As much as we wanted Arsenal to come out fighting and peg Man City back right from the start, it looked like Wenger’s opening game plan was to try and contain Pep Guardiola’s side and frustrate them while trying to get a breakaway. It wasn’t good that Monreal had to go of injured after half an hour, but being one goal down it was probably sensible to bring on the more attackin.
And it seemed to be working until an unbelievable big kick from Claudio Bravo went straight down the middle, bounced once, and Aguero chipped it easily over Ospina’s head and Arsenal were 1-0 down after just 18 minutes. The Gunners seemed quite happy to concede possession (as if they had any choice) to City and they carried on frustrating them to half time. If it wasn’t for that moment of madness from Mustafi it could easily have been equal at half time, and the goal was actually City’s only shot on target before the break although De Bruyne and Aguero had pretty clear chances go astray.
Poor old Jack Wilshere was getting picked on at every chance from the City midfield but he refused to retaliate and kept his head, and it didn’t look like Arsenal were being totally dominated before half-time.
Chambers got booked just after half-time, and both Ramsey and Bellerin needed to be careful until the end of the match after getting a yellow in the first half.
But Arsenal’s defence looked very shaky in the opening minutes and Ospina looked lost like Cech after ten minutes with a terrible clearance, but Arsenal survived for a few more minutes until De Bruyne got a corner which bounced round the box until falling to Kompany who slotted it into the net. Arsenal were against the ropes and looking in danger of being over-run. And so it proved as in the 65th minute the two Silva’s took advantage of the pressure and the game was over as David Silva scored City’s third with Ospina floundering.
Wenger decided to throw caution to the wind and brought on Danny Welbeck on for Chambers, but is it even worth the risk as we are hardly getting anywhere near Bravo’s goal, and there are still 20 minutes to go and the score could get a lot worse yet, and just to cheer up Arsenal fans even more, Iwobi comes on to replace Ramsey….
Guardiola responded by bringing on Gabriel Jesus and with 15 minutes to go you could see swarthes of Arsenal fans leaving the ground. No one believes that Arsenal could come back from three down , but for the last ten minutes the Gunners tried very hard to get a consolation goal but City maintained their dominance. Vincent Kompany got booked for yet another foul, and then Jack Wilshere finally couldn’t keep his mouth shut and followed him into the book.
We can’t really say the result is a surprise but it doesn’t stop us feeling let down by our weak attempt to stop Man City….
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