City Arsenal Thread

[93:2012]

Starting 11

Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Demichelis, Clichy, Fernandinho, Fernando, Navas, Silva, Milner, Aguero

Subs

Caballero, Mangala, Sagna, Kolarov, Lampard, Jovetic, Dzeko

Mangala not starting!

[Stephen Paul]

massive game

[Zabba]

PL not over if we lose but win and the Pressure stays on Chelsea.

[Zabba]

EDS thrash Schalke in their first game at the Academy Stadium. Great start to the day.

[Ludo]

124.....125....

[Zabba]

124.....125....

You will get very tired out coting, Ludo.

Very ineffectual first half so far.

[Ludo]

126....

[Ludo]

127...

[Zabba]

Milner Navas and more poor first half. Only found impetus last 10 minutes, bnut no quality in and around opposition box. Penalty very very soft.

[ebm1991]

Always seems to be Kompany giving away stupid fouls/penalties.

[Ludo]

1.2..8

[Ludo]

129

It's gotta end sometime.

[Ludo]

130

[Ludo]

131............

[Zabba]

Ludo the real point is not one of these corners found a City player.

[Ludo]

That just makes it worse

[Zabba]

Everton goal once again, how bad are we defending and will we ever learn?

[guidebridgeblue]

Fucks sake

[Ludo]

Case in point

132....

133...

[Ludo]

Arsenal just showing us what can be done from a well placed set piece.

[goat]

is navas taking the piss?

[Ludo]

134....

[Ludo]

I fucking give up!!!

[Zabba]

Ludo you are sacked for giving up counting. We have been outperformed today.

Absolutely ineffectual in and around their area. Our crosses and free kicks dire and our defending free kicks laughable and sussed out by opponents.

[goat]

Jesus Navas's game by numbers vs. Arsenal:

18 failed crosses
0 take-ons completed
1 key pass
74% pass accuracy.

[Ludo]

We've been outplayed, out thought, out performed and out of order.

One of the worst games I've seen us play in a long time and Wengers smug fucking face is only going to make it worse.

[Ludo]

Ludo you are sacked for giving up counting.

I'll give myself a head start for the next few games

201.....

[Zabba]

We conceded a ridiculous soft penalty and a free kick were they got 3 attackers behind our high line defence. they were queuiing up to score.

We have a massive defensive problem that needs sorted asap.

We also need to sort out our pathetic set pieces.

[goat]

that was aids

[Victoria]

certainly one of the worst performances this season, I think now we have lost 10 points at home, which is not good enough to win any league. the defensive coach needs to be fired ASAP!
45 minutes and not one attempt on goal so the offensive coach can go too! in fact fire the lot of them!

[andy1966]

We have been crap all season ,  scraping wins, while playing shite ,  no where near champion quality

God help us against the Chavs

[Hesperus]

Very poor from us. There is just no excuse for putting in a performance like that when playing Arsenal at home. Spending the best part of 50 mill on Fernando and Mangala just seems like complete folly to me now. Navas is never a player that was going to take us forward as a team. I'm scratching my head at the transfer policy again.

Points wise we are doing fine but we just have not come close to matching the performances of last season when we looked liked champions. We don't look like champions this season.

[gavin]

Not sure how anyone gets the idea we were outplayed. Arsenal did next to nothing in terms of attacking football. The first half was two poor sides struggling to create a chance between them, punctuated by a poor ref giving a disgraceful penalty. It should have been a yellow card for diving as there is no way a grown man should be knocked down like that, if there was a touch it wasn't enough to knock a flea out of its stride.

Second half City started much the better side and really it looked like it was a matter of time before we'd get a goal and probably go on to win. Then we gave away a shocking second. The defence really should hang their heads in shame at that one. It was absolutely criminal to let a team score that easily from a free kick at the top level. There the game ended really.

Overall I thought City were the better side apart from the defending for their second. Nevertheless we only performed for the first 20 minutes of the second half and that simply isn't enough so the lads should be ashamed this week at their efforts. We should be reaching that level for at least three of the four quarters of the game.

The ref seemed to have it in for Vinny. A pen for nothing and then a booking for next to nothing. No wonder Vinny was peeved.

Now we need to go to Chelsea and win. We can do it but we need to perform for 90 minutes not 20.

[Ludo]

I must have watching a different game.

[gavin]

Clearly, would you like to elucidate which parts of the game City were outplayed in? As I say, I thought City were poor for the most part of the game but I can't remember any lengthy periods of pressure from Arsenal at all.

[bluebrendan]

Not sure how anyone gets the idea we were outplayed. Arsenal did next to nothing in terms of attacking football. The first half was two poor sides struggling to create a chance between them, punctuated by a poor ref giving a disgraceful penalty. It should have been a yellow card for diving as there is no way a grown man should be knocked down like that, if there was a touch it wasn't enough to knock a flea out of its stride.

Second half City started much the better side and really it looked like it was a matter of time before we'd get a goal and probably go on to win. Then we gave away a shocking second. The defence really should hang their heads in shame at that one. It was absolutely criminal to let a team score that easily from a free kick at the top level. There the game ended really.

Overall I thought City were the better side apart from the defending for their second. Nevertheless we only performed for the first 20 minutes of the second half and that simply isn't enough so the lads should be ashamed this week at their efforts. We should be reaching that level for at least three of the four quarters of the game.

