Manchester City's Roberto Mancini unhappy over Dedryck Boyata red card

Roberto Mancini criticised the refereeing decision that sparked Manchester City's 3-0 home defeat by Arsenal but insisted he had no qualms about having picked the 19-year-old Dedryck Boyata ahead of the England international Joleon Lescott. Boyata's red card for a professional foul on Marouane Chamakh left Arsenal with an extra man for all but the first five minutes of the match. Mancini was convinced the referee, Mark Clattenburg, was wrong.

"I don't agree with the referee's decision," he said. "We had the same situation when we played Newcastle recently and Carlos Tevez was fouled but the referee showed only a yellow card.

"I thought if it was the last man and a goal-scoring opportunity it was a red card but when Chamakh touched the ball it was going out or to the goalkeeper. I'm not angry but I don't like it. Against Arsenal, going down to 10 men is the worst thing that can happen. It's difficult enough 11 versus 11 but 10 versus 11 is worse."

Arsenal took advantage of the extra man with goals from Samir Nasri, Alexandre Song and the substitute Nicklas Bendtner condemning City to a first home defeat of the season. Mancini defended his selection of Boyata.

"I don't think that would have changed the situation," he said, when it was put to him that the more experienced Lescott could have played instead. "That [red card] was the decisive moment though. My opinion is that 11 versus 11 we would have won. As it is, I'm still proud of my players. We still played very well, we were always trying to score and we showed why we are one of the best teams in the league."

Arsène Wenger's opinion on the red card was that "the referee had no option" and he was particularly pleased about the way his players made sure they retained their advantage. "After the sending off it became a bit electric," he said. "We got some quick yellow cards but it was important not to get a sending off and I asked the players at half-time to focus on playing football, not just defending our advantage, to be positive.

"Overall I am very pleased because it looks like we have matured in terms of knowing how to handle the difficulties of the game and not to get a red card."

This was the first victory for Arsenal in 10 games against City, Manchester United and Chelsea. "I cannot explain why that is but it is true," Wenger said. "Some games we got close then just lost. At Chelsea we lost 2-0 and, watching it again, I still can't understand why. But I hope it gives us belief and confidence to transfer that into more games.

"It was under special circumstances, maybe, but it was important to get a win at a big place, in terms of the strength and belief of our squad and continuing our march forward. We needed calm and intelligence and gave the performance that you need to play against 10 men."

The Arsenal manager was particularly effusive about Nasri as a key figure in the team. "He is becoming more efficient and stronger physically," he said. "You judge a player on what he does and today he got a goal and an assist which is what you want from a player like him. He is a complete player because he runs with the ball, is quick and he's now a clinical finisher. We have a great player."

City had a number of good opportunities but Lukasz Fabianski had a fine game in the Arsenal goal, producing two good saves from David Silva. "From game to game, he shows what we see in training," Wenger said.

A bad day for City was compounded by the sight of their leading scorer, Tevez, limping off in the second half. "He took a knock in the first half and after the break he couldn't run," Mancini said.

Source: Daniel Taylor, The Guardian on 24 Oct 10

Unlucky Manchester City will still be a force despite Arsenal mauling

The early red card so affected events at Eastlands that neither side's title credentials should be judged on this result.

The problem when there is a red card before some of the players even have a scrap of dirt on their kneecaps is that it can distort the true picture. Manchester City may have suffered the most comprehensive home defeat of their two years under the ownership of Abu Dhabi's royal family but the mitigating circumstances were so extreme an asterisk should be put in the record books to explain the unorthodox nature of Arsenal's win.

There is no reason for great alarm at City, who were clapped off the pitch after the final whistle, just as it would be exaggerating to say winning 3-0 against a side that went into the weekend second in the league represents decisive evidence of Arsenal re-establishing themselves as authentic title challengers.

Arsène Wenger and his players are entitled to be jubilant about the margin of victory and the accomplished way they took advantage of City's self-inflicted wounds, incorporating their first clean sheet away from home since January, but it was impossible to escape the reason why it was such a lop-sided game.

Some players cannot wait to get off the pitch when they see that flash of red from the referee's pocket. Others rage and protest their innocence. In Dedryck Boyata's case there was just unmistakable sadness on that long, desolate walk to the touchline.

Wenger spoke about winning in "special circumstances". Mancini thought his team would have won otherwise and praised his players for their efforts. The crowd seemed to agree and, through the fog of disappointment, it was telling they were clapped off the pitch.

