Quiet because dissapointed. The scoreline is not really reflecting of the game. This sums it up:
Arsenal started this crunch clash at the top of the Premier League with a few changes from the Napoli game, whether for tactical reasons or because of the lack of recovery time. Walcott, Wilshere, Monreal, Ramsey and Sagna came in for Jenkinson, Gibbs, Arteta, Rosicky and Cazorla. The Gunners needed a good start and to not just sit back, but City set off like a train and for the first five minutes the ball did not go anywhere near the City half. But we were solid and well organised and City could not get a clear chance on goal. It was a good sign that we were up for the fight and we started to do some probing of our own.
Twice we nearly found the on-rushing Walcott with a through ball, and it was a good tactic which was giving City something to think about. In the 12th minute, Walcott got free and crossed the ball over to Wilshere in space but his snap shot was well wide. The action was at the right end of the pitch though. Then the old enemy of the corner struck again. Demichelis ghosted in to filck on and it went straight to Aguero to open the scoring. Kscielny, unusually, just switched off and Aguero had a free shot. Now we were really up against it, but at least were looking dangerous in attack.
It was a good end to end game and City had a couple of half chances, but instead it was Arsenal who drew level on the half hour mark. Super Rambo robbed Toure and fed Ozil on the left. The German showed his class and vision by not rushing a shot or cross but waiting and pulling it back into the middle for Walcott to slot the ball past Pantilimon. Negredo was inches wide of regaining the lead minutes later but Szczesny was quick of his line and made the Spaniard rush his chip. Arsenal looked in again soon after but the linesman gave an abysmal offside call against Monreal. It wasn’t even close.
Negredo made no mistake from a great ball from Zabaleta in the 39th minute and what made it even worse was that KOscielny injured himself trying to stop it, and it looked like a bad one. There is no way of knowing, but I wonder if the ridiculous scheduling which did not allow the players enough recovery time could have anything to do with it. So the Arsenal captain Thomas Vermaelen was called into action. City nearly scored again after getting another free header from a corner, and another wrong offside call against Arsenal stopped Walcott getting free so we went into the break one down, needing a big effort in the second half. But would fatigue start to tell?
Aguero picked up a knock after the restart, so at least we didn’t have him to worry about, but Monreal would have the flying Spaniard Navas to cope with. And we put ourselves in big trouble giving the ball away in defence because Fenandinho punished it by scoring a third. Arsenal were giving it a go, but Giroud missed two chances to score in a short space of time and you started to think that the game was slipping away. And then the ref failed to give us a penalty for handball, which could have changed the game because City were on the back foot. But with half an hour left, Walcott scored a beauty and it was game on! But the ref had his `home hat` on and gave Nasri a free kick for a blatant dive, which broke up our flow and brought City up the pitch. They made the most of it and scored again through Silva.
Giroud made up for his earlier miss with a great chest down and a beautiful finish, but once again an incorrect offside ruled it out. The game was always going to be hard, but playing against 12 men was impossible. Wenger threw the dice and put Gnabry on for Flamini with 20 minutes left. But we were running out of steam and the chance was gone. City got a late fifth but the scoreline was hugely flattering to them. There was still time for the officials to rule out another goal for offside, this time for Bendtner, and it was wrong again. Thanks for that. Mertesacker’s injury time third was just a consolation. And then a Man City penalty made it 6-3.
At least Arsenal have over a week now to get ready for Chelsea at the Emirates, because we have to win that.
