City Dimmed By Nasri’s Sparkle In Arsenal Romp

Manchester City 0 – 3 Arsenal

0 – 1 Nasri (21)
0 – 2 Song (66)
0 – 3 Bendtner (88)

Sent off: Boyata (5)
Missed pen: Fabregas (41)

Arsenal leapt into second place following an emphatic margin of victory at Eastlands yesterday afternoon. With City reduced to ten men in the fifth minute, the outcome was rarely in genuine doubt although Arsenal’s patience is being misinterpreted as City’s grit. Post-match Roberto Mancini doubted that his side would have lost had Boyata not been sent off; the reality was that the only evidence was the opening four minutes which suggested chances would have been traded and City were very susceptible to giving the clearer opportunities away.

There is little doubt that the sending off affected the match but as Cesc put it afterwards,

Even if they were 15 and we were 11 we would still have gone on and won

City were architects of their own downfall, more specifically with the width available to him, Mancini decided to play with a narrow midfield containing three defensive midfielders. Abou Diaby failed to regain full fitness and Denilson came in to provide Cesc with even more of a licence to roam that normal.

The hosts though struck the first blow. Tevez found space and drifted past Djourou with too much ease on the right and furrowed towards the byline, cutting back to Silva, his deft flick held by Fabianski in what would be the first of a number of important – and excellent – saves throughout the afternoon.

The host’s defensive weaknesses were exposed minutes later. Fabregas found plenty of space inside the City half, sending Chamakh through towards Joe Hart. Baldrick Boyata failed to assess the situation correctly, opting to send the Moroccan crashing to earth rather than chance the one-on-one, not realising a deficit is easier to cut with eleven players as opposed to ten. Mark Clattenburg had no option but to dismiss the youngster.

City reshuffled – the first of three in the first half – and contained Arsenal for ten minutes before Johan Djourou almost broke the deadlock, his effort clearing the bar when it should have been buried. That miss only mattered for moments; Clichy launched a poor cross into the area, deflected to the relative safety of the right hand side where the ball was fed to Nasri. Weighing his options with the massed ranks in front of him, Arshavin’s short burst into space gave the French international the chance to play a ‘give and go’, executed perfectly before finding himself unmarked seven yards out. The air of inevitability was shortlived as it became reality, Nasri crashing the ball home.

Arsenal took control but City prompted and threatened sporadically. Richards curled an effort wide having made a good run down the right hand side before another turning point in the game. Fabregas was about to weave his way through the area when his progress was rudely interrupted by the leg of Kompany, the Spaniard tumbling for another easy decision for Clattenburg to make. The spot kick though was poor and Joe Hart made a solid, if predictable, save. Fabregas was nowhere near as assertive as he had been against Shaktar with this effort as Samir Nasri saw the third kick by a colleague saved this season.

At half-time, Arsene apparently preached patience. He must have preached something else in Johan Djourou’s ear for the Swiss international came out considerably more confident for the second half. Whilst he had struggled with Tevez, he found Adebayor more to his liking as an opponent.

The former Arsenal player – he is neither a star or a man – may have had opportunities to score but spurned them. The best opportunity of the half’s opening fifteen minutes fell to Adebayor, heading over the bar having outjumped Fabianski. Had he been willing to angle his head downwards, he would have scored but received a fist in his face for his troubles. He was unwilling to do so and missed. That was Fabianski’s only heartstopping moment. Moments earlier he made an outstanding stop from Silva, tipping a shot around the post.

The match was settled just past the hour mark. Arshavin broke down the left, the ball swept across the pitch with Nasri and Fabregas controlling the tempo and angle of attack. The Spaniard threaded a ball into the path of Chamakh, City interceded, the ball rebounding kindly for Song whose powerful strike soared into the top corner. City were beaten and deflated.

Denilson and Nasri both had good opportunities between then and the final whistle to increase the margin of victory before Nicklas Bendtner did so. A City attack was broken down and Nasri kept the resultant clearance in play before feeding Bendtner. The Dane ran across the ball and opened his body to provide a text book finish into the bottom corner, beyond the despairing dive of Hart. A welcome goal for a player finally divesting himself of the shackles of injury.

There was another chance for Fabianski to show his growing confidence, tipping Boateng’s effort over the bar before Sagna almost completed a rout, Hart relieved to see the Frenchman’s shot curl wide.

There was much for both manager’s to take from the game. Mancini for all his bluster will note with concern how quickly his re-organised defence crumbled under pressure. For the first two goals, City had good positional sense and numbers to stop Arsenal. They also had the slow wits of Gareth Barry to thank for not recognising the sublime skills of Nasri and his imagination. Equally, for the second, their back four held a line that was reminscent of George Graham’s Arsenal before it was breached with slow reactions capitalised on. The match was not as close as the City manager, or his apologists, would have you believe.

Wenger has a multitude of headaches, most of them the sort he wishes he had more frequently. Fabianski, along with Nasri, was Man of the Match. There can be no argument with that and the Pole has taken another slow but sure step to proving his critics wrong. There is still much distance to travel on that road but in fairness to him, he is determined to do so. Whether Almunia instantly regains his place remains to be seen, a hint of which might be shown in the Carling Cup this week. If Fabianski is custodian at St James’ Park, it would be a fair assumption to make that Almunia will be back in goal at the weekend.

Equally impressive was Samir Nasri. The consistency he has sometimes missed is beginning to show through, his importance to the team increasing. It puts Wenger in an interesting position as far as his first choice starting line-up is concerned but Nasri is rapidly becoming a player who cannot be omitted.

Second place on goal difference, five points behind Chelsea is no bad position to be in following recent tribulations. Three wins in a week is far more important and creates a momentum which if maintained would see five wins in fourteen days, conducive to a charge towards the top of the table.

’til Tomorrow.