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Ok, City boast a fantastic squad of players who, as we have seen, at the top their game simply cannot be beaten. However, as good as they appeared to be, they were ably assisted by abysmal Arsenal defending. City’s opener came as a result of some schoolboy-like ball watching from Larent Koscielny who seemed oblivious to the presence of Sergio Ageuro sneaking up behind him to volley home from a corner. I’m yet to put myself through the agony of listen to any pundits’ assessment of the game but I imagine our zonal marking set up will come under scrutiny. One of the biggest mistakes people make about this system is that they think players aren’t marking and somehow remain static. This is incorrect. Koscielny was tasked with marshalling the ‘zone’ of the back post area, meaning he should

City of Gah!

Might keep this one brief. I’m sure you can understand my reluctance to pick too many bones out of one the most embarrassing Arsenal defensive performances for quite some time. We all saw it. Some people will try and tell you that City “will do that to most visiting teams” but I find it hard to get my head around the fact the blow of being humiliated should in any way be cushioned simply because others have suffered the same fate. Arsenal were/are top of the league and should have been going into the game looking to make a statement about any supposed title challenging credentials. Instead, what we got was the kind of shambolic display we all thought had been left in the past.

Kos-tly Errors

Ok, City boast a fantastic squad of players who, as we have seen, at the top their game simply cannot be beaten. However, as good as they appeared to be, they were ably assisted by abysmal Arsenal defending. City’s opener came as a result of some schoolboy-like ball watching from Larent Koscielny who seemed oblivious to the presence of Sergio Ageuro sneaking up behind him to volley home from a corner. I’m yet to put myself through the agony of listen to any pundits’ assessment of the game but I imagine our zonal marking set up will come under scrutiny. One of the biggest mistakes people make about this system is that they think players aren’t marking and somehow remain static. This is incorrect. Koscielny was tasked with marshalling the ‘zone’ of the back post area, meaning he should have dealt with anything in said zone including the incoming Aguero. The system wasn’t at fault here, it was the player.

Things went from bad to worse for Koscienly as he allowed Alvaro Negredo to slip past him to put City 2-1 up late in the first half. The Frenchman injured himself in the process of desperately lunging in to try and prevent the goal and was subsequently withdrawn. Like everyone, I hope it’s nothing too serious. An unfortunate injury but the fact of the matter is, if he was goal side of his man, then he isn’t making that tackle. In fairness, Kos wasnt solely at fault here. The lionshare of the blame for this goal should be heaped at the door of Nacho Monreal whose truly baffling lack of positional sense at left back allowed Pablo Zabaletta the freedom of Manchester to put in the crucial cross.

The Im-Per-fect Storm

Our other centre half didn’t fair much better. Per Mertesacker stuggled to cope with the quality of City’s attack and found himself in all sorts of trouble for the fourth and fifth goals in the second half. There’s no question the big German could have been a bit more committed in his attempts to win the ball on for both goals. For all his attributes, he let himself down with some feeble tackling in this game.

Midfield Muddles

Of course, it would be easy just to look at the defence but they were hardly helped by the players in front of them. The importance of defending as a team against an attack as potent as City’s cannot be understated. Sadly, the Arsenal midfield offered no protection and were actually guilty of inviting many of the problems themselves. There was no better example of this than City’s all important third when Flamini failed to control an Ozil pass and allowed Fernandinho a free run to goal. The way space opened up around the Brazilian was almost laughable. Not one player in a red shirt wanted to take responsibility to stop him. Serious question over both attitude and application at a point when, from a scoreline perspective at least, we were still in the game. More sloppy midfield play from firstly Wilshere and then Gnabry let to City’s last two goals. It was almost like the players had given up at this stage.

Wal of Fame

The one positive that can be taken from a black day for Arsenal was the return to the starting line up for Theo Walcott whose two goals, depending on your point of view, either gave us hope or merely helped salvage something approaching pride. His two fine finishes helped prevent the scoreline from being far more humiliating but more than that, it was yet more goals for Theo against one of the ‘top’ sides. Many people righty have their reservations about Walcott overall but there can be no denying his tendency throughout his Arsenal career to ‘step up’ more often than not against better teams.

Ol Over the Shop

The same unfortunately cannot be said for Olivier Giroud who is now without a goal in his last 5 appearances (his only two his last ten have come via a goalkeeping blunder and a penalty). Needless to say, his scoring touch from the start of the season seems to have deserted him. On Saturday, it wasn’t just his lack of goals that were a worry but, like Everton, his overall performance left much to be desired. In truth, he wasn’t blessed with the greatest of service from midfield but the rare opportunities he was presented with failed to test Pantilimon even once. His match was summed up by the moment in the second half when he completely mishit the ball after finding himself in the clear on the right hand side of the penalty area. Not for the first time, we are crying out for more and/or better options in this department.

Slö Hand Clap

Seems scaresley worth a mention given the subsequent apology to draw a line under the incident but the furore over Özil not acknowledging the travelling fans was massively blown out of proportion. If you watch your side get hammered but think this is the most important thing then you’re watching football for all the wrong reasons. Mertesacker’s public admonishment of his German compatriot was pretty unedifying too. Hopefully, it doesn’t turn out to be a ‘Gallas’ moment for us this season.

Reffing Useless

It would be remiss not to mention some of the questionable officiating on the day. There seemed to be quite a loose understanding of the offside rule by the men in yellow which you could argue cost Arsenal a chance of coming away from the Etihad with something far more tangible. I won’t for one second suggest that they are to blame for the defeat because there is simply no legislating for conceding six goals in the manner we did. What I will say though is that if one or two of those decisions go our way, the entire complexion of the game changes and while of course, we still might have lost, it might not have in such humiliating circumstances.

December to Dismember

We all talked about this run of games in December and how it would tell us a lot more about any supposed challenge for h
onours than previous matches. In the last seven days we’ve gone from a potential seven point lead in the league and topping our Champions League group to a narrow two point gap and hanging on by the skin of our teeth in Europe. The manner of this latest defeat is also cause for great concern. Shipping six against a title rival and generally performing quite poorly is the type of thing that can seriously dent the confidence of the team. We’ve all of a sudden entered into run of stuttering form and it is essential that Wenger and the team find a way to bounce back over the Christmas period or else the optimism of the last few months will quickly dissipate. One would hope that this is just a blip and that they can get things back on track for what is another massive game next week against Chelsea where another defeat should really be unthinkable. UTA.

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