The ref seemed to have it in for Vinny. A pen for nothing and then a booking for next to nothing. No wonder Vinny was peeved.

Now we need to go to Chelsea and win. We can do it but we need to perform for 90 minutes not 20.

I guess it depends on your definition of "outplayed". Arsenal won the tactical battle hands down. We tried to go down the flanks, they cut out the crosses, we tried to go through the middle, they crowded us out. We had no answers, not a single effort on goal in the first half and only 2 or 3 decent efforts in total. To top it all we allowed three Arsenal attackers to get goalside from a simple floated free kick down the centre of the goal area. At no stage did I feel we were controlling the game, we may have had a lot of possession but we rarely threatened to do anything with it.

[Ludo]

We were outplayed simply by Arsenal applying their tactics better than we applied ours.

We had a lot of the ball and did absolutely nothing with it, we had 16 corners 15 of which didn't find a City player., theybeat us for endeavour, passion and guile. We were headless chickens.

[gavin]

Until the second goal I thought it was a matter of time until City scored in the second half. I thought they were under pressure and beginning to wilt under it. The ball was going around their box regularly. Clearances were being scuffed out for corners. The ball went right in front of the goal just itching for someone to knock it in. Honestly, I would be happy if we played like that first 20 of the second half when we play at Chelsea. I certainly never saw Arsenal have that sort of pressure.

To me to outplay someone you need to be able to put them under pressure. Playing well defensively and tactically isn't enough. You can deserve to win a game that way though I don't think Arsenal deserved to win today.

They probably made the mistake of trying to outplay us at times last year and paid the price. This year they didn't try to outplay us and got the points but even if it was a success in terms of tactics aimed at nullifying City that should not be termed as outplaying somebody.

[Rowley Birkin QC]

Talk about losing with a whimper... 

The only area Arsenal outplayed us was in their determination to close us down and fight for every 50/50 ball - we blew hot and cold in that department... mostly cold. But if that means we were totally outplayed - then we were outplayed.

But otherwise I thought Arsenal offered next to nothing - certainly no pressure. Just a threat on the break - which at times we made look good with some poor defending. The Arse got lucky with the first goal (he brushed hips with Vincent and clearly dived) and the second made me think Wenger had studied the video of the Everton goal very closely.

A dull game of football (in spite of what my TV commentators thought) with neither keeper worked hard and two soft goals. Very disappointed with our effort. As Gavin said, it's no use just turning up for 20 minutes at the start of the second half. We had 65% of the possession FFS and did bugger all with it. Our reluctance to run at defenders and opt too often for a safe lateral pass is very frustrating at times. I think we did miss Yaya (at his best...) today.

And why does Pellers insist on subbing Fernandinho very time ahead of the less effective Fernando?

[clevblue]

well, if nothing else it means chelski won't win next game. Definitely not

[Paul lakes knee]

Arsenal did a really professional job on us- Without Yaya and Nasri and and not fully fit Sergio, they just nullified Silva.

Hopefully Sergio will be 100% for the Chelsea game and The Ivory Coast will have a shocker.

[Zabba]

Not sure how anyone gets the idea we were outplayed. Arsenal did next to nothing in terms of attacking football. The first half was two poor sides struggling to create a chance between them, punctuated by a poor ref giving a disgraceful penalty. It should have been a yellow card for diving as there is no way a grown man should be knocked down like that, if there was a touch it wasn't enough to knock a flea out of its stride.

Second half City started much the better side and really it looked like it was a matter of time before we'd get a goal and probably go on to win. Then we gave away a shocking second. The defence really should hang their heads in shame at that one. It was absolutely criminal to let a team score that easily from a free kick at the top level. There the game ended really.

Overall I thought City were the better side apart from the defending for their second. Nevertheless we only performed for the first 20 minutes of the second half and that simply isn't enough so the lads should be ashamed this week at their efforts. We should be reaching that level for at least three of the four quarters of the game.

The ref seemed to have it in for Vinny. A pen for nothing and then a booking for next to nothing. No wonder Vinny was peeved.

Now we need to go to Chelsea and win. We can do it but we need to perform for 90 minutes not 20.

I see where you are coming from but for a team that, in your words, "...did next to nothing in terms of attacking football" they scored twice against us. We could have played for another week and we probably would not have scored.

It is all very well playing pretty football in your own half or in front of the defence, but the game is all about creating and scoring and we were pretty piss poor in that important respect.  Putting in a shift for 20 minutes is appalling and the very reason we were outplayed and outperformed on the day were it really matters; in and around the opponents box.

[Swiss]

Right, I've avoided the media til now but it seems to have been swept under the carpet somewhat...

Arsene has obviously watched our matches and seen we're weak on the counter attack. I've never seen Arsenal play that way before!

They allowed us the ball, soaked up the pressure, out marked our players and countered!

I thought the penalty was weak but then Vincent did move towards the player, so soft but Vinny was silly. Though he didn't actually move a great deal. one of the papers said the ref wasn't even looking at the incident...

Second was poor defending, but also we didn't look like scoring at all, all game!
I think the best chance was from Dzeko who shot high to the near post.

Ah well, we can't win every premier league! Would have been nice to get one back for earlier in the season when I don't think they should have got a point against us.