Bac was perhaps the more aggravated of the two (due in part, I believe, to the frustration he shared with every Arsenal fan watching at City’s negative tactics) and the coming together was enough for

Wednesday night represented a big opportunity for Arsenal, we were playing the team above us in the table (albeit having played a game less) in-form Manchester City – a side we had already turned over 3-0 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. With good performances against Chelsea and Birmingham (two teams who had troubled us in recent seasons) hope and expectations were high in terms of getting the performance AND result that us fans desired.

The game started with a bang and we almost took the lead within the first two minutes. Our best chance fell to an outstretched Robin van Persie as Samir Nasri played Jack Wilshere into the left side of the penalty area – his cut-back was played slightly ahead of RvP who couldn’t connect, and although Theo Walcott’s position allowed him to keep the ball from going out, his cross was stopped near the goal and hacked clear. I thought Jack should have been more selfish considering his distance from goal and the amount of time and space Nasri’s well-weighted pass had allowed him. It was RvP again who had our next chance on the 9 minute mark, making space for himself in a crowded area to get a shot off and despite getting the ball past an outstretched Joe Hart, saw the ball cannon back off the outside of the right-hand post.

After such a frantic start, it would have been easy to take our foot off the gas, but we were not letting up – doing our best to fulfill Arsene’s obvious instructions to try and snatch an early goal – and it wasn’t long before we’d come close to scoring again. After 27 minutes, a quick break down the left involving Fabregas and Nasri ended with a cut back to Fabregas who went for placement over power to try and take advantage of the flatfooted Hart who had no choice but to fall over backwards as he watched Cesc’s shot roll past him, hiting the same post again. The rebound fell to an offside Walcott who did his best to mimic his captain and smashed it against the other post. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one on my feet as Joe Hart fell to the ground almost accepting that he had been beaten. The young England goalkeeper’s admission that the goal Citeh were defending in the first half had “lived a charmed life” was not wide of the mark.

There were warning signs for us as we were caught on a quick break and found ourselves with two defenders against 4 onrushing City “attackers” (I use the term attackers loosely) which culminated in a tame shot driven towards goal from 20 yards by Carlos Tevez. It was the kind of chance that Citeh were confined to and would foreshadow their attacking capabilities for the remainder of the game. The next event of note was a handball by Vincent Kompany in the box, stopping Theo’s cross from reaching its intended target. I won’t go on about it for too long because at the end of the day sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t, but nevertheless it was a handball but you’d have to say a braver referee/referee’s assistant (whom might have been the best placed official to make the decision) might have given it.

The second half began in much of the same way that the first had ended. Arsenal pressed City all over the pitch, forcing them into errors constantly and with their only outlet, Tevez, being swallowed whole by our centre-back pairing on the night, we found ourselves in possession much more than our opponents. We came close to finding the break-through as Wilshere slotted a lovely ball into open space that he must have known Theo would have the legs to beat Zabaleta to. Theo’s persistence was enough to put the defender off but City’s hero on the night, Hart, was quickest to the ball and ended the opportunity. Hart was called upon again soon after to stop RvP’s best moment of the match as he found himself in space from 20 yards out and hit his shot sweetly, which rose as if it were top-corner bound only for an acrobatic dive from Hart to tip it out for a corner.

Mancini was the first to make a change, bringing on Adam Johnson for the ineffectual Jo. The balance of City’s team was thereafter slightly improved but Theo, who seemed to be our main outlet all night, was asking more and more questions of the man tasked with stopping him. Unfortunately, our first change was to bring Theo off for Arshavin. On paper the change made sense, Arshavin is always capable of popping up with a goal when we have no other answers, but given the way we were threatening down the right I was as surprised as Theo was disappointed that he was the player being brought off – his head shaking as he walked off said it all. We lost our aforementioned primary outlet and it showed. I’m not sure if City found some cohesion for the first time in the match or we had run out of ideas. I’d hoped for some Arshavin magic but it wasn’t to be as he was giving the ball away as he so often does, and he finished the match with 50% pass completion rate. Given the ‘Wenger-ball’ style we play with, his cameo for me was detrimental to our already diminishing hopes of finding a breakthrough. Nicklas Bendtner was preferred ahead of Chamakh and was brought on with ten to go in place of the hard working Wilshere who for me had another solid game and, as with his performance against Chelsea, had dwarfed the presence and quality on the ball of his England teammates Barry and Milner.