Perhaps, despite arguing otherwise after the match, Mancini will regret bringing Boyata into the centre of his defence. On the face of it, it was certainly a strange decision when it meant leaving out Joleon Lescott, the third most expensive defender on the planet, who not only cost City £24m but played alongside Rio Ferdinand in England's back four in the draw with Montenegro 12 days earlier.

Boyata, in fairness, has excelled on the few occasions he has been promoted to the side, and won his first cap for Belgium earlier this month, but this was a harrowing day for the teenager and Mancini's explanation that he had rested Lescott because he had played in Thursday's Europa League tie against Lech Poznan did not quite stack up. Boyata had also played in the same match.

What can be said with certainty is that the disruption for City was severe and ultimately decisive. Mancini's first idea was to move Yaya Touré from midfield into Boyata's position. A few minutes later he reconsidered and Jérôme Boateng took over, with Gareth Barry dropping into the left-back role. Then, at half-time, Touré was substituted for Wayne Bridge, with Barry reverting to his previous position. This was defensive musical chairs and it was probably inevitable that Arsenal, with their wide, expansive football, would manage to get behind them more than any other team this season.

Wenger's players always move the ball well but, with an extra man, they kept possession elegantly, made their opponents do the harder running and eventually wore them down. It was a performance of control and intelligence and, in the second half, a measured sense of discipline, too, given that Cesc Fábregas, Denilson, Alexandre Song and Johan Djourou were all booked within the first 36 minutes. Wenger dwelled on this point afterwards: the fact a red card would have altered the dynamics of the game for a second time and the way the players in question applied common sense.

There were words of praise, too, for Lukasz Fabianski on a rare day when Arsenal's supporters did not have to peek through the cracks in their fingers when it came to the team's goalkeeper. We have seen enough of the Pole to realise there are times when he is a danger to his own team but Fabianski's saves from David Silva, inside the opening minute and then shortly before the hour (with the score at 1-0) should not be overlooked.

It was unusual to be talking about a goalkeeper after a 3-0 away win but this was an unorthodox day on many counts and, in a peculiar way, Fabianski's performance might have the been the most encouraging aspect of all for Wenger when taking into account the unhappy role Boyata played.

Source: Daniel Taylor, The Guardian on 24 Oct 10

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

City's millionaires undone by prudent Gunners

It doesn't require the master's degree in economics that Arsene Wenger possesses to know that money usually talks. Nor, indeed, does it need much insight to see that size often matters. But sometimes it is not about feet and inches, nor pounds and petrodollars.

It is about character and quality, which Arsenal possessed, about mistakes and misjudgements, which Manchester City committed. It is about moments that live long in the memory because they are utterly unexpected, such as Andrei Arshavin materialising in the left-back position to successfully tackle Carlos Tevez.

It is about the most maligned delivering on a stage where many expect them to fail and Lukasz Fabianski was pivotal with vital saves from David Silva at 0-0 and 1-0. It is about talented players crossing the great divide from entertainment to excellence, something Samir Nasri appears to have done in a seven-game spell that has brought seven goals.

"He is becoming more efficient," said Wenger, the aesthete showing a statistical streak. "You can judge a player by what he does with the numbers. Today he had a goal and an assist."

It brought a forceful affirmation of Arsenal's credentials. City, the ruthless destroyers of Chelsea, were subjected to a humbling afternoon. Depleted for 85 minutes, defeated after 65 and demoted from second place by both their conquerors and their local rivals; the world's richest club and one of the league's physically biggest teams were ultimately outmanoeuvred by their smaller, poorer opponents.

The finest management always seems to have an element of alchemy and a hint of stubbornness. Both are detectable in Wenger. Vindication for the Frenchman is invariably emphatic, simply because Arsenal rarely win ugly. Given a recent inability to overcome City, Chelsea or Manchester United, it felt a seismic step forwards. "We look like we have matured in terms of negotiating in an intelligent way the difficulties of the game," said Wenger. "It means not getting a red card, it means keeping the ball well." It also means keeping a clean sheet, not Arsenal's usual forte against top-rate opponents. A defensive axis of Fabianski, Sebastien Squillaci and Johan Djourou may not be deemed the most reassuring, but they kept Silva, Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor at bay, albeit with a few nervy moments.

But, as Roberto Mancini said: "Against Arsenal, it is difficult to play 11 against 11. Ten against 11 is the worst thing." It was uneven from the fifth minute after Dedryck Boyata was given his marching orders for bringing down Marouane Chamakh. Mancini railed implausibly against the dismissal but the young Belgian, an unexpected choice on just his third league start, was the last man.

