Arsenal 2 Manchester City 1
Unlike at Leicester City, we are not quite at the point where Arsenal's supporters are emboldened enough to sing about winning the league. They are, however, entitled to think their team must have an outstanding chance if they can keep this momentum going and, just as importantly, Manchester City continue to defend with a slackness that is not going to alter the mindset in Abu Dhabi about eventually easing out Manuel Pellegrini and ushering in the era of Pep Guardiola.
Arsene Wenger’s team are still two points off Leicester but they now have a four-point lead over City in third position and, though there were some heart-stopping moments after Yaya Toure’s wonderfully taken 83rd-minute goal, Arsenal had created so many chances before that point to make this a deserved victory.
Toure’s goal was out of keeping with the rest of City’s performance on a night when they also lost Sergio Aguero to another flare-up of the injury problems that continue to undermine their title aspirations.
The rest of the second half had been relatively stress-free for Arsenal and, ultimately, Pellegrini's men left themselves with too much ground to make up after the first-half goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud swung the game in favour of Wenger's team.
The bottom line for City, with a couple of four-goal beatings behind them this season, is they cannot expect to defend this badly and get away with it.
Eliaquim Mangala’s part in the second goal was particularly wretched, shanking a pass under no pressure and immediately putting his team in danger. Fernandinho could not control the loose ball and Olivier Giroud ran on to Mesut Ozil’s through ball to fire a low, angled shot beneath Joe Hart.
For Mangala, the harsh reality is that this has become a recurring theme since he joined the club. .
Final pass
Ozil had also played the final pass for Walcott to open the scoring 12 minutes earlier. He has now set up a goal on 15 occasions so far this season.
Walcott was operating on the left of Arsenal’s attack and when he collected Ozil’s pass, just inside the penalty area, there were plenty of defenders near enough to cut out the danger. But none of them took decisive action. With nobody closing him down, Walcott took a touch inside, shaped his body and sent his shot around Hart with just the right amount of curl and pace.
The score at half-time was slightly misleading because City had been undoubtedly the better side in the opening half an hour. Pellegrini had chosen to abandon his normal formation in favour of a new 4-1-2-2-1 system that, early on, seemed to have identified Arsenal’s left side as a potential weakness.
As well as Kevin de Bruyne operating on the right, David Silva also seemed to be under instructions to drift to the same side and double up on Nacho Monreal.
Those two caused plenty of problems during the opening exchanges but when Arsenal looked really vulnerable, with only two defenders back and Laurent Koscielny hopelessly out of position, De Bruyne fired past the post with Silva free to his left and in front of goal. It proved a crucial miss as within a couple of minutes Walcott struck at the other end.
The miss
Until that point, City looked the more rounded side, knocking the ball around confidently and controlling the tempo. Thereafter, they looked slightly dishevelled and, though Vincent Kompany can also be accident-prone, they badly missed the organisational skills of their injured captain. Pellegrini’s side have worse defensive figures than Crystal Palace, Watford and Stoke City. They struggle against any team with good movement and it needed a couple of sprawling saves from Hart to prevent Joel Campbell and Aaron Ramsey punishing them early in the second half.
Pellegrini brought on Raheem Sterling for Fabien Delph at half-time and, after 63 minutes, there was the now-familiar sight of Aguero gingerly making his way to the touchline, accompanied by a member of the medical staff.
Silva’s influence had dropped and Sterling found it difficult to get into the match.
They were looking aimless until Toure, with an elegant swish of his left boot, side-footed a rising, diagonal shot into the top right-hand corner of Petr Cech’s net. That moment ensured a nerve-shredding finale. Wilfried Bony, who had replaced Aguero, turned one shot just wide and Arsenal also had to endure four minutes of stoppage time before the final shrill of Andre Marriner’s whistle released the tension.
ARSENAL: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Campbell (Gibbs 70), Ozil (Oxlade-Chamberlain 76), Walcott (Chambers 88), Giroud. Subs not used: Gabriel, Ospina, Iwobi, Reine-Adelaide.
MAN CITY: Hart, Sagna, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, De Bruyne, Toure, Fernandinho, Delph (Sterling 46), Silva (Jesus Navas 73), Aguero (Bony 63). Subs not used: Caballero, Clichy, Demichelis, Iheanacho. Booked: Silva, Otamendi.
Referee: Andre Marriner .
Guardian Service
