Dedryck Boyata is shown an early red card
Samir Nasri celebrates his opener
Alex Song celebrates the second
Nasri slots home with aplomb
Arsenal moved up to second in the Premier League with a 3-0 win against 10-man Manchester City at Eastlands.
In a game that was expected to be a test of both sides' credentials at the top end of the table, the contest became an uphill struggle for City as Dedryck Boyata saw red after just five minutes, following a last-man hack on Marouane Chamakh.
The Gunners did not immediately take advantage of their numerical superiority but were in front after 20 minutes when Samir Nasri played an excellent one-two with Andrey Arshavin to fire past the helpless Joe Hart.
Hart was the hero five minutes before the break though, as at full stretch he managed to keep out a Cesc Fabregas penalty after the Spanish midfielder had been brought down in the area by Vincent Kompany.
City battled valiantly but gaps began to appear in the second half and Alex Song finished emphatically in the 66th minute, before substitute Nicklas Bendtner put the gloss on with a cool effort in the dying stages after being fed through by Nasri.
Roberto Mancini opted to leave Emmanuel Adebayor on the bench despite his midweek hat-trick in the Europa League, so the former Arsenal man, who infamously ran the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the Gunners fans last season in this fixture, was replaced by Carlos Tevez.
Bacary Sagna returned from injury while Boyata started in defence for City with Joleon Lescott on the bench.
The good feeling that was in evidence prior to kick-off in a minute's applause for the late former Blues boss Malcolm Allison was quickly shunned in a first half that yielded five bookings and an early red card.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment