A lot of Arsenal fans did not expect us to get anything from today’s away game against the Premier League leaders Man City, and that is how it turned out with De Bruyne, Aguero and Gabriel Jesus scoring to make it a comfortable 3-1 scoreline in the end, but that did not tell the whole story by any means and Arsene Wenger will surely point to a couple of key decisions that went the home side’s way at crucial points of the game.
The Frenchman had opted for a surprising Arsenal XI with Coquelin in between Koscielny and Monreal, Alexis Sanchez as centre forward with Ozil and Iwobi either side and Lacazette on the bench. We started well in a fast and frenetic game but after 10 minutes or so the City players just started to dominate a little, but even so it felt a bit harsh on the Gunners when De Bruyne scored with a long drive in the 19th minute.
To be fair to them City were strong and probably should have scored again before the break but it was Ramsey who nearly brought us level on the stroke of halftime but was denied by a good save. Soon after the restart came the first contentious decision, a soft penalty awarded by referee Michael Oliver for a comi9ng together in the box between Monreal and Sterling that saw no intent from the Spaniard.
You see them given but more often than not it is seen as good defending, but Afguero made no mistake and Arsenal were in trouble. We hit back through a fine Lacazeete goal and were right in it until the linesm,an failed to spot that Silva was offside before squaring it to Jesus for a tap in.
It’s just a shame that a good performance from the Gunners got us nothing and once again we got hurt away from home by a referee.
Bob.