Like this:

Date: Sat 24 April 2010
Teams: Arsenal v Manchester City
Venue: Emirates

Arsenal: Fabianski, Sagna, Campbell, Silvestre, Clichy, Song, Diaby, Walcott, Nasri, Rosicky, van Persie

Manchester City: Given, Zabaleta, Toure, Kompany, Bridge, De Jong, Vieira, Barry, Adam Johnson, Bellamy, Tevez

Match Review:
The late kickoff on Saturday pitted Arsenal against Manchester City. For Arsenal, the question was around how they would respond to their shock late defeat against Wigan the previous weekend. For Manchester City, they were still very much in the hunt for the final Champions League spot. The match was also the return to the Emirates for Adebayor after he upset so many Arsenal supporters in both the manner in which he left Arsenal and his reaction following his goal against Arsenal at the Eastlands.

While Arsenal controlled much of the early play, they rarely looked like threatening. Manchester City had clearly come to the Emirates hoping to at least secure a point and maybe get something more on the counter attack. The only real chances off the half fell to Arsenal, with van Persie and Walcott both failing to really test Given.

Shortly after the restart the match livened up when Adebayor came on for Vieira. The biggest talking point on the pitch was probably midway through the second half when Diaby darted inside and fired a low shot which Given was able to keep out with a diving save but in the process he appeared to pop his shoulder and was taken from the field in obvious pain. Van Persie had a free kick also fly agonizingly wide but it was clear as the clock ticked towards the end of the match that there just wasn’t a goal in the match on the day.

With the result, Arsenal edged closer to confirming their third place finish.

Player Ratings:
Fabianski – 7
I don’t think Fabianski had any real saves to make on the afternoon. He generally commanded the box well on corners and set pieces and his distribution was good. You could still sense the nervousness between supporters and some of the players though after his recent performances. The cleansheet should hopefully do his confidence good though.

Sagna – 7
With Manchester parking ten men behind the ball for much of the match, Sagna had a lot of space to go forward. He also looked sharp on the other end and generally won all the foot races with Bellamy.

Campbell – 7.5
I thought about giving him man of the match again. I hope to see Sol back in an Arsenal shirt again next year. He was strong and put in a number of great tackles. He also pushed forward quite a bit today and showed that he still has a lot of fight left in him.

Silvestre – 7.5
I know we have historically been quite hard on Silvestre but I actually thought he had a good match today. He won all the battles in the air and on the ground and was alert and first to the ball all afternoon.

Clichy – 7
Clichy had Adam Johnson to deal with on the afternoon and thought he kept the dynamic Manchester City winger quiet all afternoon. He didn’t push forward as much today as he has in the past couple of weeks and his crosses were slightly off today.

Walcott– 7
This wasn’t Walcott’s greatest performance but in fairness he never really had the space to run into with Manchester City parking their defence so deep. I still think he needs to add a little more versatility to his game.

Diaby – 7
This was a chance for Diaby to go up against the player many people often compare him to, Vieira. For the second straight week I thought Diaby was slightly off the pace. He seemed to drift in and out of the game too much today.

Song – 7.5
Great to have Song back after injury. He adds a real strength and stability in the heart of the midfield. I think his emergence has really quieted down the talk about Arsenal’s need to go out and get a strong holding midfielder.

Nasri – 7.5
Nasri offered some creativity today but it is clear that he doesn’t offer the same sort of threat as Cesc does. After missing the first half of the season through injury, I think Nasri has had a pretty good end to the campaign.

Rosicky – 7
I am really not sure about Rosicky. He is definitely technically very strong but I just don’t think he is enough of a threat at times.

van Persie– 8 (Man of the Match)
As with in the Spurs match, I thought van Persie’s presence today showed what we have been missing whilst he has been out. He was a handful for the Spurs defender and his presence on corners and set pieces is an added bonus. You could see him getting tired a bit at the end and he was pushed off the ball a little bit too easy at times as well.

Substitutes:
Eboue – 7
Came on for Rosicky. Eboue offered a little more defensive protection and had a couple good runs going forward too.

Bendtner– 7.5
Came on for Walcott. As he has all season, I thought he offered something different when he came on. We were able to attack more through the air and he was first to many long balls.

Supporter’s Review:
It was always going to be a vibrant atmosphere at the Emirates with the return of three former Arsenal players. The first two, Vieira and Toure, both received great receptions as they left Arsenal as legends in all Gunner supporters’ minds. The third, Adebayor, was subjected to large amounts of hatred which have only been shared with Ashley Cole in recent years. It was funny to see during Adebayor’s warm-up that the supporters booed him every time he reached the end of his run and then cheered the Arsenal players every time they reached the same spot. Despite all the build-up it was a pretty subdued atmosphere at the Emirates, at least until Adebayor came on, which probably reflected the lack of real chances for most of the match.

Manager’s Review:
Arsene must have known that it was going to be slightly difficult to motivate his players today following the defeat at Wigan last weekend. He opted to bring in some fresh legs and some more offensive threats, with van Persie receiving his first start since returning from injury. As Arsene described it was a slightly unusual match and neither side really threatened all match. “It was an afternoon I am not used to because we created very few chances and Man City didn’t create anything. They were highly focussed on defending well. They didn’t give us any space and we could not find the opener. For as long as we couldn’t do that it was a locked game basically. There were very few chances. It was two teams who played well defensively, had very good discipline but created very few chances.” While I thought we looked the more adventuresome of the two sides I still think you could see that the players were tired from a long season and that they realised there wasn’t a whole lot to play for.

Conclusion/Final Thoughts:
It was interesting afternoon. While Manchester City arguably had more to play for in their race for the final Champions League spot, I thought they lacked ambition going forward on the afternoon and never really threatened at all. I was somewhat surprised considering all the offensive threats that Manchester City possess that they set up so defensively but I guess they realised a point would still be a good result for them at this point in the season. It is difficult to know who I want to finish fourth this year. As a true Arsenal supporter I can’t ever cheer for Spurs but I do feel Manchester City would potentially be more dangerous if they could offer players the prospect of Champions League football alongside the ridiculous amounts of money that they can spend.

Arsenal’s remaining two matches see them travel away to Blackburn before hosting Fulham in the final match of the season. A point from either of those matches will pretty much guarantee third, but it would be good to finish the season strong with two victories.

Advertisement