the post from inside the area, it fell to Vermaelen who fluffed what was the easiest of side foots into an empty net, and Yossi Benayoun capped off the comedy show by trickling it past the far post.
Van Persie also had a goal disallowed correctly for offside, and we appeared to be having another one of those days. Plenty of chances with not much luck in the final third. We’ve seen all too many of them, and given how tight the battle for 3rd place currently is, it would have been incredibly poor luck if we didn’t come away from today with all the points.
Aaron Ramsey came on for the hard working Benayoun, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was thrown on late for the also impressive Walcott. I was surprised Rambo was the first tactical choice to bring on, as it reverted us back to the formation which just about got us by against Everton, and failed against QPR. The Ox would surely have been the better choice, as he would have really given the City back four a greater test in the closing minutes. But Rambo it was, and the Welshman filled in as he has generally as of late. Completing his passes, but not really making anything happen.
That’s not a criticism, and I certainly don’t condone the abuse he gets. His 94th minute howler was amusing, seeing as we were 1-0 up, but if the score line was still 0-0 at that time I think it would have been impossible to defend. But maybe the fact we were leading played a part in his decision making process anyway. The game was done, and he didn’t have to score. At 0-0, with the League’s top goal scorer at your mercy with an easy central ball, I’m sure he’d have made the right decision. He’s a smart kid, has had a long year, and was at his best when we were at our worst earlier this season. Let’s not forget all of this.
But the man of the moment today was Mikel Arteta. He’s scored some belters since his move from Everton last summer, and this one was by far the most important of the lot.
Everything about the goal screamed of quality. Stole the ball in midfield, drove forward, backed his ability and smashed it from 25 yards to easily beat Joe Hart.
It was categorically deserved, and even the most biased twat of a Man City fan (there’s a few) surely couldn’t argue that we didn’t deserve it.
The celebrations basked in a shower of ‘fuck you’ towards Man City. The Poznan from the fans. The tweets of ‘Feeder Club 1 Man City 0’, and they were aided shortly afterwards by the richly deserved sending off of Balotelli.
About an hour late, but he got what he deserved. If Roberto Mancini had any class, he’d have subbed him off at half time. He didn’t, and the red card was always going to come.
A quick word about City following on from the previous. Balotelli truly let them down today. He had no desire to get back and defend, and his reckless challenges were an insult to his teammates and manager. The downfall of City this year has been the overinflated egos of Balotelli, and Carlos Tevez. Until they realise this and sell them both, they won’t win a thing.
Their tactics surprised me too. For a side that as they admitted themselves were out of the title race if they didn’t win, they seemed more than happy to sit back and soak up our attacks. I was a little worried about them on the break, but in truth they didn’t have any real quality in midfield to link it all together. Largely because David Silva has gone AWOL, and Samir Nasri is shit. Oh well.
But it was all about Arsenal today. The work ethic, commitment and desire was ever present in all areas of the field, and in my opinion led by the excellent Benayoun, who played his heart out today. Almost every time he plays, we say how he deserves more game time than what he gets. I think he’s worth another year personally (if we can snap him up). He might not light up every game, but he works harder than anyone and those playing around him mirror this.
We were largely untroubled at the back, but defensively we were solid enough to cope with what City threw at us. Unfortunately Laurent Koscielny picked up his tenth booking of the season so will miss the games against Wolves and Wigan. A huge blow as he’s been our best defender this year, but we should cope given the opposition.
The midfield trio were again excellent. Tomas Rosicky drove us forward as he always does. Arteta kept the tempo flowing, and dictated the direction of our play. And Song held fort, protected the defence and drove forward himself at every opportunity. Again there were a few over ambitious through balls, which is slowly creeping more and more into his game, but at large he was excellent and is one of the first names of the team sheet right now.
All in all, a very professional and patient performance from Arsenal. And most importantly, a win. Given how poor and lucky City were, it would have been heart breaking to not have got all three points. Maybe in previous years we probably wouldn’t. But that key phrase we all love to hate, ‘mental strength’ was again prominent, and the win was nothing more than what we deserved.
Next we travel to Wolves. It’s important we don’t underestimate them, as we did with QPR, or the hard work that went towards todays win will all be eradicated.
There’s a long way yet to go this season, and nothing is set in stone. Newcastle and Chelsea are winning matches, and Sp*rs have easier fixtures coming up. With games like Stoke City RUFC away and then Chelsea at home coming up for us, we can’t afford to slip up against the lower placed clubs.
Wolves might be poor, but they’ll give everything against us on Wednesday. In the reverse fixture earlier this season, we were held and very frustrated by them. We can’t let that happen again.
We’re heading in the right direction though, in contrast to where we were this time last year. Many thanks to our new special little Spaniard for keeping us on track today.
Not bad for a panic buy, eh?
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