Arsenal Throws A Massive Roadblock On Manchester City’s Title Dreams

It was a massive game at the Emirates as both teams played for three vital points. A loss or a draw was dangerous for both teams as Manchester City will slip farther behind United and Arsenal will be in a tighter competition for Champions League places.

If anyone can claim that this game wasn’t heart-stopping, then that person must have a really zen center. It was a tense match from the start. Arsenal dominated early on and it was a dominance that continued throughout the game, except for about 10 minutes in the start of the second half.

Benayoun started the game in lieu of Ramsey and had a terrific performance that had the Arsenal fans clamoring for a permanent contract. Rosicky and van Persie both had chances to open the scoring, but the latter’s strike hit Thomas Vermaelen instead of the net.

A chance to score opened up for Manchester City as someone who’s French and used to wear the number 8 for Arsenal lobbed the ball to Mario Balotelli, but Szczesny made a surprise run out of the box to clear the ball and end the threat.

Speaking of Balotelli, the troublesome striker was lucky not be shown a yellow—or even a red—for two tackles on Song and Sagna. However, third time’s the charm as he was shown a yellow card at the 38^th minute for going studs up on Sagna.

Early in the second half, Andre Santos came in for Kieran Gibbs who seemed to have a groin problem. After a tentative few minutes, Arsenal got their mojo again and RVP had a goal deflected by… the post. Koscielny went with too much oomph in defending and got a deserved yellow for a late tackle on Barry. This yellow means he will miss the games against Wolves and Wigan.

Balotelli misses a chance at the 68^th minute with an ambitious overhead kick. Arsenal retaliates with an RVP goal but it was flagged as offside. Bummer. Another frustrating turn of events was a save by Joe Hart, which Vermaelen then unsuccessfully tried to rebound. Walcott then joined the party but was denied by Lescott.

The Basque man who was the gear that made the Arsenal machine run smoothly all through the game finally delivered a late goal at the 87^th minute. And what a goal it was! He managed to steal the ball, make a run, and deliver a long-range shot that found its mark.

The excitement did not end there as Balotelli was shown a second yellow shortly after and was subsequently sent off. This behaviour had the Manchester City manager empathically declaring that the player must change. Mancini also cast doubts about Balotelli’s future at City.

Wait, that wasn’t the end of it. Aaron Ramsey goes one on one with Hart and fires wide. It was a cringe-worthy moment and one that had the Arsenal skipper giving the lad a few choice words. Thankfully, the miss didn’t do great damage—except perhaps to Ramsey’s ego—as Arsenal collected all three points at full time.

 written by Janina Montoya