Manchester City 1 – 3 Arsenal

0 – 1 Adebayor (9)
0 – 2 Eduardo (26)
1 – 2 Fernandes (28)
1 – 3 Adebayor (88)

A comfortable win at the City of Manchester stadium, inflicting the hosts’ first Premier League home defeat of the season and importantly, taking advantage of Manchester United’s fortunate point at White Hart Lane.

The performance was controlled and measured, dictating the tempo of the game from start to finish, achieved without getting out of second gear. Two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and a masterclass in finishing from Eduardo will be the facts that history records but it does not tell the whole story about how possession was wrestled from City with ease and retained remarkably well to the extent that it was almost impossible to believe that Arsenal were the visitors. The watching Fabio Capello has more reason than anyone to be dismayed by the technical lessons handed out to the native players yesterday lunchtime, their deficiencies in technique laid bare for all to see.

Micah Richards and Richard Dunne have been in excellent form this season but when Arsenal attacked, they found themselves exposed, Adebayor in particular running them ragged, exploiting gaps all afternoon. The opening goal came as Alexander Hleb fed Bacary Sagna; the pass was a little short but the full back muscled past Ball to cross for Adebayor to squeeze the ball home. It was a ‘poachers’ goal that Arsenal have long been criticised for not scoring often enough.

Adebayor was to turn provider for the second fifteen minutes or so later. Clichy was released on the left and with time and space, delivered the perfect cross for Adebayor to climb above the defence to nod down to Eduardo. Displaying superb control and ability, he controlled the ball on his chest, swivelled and volleyed home. Forget talk of being offside, marvel at the technique involved. It was, I think, his only shot on target during the ninety minutes and showed a positional sense that many strikers would die for.

Having played an integral part in the second, Clichy was culpable for the City goal minutes later. Failing to clear properly, he was dispossessed by Corluka on the byeline, the ball pulled back for Fernandes to score. It was probably his first costly error this season so far, inevitable that the fates should decree it happen following a few days of fulsome praise.

For the rest of the half, Diaby, Fabregas, Flamini and Hleb dominated proceedings. Eduardo reverted to the left, moving Diaby inside and they rotated their support of Adebayor extremely well. The performances by Diaby in particular are growing the more time he spends in the first team. Yesterday, his choices when in possession were on the whole well thought out, opting to run and pass in equal measure, rarely allowing himself to be forced into dead ends through having a left foot that is used only for standing on. The remainder of the midfield quartet were as effective. Flamini worked hard, supporting defence and attack with some aplomb whilst Hleb did likewise, causing no end of problems from the right. Fabregas blew hot and cold although more often than not it was the former, passing efficiently through the City midfield and defence although marginalised at times as City sought to stem the flow of Arsenal possession by flooding the midfield with personnel.

In defence, Philippe Senderos held firm with William Gallas, showing a huge improvement in his distribution whilst Sagna controlled the right hand side, rarely allowing Petrov any time or space to work in. It was a toss-up between Sagna and Adebayor for Man of the Match, that ‘award’ given to the latter for the contribution to the team and involvement in all three goals.

The criticism of Adebayor frankly leaves me baffled. Rarely has a forward worked so hard to defend from the front for the rest of his team, even more rare is that he works all of the time he is on the pitch. That work-rate was exemplified for the third goal. Fouled in the Arsenal half with crass stupidity by Elano, Adebayor picked himself up and ran half the length of the pitch to receive Fabregas’ pass on the penalty spot. Unmarked, he took his time to bury the opportunity.

That advantage was a rare moment of sanity in an otherwise poor officiating performance. Adebayor was denied a penalty, bundled off the ball by Richards and Dunne, wrestling is apparently no longer an offence in football. Petrov was equally denied a clear run on goal by a strange offside ruling although nowhere near as bizarre as the one that denied Everton a winner at Ewood Park.

Onto the papers, the News of the World has a brief interview with Kolo Toure who is concerned with the number of games he will play this season,

It is a concern that if we get to the final or the third place match I will go back to London after being involved in six games in about eighteen days. I have done this before but these are tough and physical games in a knockout competition…That is not ideal considering the schedule we have ahead of us at Arsenal

Absolutely right. The farcical timing of the competition provides more ammunition in the club v country row and as Toure says,

A lot of players would support moving the Africa Cup of Nations to the summer. We all love playing for our country but it’s important that our clubs are respected

Climatic conditions are long held to be the rationale for the timing but this is blown to pieces by the award of the 2010 World Cup to South Africa. If the heat is considered oppressive, might not the common sense solution be to play the games in the evening? It is irrelevant for this tournament though and one can only hope that Toure, Eboue and Alex Song come through the remainder unscathed for a big month for Arsenal.

‘til Tomorrow.