Approaching injury time there was a fight to get to the ball which led to Zabaleta and Sagna getting in each other’s faces, Bac was perhaps the more aggravated of the two (due in part, I believe, to the frustration he shared with every Arsenal fan watching at City’s negative tactics) and the coming together was enough for the ref to send them both off. The incident did nothing more than kill some crucial minutes which City were probably happy to accept. I for one thought that having less players on the pitch might open the game up a bit more, but Mancini read my mind and brought on Boateng immediately to drain more time on the clock whilst making sure there were no gaps in the City defense. Fabregas managed to draw two freekicks from very similar areas in the dying minutes, but RvP was wasteful from both of them. The whistle blew, and it undoubtedly felt like two points dropped. City were happy, and that should tell us all we need to know.

For a team that are considered our “title rivals” it was a pathetically unambitious approach to the game. For them to be 2 points behind United (having played 2 more games) and to go into any match playing for a draw suggests to me that their sole ambition this season is finishing in the top four. Sure, that would signal and improvement on previous years for them, but with the millions that they have invested you would hope that they would have at least pretended to be trying to win games against the best teams in the league.

“Boring, boring City” rang out across the Emirates but no amount of singing could mask our disappointment at what promised to be quite the spectacle of the “financially nonchalant vs the financially prudent” petering out to a bore-draw.

Just a quickly about the noticeable difference in the way the two clubs are run, particularly with dealings in the transfer market. I believe there is a certain amount of dignity that comes with being an Arsenal fan, and for me this was only heightened yesterday against a team of ready-made stars assembled by foreign multi-billionaires. Lets just consider, even the most useless of Citeh’s assets on the night, Jo, cost City more money than ANY PLAYER IN ARSENAL’S HISTORY. Arsene Wenger may often lack the pro-activeness in the transfer market that some of our fans so badly crave, but his prudence is something that I believe we will sooner or later all start to appreciate and most importantly, respect.

So… as for the title of the article, Mancini’s post-match comment, “if Arsenal play better than you, then you must defend… Not every team can play like Arsenal”, is truly a sign that they recognized us as a serious threat to their “title credentials” and resultantly set up to play for a point. It was negative (Italian) football at it’s best and ever the pillar of optimism as myself and other bloggers at ArsenalVision try to be, I can’t help but take his comments, coupled with Kolo stating that “It [was] a good point for City”, as the ultimate compliment as to how we have matured, grown as a team and, in my opinion, established ourselves as United’s biggest title threat this season. Yes, City are above us in the league and we would be naive to take our game in hand for granted (this season especially*) but when you see us with our strongest XI out on the pitch, which in recent seasons has rarely been the case, it can’t help but fill you with belief that some silverware could be in the offing this season.

Oh, and just a quick note about Johann Djourou, if anyone has the shorts he wore during yesterday’s match, be sure to empty his pockets because Carlos Tevez and Didier Drogba are in there somewhere – what a player he is beginning to look now that his *touches wood* injury troubles look to be behind him. A partnership between him and Vermaelen could remain at the heart of our defense for a number of years, methinks.

*Well done yesterday Chelsea!

DrakeGoona Player Ratings:

Fabianski – 7- Not a single shot at his goal to save, but came out quickly when called upon, composed from corners and freekicks and distribution (minus goal kicks) was very good.

Clichy – 8- Sharp, composed and out jumped 6’4 Yaya Toure to a header, what more can I say

Koscielny – 7- Looked good, made all the tackles he needed to, did his part in keeping Tevez and Jo quiet.

Djourou – 8 – Like Clichy had a beast of a game, winning all his headers and bringing the ball out of defense well in tight positions when necessary

Sagna – 7- Would have been 8 if not for the sending-off, solid as usual but lost his head a little, feels like a player who wears his heart on his red n white sleeve.

Jack – 7- Solid, as mentioned before, played some great balls through and was unlucky not to set up a goal or two.

Fabregas – 7 – Set up three goalscoring opportunities and won countless freekicks with his ability to keep the ball from opponents, looks to be match fit and over his freak patch of bad form in the pre-xmas period.

Song – 8 – looking back to his defensive best. Disciplined in his roll as anchor man and yet again joined the attack well when called upon

Nasri – 7- Had another quiet game by this seasons standards but kept the ball very well and was involved in some great interplay particularly in the first half.

Theo! Theo! – 8- Looking great lately and seems to have added more defensive awareness to his game that has served us well in lately, glad to see him showing some of his character when subbed!

RvP – 7- Gives us some much needed quality in building up the play up top and looked like he’s getting his shooting boots back. Needs a goal from open play.

(Sub) Arshavin – 5 – As mentioned, 50% pass completion is not a favourable statistic for a substitute brought on to change the game!

Bring on Leeds United!!