Arsenal 1-0 Man City – 25/08/07 – (Premier League) 26 August, 2007

So that’s two home wins in two and I call that a great start to the season. We very nearly went unbeaten at home last season and we’ll need to do something like that again to put the pressure on United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Hopefully this time with a few more wins and a few less draws.

It was pretty much the team I expected except Rosicky started ahead of Walcott and an injury before the game to Senderos meant a first appearance of the season for Gilberto who started at centre back. Adebayor was also making his first start of the season alongside Van Persie.

I’ve heard that Phil’s injury is not serious. But if he’s going to miss some game then we’re in serious injury trouble already. Also Sagna picked up an injury yesterday but it seems that’s not too bad either. However it is getting really worrying and I think if Wenger doesn’t make another signing then he’s really running a risk. The Djourou loan was not good for us but I’ve heard that Johann wanted first team football and forced the move to Birmingham.

The first half we were playing really well and had by far the more possession and attacks, the thing we were really lacking were shots to test the ‘keeper. The visitors went closest early on when a Toure error near the halfway line let a City player through. Clichy did well to try and get back but in the end the shot was poor and Almunia wasn’t troubled.

Manchester City’s shooting was consistently bad to be honest. They had a few shots in the first 45 but I don’t remember Almunia having to make a save.

10 minutes before half time we came inches away from opening the scoring. A ball was played along in front of the goal and Van Persie slid in at the far post but couldn’t quite reach it. It was a good first half of football, very enjoyable but I think it’s summed up best by the arsenal.com match report: “creating much, converting nothing”

The second half was a different story though. Man City came out the better side and we didn’t really look organised at all. Adebayor had a chance early on but it was all City for a long period after that. Almunia had to make a decent save to deny the visitors the lead. We just started to get back into the game though and our attacks were awarded with a penalty when Hleb was brought down in the area.

Hleb was getting round the left side of City’s defence and cutting in well but despite the screams of shoot he decided to try and make a difficult pass into the middle every time. It was very frustrating but at least he’d got a penalty from this attack. Despite Gilberto being back Van Persie placed the ball down for the spot kick. It was a poorly taken penalty, along the floor and slightly off centre, if you’re going to put it down the middle you’ve got to get a little bit of height on it. Schmeichel saved with his legs and it was still bloody 0-0.

The young ‘keeper was getting taunted with “Ian Wright Wright Wright” chants but I don’t really think that bothered him, he was having another great game and made two great saves from Van Persie and Fabregas before the goal went in with 10 minutes to go; Cesc got himself into a similar position on the right wing as Hleb was doing but this time instead of trying a stupid pass Cesc did shoot, and did score. He hit it high into the top of the net, sort of similar to RVP’s goal in the Emirates Cup.

Eduardo could’ve made it two late on but I don’t think he realised how little time you get in the English league. Also Schmeichel came up for a late corner at the end that Almunia caught, he could’ve thrown it out and we could’ve scored on the counter but he put it out for a throw because Flamini was down injured.

Anyway, we won 1-0, that’s three points. Performance overall wasn’t great but that doesn’t matter. A few players didn’t look very fit or on form but I’m really not bothered because we won. We face Sparta on Wednesday now, a vital game. more on that to come. Thanks for reading.