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MOTD: Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City

By on December 21, 2015

It’s a little known fact that Petr Cech is an avid drummer. The thirty-three-year-old goalkeeper covers rock bands such as Foo Fighters, The Script, U2 and Nirvana and uploads videos of his work onto his small, discreet Youtube channel.

For the holidays, Cech donned red and white Arsenal gear and was joined in a medley of holiday songs by Nacho Monreal and Alexis Sanchez, himself quite prolific on the piano as well as Arsenal’s front line. Fully decked out in Arsenal-branded hats, together they gave Arsenal fans a little Christmas gift on behalf of the club’s foundation.

It proved, however, to be a tame second-best compared to the gift presented by the squad’s confident 2-1 victory over title rivals Manchester City to take the Gunners second place on Christmas Day. Mesut Ozil once again pulled the strings for Arsene Wenger’s men, while Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud struck a chord up front to bury City with two first-half finishes. City’s late resurgence, spearheaded by Yaya Toure’s gorgeous strike, was contained by an Arsenal back-line organized by commanding defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini. On a chilly, rainy night in London, Arsenal heated up the title race with their second consecutive win over the previous favorites.

So much attention has been placed upon Raheem Sterling and the cream of City’s pie, but their €500 million pyramid was undermined by the absence of Vincent Kompany and only half-fit performances by Sergio Aguero and David Silva. It all came toppling down upon itself at the most unfortunate of times, just days after Pep Guardiola announced he will depart Bayern Munich at the end of the season, with City very likely viewing Guardiola as the man to guide their team to the next level.

City’s defensive organization was pedestrian, and if they didn’t need any more telling, the statisticians offered the numbers to prove the Sky Blues cannot get away with defending as poor as they did today. No team since Everton in 1987 has lost five games before Christmas, as City have, and then gone on to win the league. More importantly even, City must find a way to halt their terrible away form, having won not a single one of their last five away matches in the Premier League.

Manuel Pellegrini was quite generous to his side in claiming they were the “dominant” team, while lamenting mainly their lack of finishing. These comments ignored their bigger holes at the back.

Kevin De Bruyne twice came close in the first half hour, seeing a driven twenty-yard effort parried wide by Petr Cech at his near post, but wasting a golden opportunity soon thereafter. The Belgian was put through on goal on the break, only to drag a low, fifteen-yard effort from the right side of goal inches wide of the far post.

Barely a minute later Theo Walcott bagged “a special goal,” which the English winger admitted, “came out of nowhere.” The twenty-six-year-old picked off Mesut Ozil’s pass meant for an overlapping Monreal down the left, before cutting inside and bending a lovely effort into the bottom right corner of the net from the edge of the penalty area. Even at full-stretch, Joe Hart couldn’t get close to it.

Ozil was again behind Arsenal’s second, tallying his fifteenth assist of the season so far, six more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues. The German international slipped the ball into Giroud’s run in behind City’s Nicolas Otamendi down the left side of the box, where Giroud took a touch and sliced a low effort through Hart’s legs and into the back of the net.

Yet instead of closing down the space and maintaining their lead in the second half, Arsenal went after a third goal. Joel Cambell came close from Montreal’s low, near-post cross from the left and then forced Hart into a neat kick-save with a poked effort having been put in behind from Laurent Koscielny’s long-ball. The Gunners sliced through City like hot butter and again Hart came to the visitors’ rescue in the fifty-eighth minute, coming quick off his line to block an effort from Aaron Ramsey, who had been put through on goal at the end of a long build-up and series of one and two-touch passes

As time wore on, though, Arsenal became increasingly open at the back, and all it took for City to turn the tables was a lovely finish from Yaya Toure out of the blue. The midfielder found space for a shot on the edge of the box at the end of a one-two with Bacary Sagna and guided an impeccable effort right into the top left corner with minimal effort and maximum grace.

“I have known Yaya since he was fifteen or sixteen,” said Wenger. “He has scored so many late goals for Manchester City; this was one of the exceptional ones.”

“We got a bit shaky,” the Frenchman admitted, and Toure again came close with a poked effort at the end of De Bruyne’s through ball, but Arsenal just held on for the three points to prove their serious title contenders. “We have the desire and ambition [to launch a title campaign],” Cech said after the match, but the statement was largely redundant given the previous ninety minutes of football.

Homepage photo credit: Kamran Hussain, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.