Written by George Sezer Thursday, 06 January 2011 03:28

GunnerTalk Blog

By George Sezer

Arsenal gave us the best home performance of the season at home tonight but unfortunately only got a point for it as Manchester City had lady luck with them in the first half and did an Italian job on us in the second.

We started the game like a team in a mission from the football heaven, playing some breath taking stuff, with our midfield quintet at the top of their game. Within minutes of the kick off, Nasri, Wilshere and Fabregas combined in a delicious pass and move play that ended up with young Englishman’s dangerous low cross across their box but Van Persie sliding at the far post, failed to make a contact. Walcott tried to recover the situation by pulling the ball back to Fabregas but City defenders threw their bodies in front of his shot.

We were still within the 10 minutes of the kickoff when Wilshere received a pass from outstanding Song, drove straight at the heart of Man City defence but his strong shot at the end went straight at the relieved Goalkeeper. Next it was Van Persie’s turn to have a go; twisting and turning at the edge of their box but hitting his vicious drive against the foot of the post as wave after wave of Arsenal attacks continued.

Song, dictating the play from deep midfield, set up another Arsenal attack when he found Fabregas. The Spaniard getting better with ever game after his hamstring injuries fed the ball to Nasri who caused all sorts of confusion in the City defence with his twinkle toes, the ball ended up with Walcott, he tried to ride a couple of desperate launches by defenders near the six yard box – could and should have gone down for a penalty but didn’t, Wilshere pounced on the loose ball but his low shot was saved well by Hart.

Walcott - looking a much better option than Arshavin on the right hand side of our midfield - squandered a good chance when he pulled his low shot just wide across their goal after setting himself with a brilliant turn.

Song started another great attacking move from deep inside our half; after several intricate passing Nasri found Fabregas just inside their box, the Arsenal captain hit the ball low and hard but that very same post came to Manchester city’s rescue again. Although he was off side, Walcott hitting the corner of the post and bar from the rebound was a sign that it was not going to happen for us in front of the goal on the night. The ball just did not want to go in, not even from an offside position.

As if having all the rub of the green wasn’t enough they also were very lucky with an awful piece of refereeing when the man in the middle ignored a blatant handball by Kompany inside their box from Walcott’s cross.

I still don’t know how the first half of this game finished 0-0.

Second half we huffed and puffed but could not bring the Manchester City defence wall down as they went ultra defensive on us with no intention of going forward.

Van Persie went close with a couple of efforts one of which was a typical RVP 25 yarder but was saved brilliantly by their England’s no 1 Joe Hart.

The introduction of Arhavin for Walcott in 69^th minutes was a hindrance rather than a help and the late substitution of Bendtler instead of Chamakh for Wilshere was a mystery to me.

Overall, awesome performance by the team, shame about the dropped points, but just keep playing like you did tonight lads, the results will follow.