Man City 1-3 Arsenal – 02/02/08 – (Premier League) 3 February, 2008

We are top of the league, I said we are top of the league.

What a brilliant day yesterday was, apart from the scum not being able to do a simple favour and just beat Man Utd; they conceded in the last minute with the last touch at the near post from a corner. Absolute useless bastards. Still, it was 1-1, so was Chelsea v Portsmouth, so we’re two points clear at the top now.

We travelled to Manchester knowing that no other team has managed to win there in the league so it wasn’t going to be easy. We got an early goal though after 9 minutes, and yes, it was Adebayor with the goal. Sagna made the run down the right, cut inside the defender along the goal line and squared it to Adebayor. Micah Richards threw himself to the floor to block Ade’s shot but it took a lucky deflection off him to go into the net.

A good start by us then. The goal didn’t fully deflate the home side though; obviously it affected them a little but they did their best to get back in it. They won a dangerous free kick on the right, which was whipped in well, and Diaby did a great job to get a head to it, as there was a City player right behind him with an otherwise free header on goal.

It was end-to-end at times and was turning into a really good game. We went two-nil up after 26 minutes. Clichy made a run down the left and crossed it in, at first it seemed like the cross had been over hit but Adebayor didn’t give up and managed to get a head to it and play in back into the danger area. Eduardo got to it, took a touch on the chest then on the turn he acrobatically put the ball in the far corner. A great goal and nice to see Eduardo back scoring, seems like a while since his last.

We lost our two goal advantage almost straight away though. Clichy uncharacteristically made a silly mistake allowing Corluka through. Gael was trying to block the ball and watch it go out for a goal kick but he was out muscled and caught out and Clichy let him through along the byline. He passed to Fernandes who made it 2-1.

It’s always a shame to concede just after you’ve scored and City were right back in it. We had to concentrate now and not concede another. That goal gave them a lot of confidence and a second goal could easily go in. In the remainder of the first half both sides had decent chances but it went in at the break 2-1.

I had a feeling that after 3 early goals the scoring might dry up and I was pretty much right. We were still on top but we couldn’t manage a third. A had a few corners in the second half and Fabregas hit a shot over the bar. City were still in it but the game really turned in our favour towards the end of he game: Sven had to gamble and he made some attacking changes allowing us space to go forward. We had two or three excellent chances on the counter attack but we couldn’t manage to score; the wrong pass, sloppy moves or taking too much time and City could clear.

We did manage that third goal with three minutes to go. Adebayor picked up the ball in our half and started to break but he was blatantly tripped from behind on the halfway line. Hleb was running behind him and the ref waved play on so we continued to break, Ade got back on his feet and carried on attacking. Hleb made it up to the area and by this time Adebayor had made his way back to the box. Alex squared it and Manu tucked it in the corner to get his 8th goal in 6 games. Game over.

It was a reasonably good performance yesterday, Flamini and Adebayor once again brilliant. Clichy made a few errors, which was unlike him, but I couldn’t say he had a bad game. Jens was back in goal and of course he had one or two crazy moments but you have to expect that. Senderos had another good game and that nervous Phil we saw earlier in the season looks far away.

Next up we have Blackburn on a Monday night. However before that I believe there are some international friendlies this midweek. Please please please no more injuries…we’ve got it bad enough as it is. Talk to you soon.