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- Written by Shane Thomas
Arsenal continued their recent good record against the English champions by earning a hard-fought 1-1 against Manchester City. Despite going a goal behind, the Gunners unbeaten run to the season persists, as they keep the Premier League pacesetters in their sights.
The Line-Ups
Arsenal lined up with a slight alteration to the 4-2-3-1 formation that functioned so effectively against Southampton last week. Aaron Ramsey started in place of Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, while Laurent Koscielny got his first start of the season as skipper Thomas Vermaelen missed out due to illness. It was a change that made little difference to Arsenal's defensive shape, as Koscielny and Vermaelen are similar in style, the only worry being the Frenchman's possible lack of match sharpness due to having played so little.
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- Written by Tom DiMaio
After a string of superb performances in the Premier League I looked towards the start of this seasons Champions League with a certain degree of eagerness. This optimist was swiftly knocked out of me after the Spanish officials gave Montpellier the lead through a penalty 9 minutes in. It certainly was a penalty, but a ridiculous one to give away as Vermaelen upturned the Montpellier player making a beeline for the corner flag.
A new dawn without you know who…
The rest of the first half was a show of the Arsenal we are gradually becoming used to. Podolski impressed me the most tonight; he took his goal with class and at times appeared to have the ball tied to his foot. Cazorla was once again faultless but that hardly comes as a surprise. Arteta showed off his amazing ability to be kicked repeatedly and get back up.
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- Written by Barnaby Merrill
Arsenal took all three points away from home in the Champions League, but had to weather a storm in the second half from French champions Montpelier. Still, the job was done, and Steve Bould’s defensive work helped Arsenal see out a game they would have thrown away in previous years.
Ratings
Vito Mannone: 8
Good distribution and control of his box. Wasn’t tested much in the first half but made some important saves in the second half. May have earned himself a starting berth against City on Sunday.
Kieran Gibbs: 7
Another shift from the young left back, and the fact I don’t have much to say about his performance shows how solid it was. Could maybe have offered more in the attacking third but can’t complain.
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- Written by Jeremy Van waveren
Remember that ‘crisis’ after the first two games of the season? The one concerning Arsenal not scoring any goals? Two games and eight goals later it is safe to say that that crisis is over. A sublime display of attacking football against Southampton has rounded off a very good start to the season.
The only real down point for me was that we didn’t keep a clean sheet. Considering that it was only one scored against us today the Goal Difference column is still looking very healthy. The team were fantastic going forward, the left side in particular causing all sorts of problems in the opening periods. Podolski and Gibbs linked up very well, with Cazorla providing the link from the middle.
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- Written by Joe Smith
A superb first half performance saw Arsenal sweep aside Premier League new boys Southampton stretching their unbeaten run in the league to four games.
Wojciech Szczesny – 5 – made a howler at the end of the first half giving Southampton the goal which ended Arsenal’s run of clean sheets. Wasn’t himself today looking shaky at times.
Carl Jenkinson – 7 – another solid performance from the 20 year old. Made some good tackles and offered some good runs going forward.
Per Mertesacker – 7 – strong, disciplined performance from the German. He didn’t give Lambert a chance today.
Thomas Vermaelen – 7 – a captain’s performance. Didn’t really have much to do but made some good interceptions when called upon. He saw his shot parried at the end straight into the path of Theo Walcott to make it 6-1.
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