An admirable display from the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium which has quickly became one of the most fearful strongholds in the Premiership wasn’t enough against the mega-bucks of City. A rebound goal from David Silva and some heroics from Joe Hart were enough to secure the win for City, but Arsenal can be proud of their performance.

Cash vs Class

City themselves played with a point to prove, it would have been interesting to see the result had this fixture taken place before their loss to Chelsea. They were obviously angered by the accusations of stuttering and responded accordingly. It’s starting to feel like we might have to accept results like these against sides with unlimited spending power. There’s no point in using it as an excuse and the onus is on the team to go out and perform, which they did very well, unfortunately so did City and the gulf in quality showed at times.

Some Gunners deserve a mention though. Arteta was once again excellent, his passing in the middle of the pitch is almost always perfect and as someone pointed out when we bought him after losing Cesc, we’ve lost a player who stretch from being a 5-9/10 and replaced him with someone who will put in a solid 7 or 8/10 every game and it’s beginning to look like a welcome change.

Koscielny and Vermaelen were excellent at the back, although they were disrupted slightly by the shift in the backline following Djourou’s injury. Vermaelen’s two shots toward the end were spectacular and he could seriously be an option to just throw up top when going all out for the win in the dying minutes of a game. Miquel looked slightly nervous, understandable coming into a game like that, but made an excellent tackle on Silva to stop him breaking into the box. Song managed again to tie his hands behind his back by gaining an early caution, though I must say I was disgusted by the attempts of some City players to get him sent off. Despite this he had a decent game and made some good passes towards Gervinho and Van Persie.

Problems Up Top

Gervinho looks purposeful going forward and was a threat to the City backline, unfortunately it seems he still hasn’t quite caught up to the speed of the Premier League, his passes are always a fraction too late or to the wrong foot of a player. Walcott was a massive disappointment. In a game that was billed to be his to take against the slower Zabaleta, he was like a fly buzzing at a rhino. Bereft of strength and penetration, he lost the ball more than he provided to an attack.

The only problem bigger than Walcott was the lack of alternative on the bench. Arshavin and Chamakh came on, two out of form and low on confidence players were expected to make a difference against a City defence that had been solid all day. Chamakh huffed and puffed to his credit, Arshavin presumably ran on then hid with the ball boys. It’s becoming clear that we do need an acceptable alternative to Van Persie and with Gervinho going away soon, someone who can play the wing.

Regroup and March On

A major negative outcome of the match was the injury to Djourou. Wenger’s post-match press conference speculated an absence of 21 days, but that was also said for Santos. Despite this, we have a relatively easy run of fixtures over the Christmas period and should pick up a good lock of points.

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