The lack of natural full backs really affected our game and you could see the difference when Richards surged forward on the right for the home team. He gave them a great outlet that we simply didn’t have.  They used that option to push us back especially in the first part of the first half

We had lost four times in the league this season until today. Manchester United, Liverpool, Blackburn and Tottenham in each of those games I have had plenty to complain about, especially earlier in the season but you would be hard pressed to find too many upset Gooners this evening. At least by the performance of the boys in red and white.

Not many teams have gone to the Etihad stadium this season and took City on and this made for a wonderful game of end to end football.

Let us not forget that this was the same team that took Tottenham apart at White Hart Lane 5-1 and the demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford 6-1. That was never going to happen today as this new Arsenal has plenty of steel and defensive strength since our reconstruction.

It took us a while to stamp our authority in the game because Manchester City pressed us very well. They cut our passing angles off and did not allow any time and space for our players to build up our play.

The lack of natural full backs really affected our game and you could see the difference when Richards surged forward on the right for the home team. He gave them a great outlet that we simply didn’t have.  They used that option to push us back especially in the first part of the first half.

Gervinho was pretty much our only outlet as Theo Walcott was closed off, denied time to get the ball under his spell, once he doesn’t have that, his game is almost nullified. He had the ball pinched from his feet again and again. As expected van Persie was followed everywhere by Vincent Kompany who had an outstanding game.

Aaron Ramsey put in a good shift and worked very hard for the team but he was not able to pull something special out of the bag and that is where we missed a little magic in my opinion.

Aaron Ramsey is well on his way to becoming a top class player and has showed many glimpses of that this season but in a deadlocked game we needed that bit of magic. That reserve pass, that dribble and low shot into the corner.

Mikel Arteta along with Wojciech Szczesny were fantastic but Laurent Koscielny was our best player on the day in my opinion. He may have been partly to blame for Silva’s goal as he was nowhere near Balotelli when a pass was played down the City left. Apart from that he read danger, tackled exceptionally well and distributed the ball as classily as ever.

We lacked a little more goal threat from Gervinho, Walcott and Ramsey but apart from that we gave a very good account of ourselves and should have scored. Manchester City could have scored more goals as we pushed forward.

Johan Djourou joins the crazy full back injury list after picking up a groin strain. Sagna, Jenkinson, Gibbs and Santos have all been missing but Gibbs could be back in contention but Djourou joins the list.

I would have loved to have had both Sagna and Santos together today. If they were then I suspect that we could have gained a positive result. Oh well, we may have that to look forward to before the season ends.

We can hold our heads high, it wasn’t our day but surely it has been confirmed that we are one of the strongest teams in the Premier League. Our only threats remain injury and complacency.

Let’s bounce back at Villa.