Arsenal lead Manchester City a merry dance after Boyata takes early leave

Arsenal got some much needed practice in bullying. They are all too often seen as creatures of refinement for whom aesthetics matter more than the bid for silverware. At Eastlands, however, they were ruthless in exploiting a numerical advantage after the dismissal of Dedryck Boyata in the fifth minute. Manchester City could have anticipated the horror of pursuing such elusive opponents with a mere 10 men.

Roberto Mancini's men persevered, yet it was all but inevitable that their resistance would be broken. The victors now stand second in the table, above Manchester United and City. It remains only for Chelsea to get themselves into trouble for a match or two and the contest for the Premier League will be truly fierce. Arsène Wenger's squad showed efficiency in this fixture.

With the unanswerable wisdom of hindsight Roberto Mancini could be reproached for picking the 19-year-old Boyata at centre-half when there was no lack of alternatives. There is, all the same, a riposte to that. The Belgian may have had only one previous outing in the Premier League this season but it came when he helped the side to a clean sheet in the 1-0 win over Chelsea.

Even so, there is no disputing that he made a mistake against Arsenal that spoke of a residual callowness. He had a lapse in concentration and allowed Marouane Chamakh to drift away from him to take a Cesc Fábregas pass. In his anxious bid to atone, Boyata, as the last man, brought down the striker. It was a routine decision for the referee, Mark Clattenburg, to send off the City centre-back.

Few teams appear better equippedthan Arsenal to take advantage of their extra man. Even when both sides have an equal complement of footballers, it often looks as if Wenger's line-up are outnumbering their adversaries. City must have been fighting to fend off the conclusion that defeat and exhaustion had an equal inevitability. The challenge for Arsenal was to prey on the vulnerable. That type of mission is not their forte, yet they exploited the situation proficiently this time.

It was important both to drain the energy from City and to score against them. After all, there is always a risk that a team will be galvanised by adversity, particularly when urged on by a home crowd. Mancini was feverish in his alterations that suggested he saw some prospect of thwarting if not beating Arsenal.

Even so the visitors did critically take the lead before City could convince themselves fully that they had realistic hopes. With 20 minutes gone Samir Nasri exchanged passes with Andrey Arshavin to put the visitors ahead. City had been pondering how to reshape the side after the red card.

Initially Yaya Touré took up a post in the centre of the back four but the need to have him in midfield was soon deemed even greater. Jérôme Boateng then stepped into the core of the defence while Gareth Barry assumed the left-back duties. Further alterations ensued as Mancini strove to think his way out of an impasse.

Touré, indeed, was eventually to be removed. No amount of technical area scheming could eradicate the truth that Arsenal were relishing the circumstances as they syphoned the vitality from City. After this result one of the main comforts for the losers will lie in the atmosphere and passion that did not dim at Eastlands.

For all the wealth of the owner, Sheikh Mansour, that contribution, which people pay to make, will be important to City's pursuit of honours. The crowd were probably inflamed by the conviction that some sort of injustice was being perpetrated here, although that was not the case. Their side had a fine bloody-mindedness about them, too.

It was expressed in the refusal to succumb even to a penalty after Vincent Kompany brought down Fábregas five minutes before half-time. The captain took the penalty himself but the effort rose slightly and was not accurate enough. Joe Hart confirmed that by leaping to his left to save. It would have encouraged the City manager that this contest had not, in effect, been ended at that moment.

City had faith and even periods of momentum, with the much maligned Lukasz Fabianski in Arsenal's goal doing well throughout, particularly when tipping an effort from David Silva round the post. The goalkeeper's save left Arsenal in a position of strength which they exploited with the second goal after 66 minutes. Fábregas's attempted pass to Chamakh from the right was deflected to Alex Song, who sent a handsome shot high past Hart.

The third goal was cruel since the ball appeared to have gone out of play before Nasri found the substitute Nicklas Bendtner and the Dane might have been a fraction offside before shooting home two minutes from the close. City will shrug this off as an ill-starred afternoon but Arsenal will draw strength from it.

Source: Kevin McCarra, The Guardian on 24 Oct 10