What can you say about that? A big slice of luck at the beginning. Horrendous confusion at the end. In between we played some good stuff on patches but failed to take a real grip on the game.
We hit cross-bar, City hit the post. Much more end to end than I expected. Song and Wilshere worked hard in the midfield but we rarely got into a good rhythm. City worked really hard to close us down.
Szcesny was lucky to stay on the pitch from just a few minutes in when Bowyer went down in the penalty area. I’m not sure whether he actually made contact with Bowyer but I’m pretty certain it would have been given if the Assistant hadn’t wrongly stuck his flag up for offside. Clichy was playing Bowyer onside by a couple of yards.
The two City goals were exactly the sort of situations that gave been caused us problems. In both cases we failed to win the first ball. In the first case Djourou drifted off Zigic. In the second, Koscielny, well I’m not sure whether he just doesn’t connect with the ball or whether he changes his mind and leaves it. Whatever. Two players who have looked assured in recent games have had a nightmare.
The equaliser was a classic Arsenal strike. A determined skillful run from Arshavin and a terrific finish from Van Persie. It came during a phase when you thought Arsenal were going to win it. Nasri did really well, but Foster kept City in it.
The finish was gutting, but we didn’t impose our class well before that and paid the price. A big nine days now. C’mon Arsenal.
***** Man of the Match poll running here. *****
