Manchester City 4 Arsenal 2
Almunia og 20, Van Persie 62, Bellamy 74, Adebayor 80, SWP 84. Rosicky 88
The Arsenal defence does not depend on organisation.
It depends on pace.
At Eastlands, Arsenal were outpaced.
Four counter-attacks, four goals.
Very naive.
Arsenal foolishly played to City’s strengths and lost to opponents who were more efficient.
City made six chances and scored four goals.
1-0 When the play was compressed into a 30-yard zone around the halfway line, and when there was only 20 yards between Bridge and Sagna, Bellamy sprinted forward for Bridge’s ball over the top and Sagna bodychecked him. Bridge put the free-kick into the box, Richards’s header hit the post and went in off Almunia’s head.
2-1 Fabregas’s sloppy pass towards Clichy was won by Lescott for Shaun Wright-Phillips, who released his mate Micah Richards, Song panicked in the left back position and allowed Richards to cruise inside his feeble challenge and give Bellamy a free hit from 13 yards.
3-1 Clichy again. His clipped forward ball found Richards, not Eduardo, and then Clichy dived in on SWP and pushed him over. With both players on the floor, ref Clattenburg allowed advantage, SWP jumped up and crossed for the unmarked Adebayor to head in from 8 yards.
As Andy Gray pointed out, Gallas switched off when he saw Clichy’s foul, expecting a free-kick. He allowed Ade to run into the box on his own and have a free header.
4-1 Arsenal had FOUR players standing still in the box as Rosicky played a ball square to Clichy. But speed merchant Craig Bellamy pinched it fairly off Clichy and then ran 60 yards with the ball, faster than Clichy could run without it. His pass released SWP for 4-1.
Pace had scored four goals for Citeh.
VAN PERSIE had made it 1-1 by improvising his way past Lescott’s lunge. He evaded the challenge and buried a low, right-foot shot across Given. He can improvise for himself. That’s what Robin Bang! Persie does, as I’ve said here for 4 years.
Arsenal’s second goal, to make it 4-2 came after a 12-pass move. A tasty Fabregas pass played in Rosicky whose finish was sweet and neat.
Some Gooners think Arsenal could have won this game but I can’t really go along with that view, even though Arsenal missed chances in every phase of the match.
What did Diaby or Bendtner do in that game? Why have raiding full backs who cannot cross the ball? Who cannot pick out a man? Ever! Clichy and Sagna cannot pick out a man, ever. What is the point?
Can any of the 200 readers who send me abusive emails please explain why Arsenal have an overlapping left back and an overlapping right back who never pick out a team-mate with a cross?
Let’s hope Standard Liege don’t have City’s pace.
More later about Adebayor.
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3) Given; Richards, Touré, Lescott, Bridge; Ireland (Petrov, 73), De Jong, Barry; Wright-Phillips, Adebayor, Bellamy. Subs not used: Taylor (gk), Onuoha, Zabaleta, Sylvinho, Vidal, Weiss.
ARSENAL (4-3-3): Almunia; Sagna (Eboué, 77), Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy; Fabregas, Song (Eduardo, 77), Denilson (Rosicky, 52); Bendtner, Van Persie, Diaby. Subst not used: Mannone (gk), Ramsey, Silvestre, Gibbs.
Referee Mark Clattenburg
Booked: Lescott, Adebayor, De Jong, Sagna, Song.
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