David Silva, right, scores for Manchester City against Arsenal in the Premier League game at the Emirates Stadium. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
When the story comes to be told of an open and increasingly difficult-to-predict title race, Manchester City may look back and reflect that this was a particularly useful day. Yet, for now, they also know it could have been much better considering the rewards that would have followed if they had managed to hold on to David Silva’s first-half goal.
Manuel Pellegrini’s team forfeited the chance to replace Chelsea at the top of the Premier League during a second half in which Mathieu Flamini’s equaliser will be celebrated by everyone connected with Liverpool, who are suddenly looking at the table in a new position of strength.
For Arsenal, the solitary point probably confirms what most people already suspected, namely that there is only a very faint chance they can catch and overhaul the three teams above them.
City are in a much stronger position, two points behind Chelsea with two games in hand, but the gap to Liverpool will be four if Brendan Rodgers’s team beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. More than ever, it looks as if the pivotal game will also be at Anfield, when City are the opponents on 13 April.
Pellegrini will just have to hope his team can play more like they did here in the first half, and less like they did after the interval. For the first time, perhaps, there were signs of weariness. Yet Arsenal deserve great acclaim for their perseverance and left the pitch to rich applause.
Arsène Wenger has had to make do with a considerable injury list, but his team showed real personality to emerge with something and that is worth noting at a time when they are often accused of lacking mental strength.
City started just where they had left off against Manchester United, pressing their opponents back and moving the ball swiftly, in telling areas of the pitch. Yet here, too, was further evidence of the vulnerabilities that have left Arsenal coming up short. Silva’s goal was the product of Lukas Podolski losing the ball – and, in a flash, the entire team suddenly looked susceptible to the speed with which their opponents poured forward.
It was the same theme in the 6-0 defeat by Chelsea and, again, their full-backs, Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna, were caught hopelessly out of position.
Silva led the City charge, breaking through the middle, with options either side. He chose Edin Dzeko, running into the left-hand side of the penalty area, leaving the striker to find the angle to beat Wojciech Szczesny. His shot came back off the post and Silva, following in, was rewarded for his anticipation, tucking the rebound into an unguarded net.
Silva, always on the move and so difficult to mark, was the outstanding player in that first half, but the speed and directness of Jesús Navas created plenty of issues for Gibbs – and Pablo Zabaleta’s overlapping runs from the right full-back position were another feature.
City looked stronger, physically, and when they did lose the ball, there was something to admire about their appetite to win it back.
By half-time, there was also a reasonable case that Arsenal should have been a man down. Tomas Rosicky’s attempt to win a penalty from Zabaleta’s non-challenge – fishing out his foot to try to initiate contact – did not deceive the referee, Mike Dean, and surely merited a yellow card. Rosicky was booked for a later challenge on Gaël Clichy and should probably consider himself a lucky man.
Arsenal’s style means they will always have a lot of the ball. They just did not make enough use of it before the interval. Mathieu Flamini was offside when he bounced Podolski’s cross past Joe Hart, shortly before Silva’s goal, but there were not many other times when the away team’s goalkeeper seemed exposed.
Mikel Arteta rarely dominates these big matches and, though Yaya Touré was unusually subdued, Silva was always finding little pockets of space to weave his magic.
It was not until the early parts of the second half that Arsenal began to play with the dynamism that was evident earlier in the season. Now they started to move the ball with greater purpose. Santi Cazorla – a prominent figure in the shift of pattern – brought the first real save from Hart.
Then, a few minutes later, Arsenal worked the ball from one side of the pitch to the other, in front of the penalty. Not once did a City player try to intercept the ball and Flamini was free, close to the penalty spot, to sweep in Podolski’s left-wing cross.
City had lost their control and, suddenly, this did not look like an Arsenal side missing half a team’s worth of Wenger’s first-choice players. The volume had gone up several notches and Podolski – with a clear sight at goal –would have turned it even higher if his shot had not flicked off Hart’s legs and ricocheted wide.
A minute before the equaliser, Per Mertesacker almost put through his own goal and there were still sporadic moments when City threatened to get behind the home defence. Yet this was a laboured finish from City and, ultimately, a more profitable day for Liverpool than for anyone else.
source: theguardian.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 