Morning Gooners,
Man City came, they parked their £200m bus in front of their goal and they played for a 0-0 draw from the first minute to the last and if anybody questions that then you just need to look at Man City's attempts on goal which read as 5 attempts on goal, 0 on target. £200m spent on a group of players that are supposed to be bringing home trophies and they can't even manage a shot on target? It's laughable.
Arsenal lined up, as expected, with the same team that started against Chelsea and continued their good form. We pressed all over the pitch when we didn't have the ball and created chance after chance when we did. Van Persie had a glourious chance in the first few minutes to score after Jack Wilshere fizzed the ball across the goal face but it was just too far in front of him, RVP again came close thumping the ball past Joe Hart only to smash the post and during the game Fabregas and Walcott both followed his example by hitting the woodwork. We did seem to be restricted to long range efforts but when you consider City's mind set that's not really surprising. The best of these efforts was again Robin Van Persie who sent the ball flying towards the top corner late in the game only to see England's number one pull off one of the world class saves he has become so well known for. We saw a good performance from every player on the park last night and although we dropped points, do you know what? I don't care!
When we were losing games against Utd and Chelsea last year my biggest complaint was that our players didn't give their all, they didn't fight for the ball, they didn't show any pride or passion, we simply rolled over and died. This has definitely not been the case this year. I can not fault a single player from last nights game and had we been a little bit more in lady luck's good books or Hart hadn't had such a good game then we would have been celebrating another comfortable victory as we did against Chelsea.
There will be a lot of talk today of how negative Man City played but in my opinion that just shows how much behind us they are. This is a tactic I expect and we have seen on many occasions from a Stoke or a Birmingham or a Wolves or a Hull etc, etc. The point is this is a tactic that the littler teams use against us but at least some of them try to play on the counter, City didn't even seem to be that adventurous.
The game did end on a sour note with Sagna getting sent off for a disagreement with Zabaleta (who was also given his marching orders) You can only imagine that something was said to him as he has been subject to much worse challenges - Bowyer, I'm looking at you - and not reacted. Guess we'll never know, all we do know is that he will now miss at least the Leeds game and depending on how the red card is reported, potentially the visit to Ipswich and the Premier League clash against West Ham.
I can't help but feel positive as an Arsenal fan at the moment, we have always said that if our squad stays fit then we will challenge any team in the world, finally we are getting the opportunity to prove it. We fielded an unchanged side for the first time in God knows how long and we are not over-run with injuries. Really good news is that both Djourou and Van Persie have played two games in a week and still seem to be feeling good which shows they are winning their battles with fitness and also that Wenger feels they are getting to a stage where they don't need to be wrapped in cotton wool anymore.
As we have all had a good night's sleep to get over the disappointment of dropping points I'm hoping that spirits will now remain high among Gooners everywhere. Lets not forget that we'd be waking up in such a worse mood if we were Chelsea fans. Manchester United may be four points clear today but they still have to play Chelsea twice, spurs and Liverpool away, Man City at home and they need to come to Ashburton Grove. They will drop points and we must be ready to pounce when they do.
Attention needs to turn away from the Premier league now as we look forward to games in both domestic cups in the next week, hopefully by the time we reach our next game in the League we will know who we're playing in the fourth round of the FA Cup and be half way to Wembley in the League Cup.
Till next time,
Goonerfish.
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