It was an unusually speculative selection from the conservative City manager. As significant, though, was that Cesc Fabregas found a hole in the three-man blanket Mancini has flung in front of his back four to thread the pass through for Chamakh. That the Moroccan has added another dimension to the Arsenal attack with his aerial ability is becoming clear; breaching an offside trap displayed another element to his game.

Control, Mancini's mantra, could not be exerted after going first a man and then a goal down. Nasri played a deft one-two with Arshavin, reacting quicker than Gareth Barry to the return pass before providing the finish. Fabregas, who was subjected to some physical challenges, both won and missed a penalty, though that description is unfair on Joe Hart, who produced an outstanding save. He was helpless, however, when Alex Song's shot headed for the top corner. It was symbolic of the fortunes of the two clubs that, while City are renowned for fielding three defensive midfielders, the sole specialist in that role among Wenger's men delivered a goal.

Song was aided, however, by a dreadful touch by the embarrassingly one-footed Wayne Bridge to supply him. His arrival was a strange substitution by Mancini, removing a midfielder (Yaya Toure) - albeit one who had spent some of the first half deputising for Boyata at the back - for a defender at a time when his side needed to score. When Tevez limped off, their prospects were further diminished, even if Adebayor proved a highly-motivated replacement.

By the time Nicklas Bendtner latched on to Nasri's neat pass to score a third goal, there was a frayed looked to a City team that had become noted for their sense of organisation and positional discipline. They had three left-backs, three partners for Vincent Kompany in the heart of defence and three roles for James Milner in the space of 90 minutes. But Arsenal had the three goals, scored by men with a combined cost of £12 million. It is loose change for the losers - indeed Wayne Rooney's annual earnings at Eastlands could have exceeded that - but then this was a day when neither big bucks nor big men flourished.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Samir Nasri
Since scoring a match-winning brace against Manchester United two years ago, he has been a marginal presence in many major matches. Not this one. There is a new-found penetration and purpose to his game.

MANCHESTER CITY VERDICT
The contentious choice of Boyata was a vote of no confidence in Joleon Lescott. Mancini's rationale - that the Englishman had played on Thursday - made little sense, given that the Belgian also completed 90 minutes then. With Silva a lively presence, City played with spirit with 10 men but there were too many failings in their final third.

ARSENAL VERDICT
Results such as this illustrate why, despite five years without a trophy, Wenger's ways should not be questioned. But, in a perverse way, it also makes the recent defeat to West Brom still more costly; had they secured the expected win then, they would only be two points behind Chelsea.

Source: Richard Jolly, ESPN Soccernet on 24 Oct 10

Fabregas delighted with 'outstanding' victory

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas hailed an "outstanding'' display by his side as they moved up to second in the Premier League with a 3-0 win over 10-man Manchester City at Eastlands.

Dedryck Boyata saw red for City after just five minutes after he brought Marouane Chamakh down with the striker through on goal. Samir Nasri put the Gunners ahead before Fabregas saw Joe Hart save his penalty after the Spaniard had been fouled by Vincent Kompany.

But further goals followed in the second half for Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner and Fabregas felt he and his team-mates were excellent value for their three points.

"I think we played some outstanding football and it's difficult to stop a side when they play at that tempo," Fabregas told Sky Sports 1.

"It's very difficult what to know what will happen (over the rest of the season) and we have an important game on Wednesday (against Newcastle in the Carling Cup), but it's a good victory against a good team.''

The Spain international did not believe the sending off changed the course of the game.

"Even if they were 15 and we were 11 we would still go and win,'' Fabregas said. "We always want to go forward and create chances but the way we played today, we were very difficult to stop. I think we were fantastic.''

The Gunners are now five points behind leaders Chelsea, but Fabregas does not see the Blues as overwhelming title favourites.

"Chelsea are looking strong but they have to play a lot of the big teams. We have to keep calm and think about the Carling Cup and then we think about West Ham next Saturday and getting back into the league.''

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini did not agree with Fabregas' assessment, believing his side would have won the game if it had been 11 versus 11 and that they had proved themselves to be one of the best teams in the Premier League.

"I think it was the worst moment to go down to 10 men but I am very proud of my players. They played well and stayed in the game until the second goal,'' he said.

"I think after today we must say we are one of the best teams in the Premier League. If it was 11 against 11 we would have won this game.''

Mancini was also not convinced that Boyata should have seen red for his tackle on Chamakh, citing a lack of consistency among referees.

"I don't know because against Newcastle we had one penalty from a tackle by the last man and the referee gave a yellow card.''

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was pleased with the composure his men had shown during a heated first half and also paid tribute to the performance of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

"It is always difficult against 10 men but we have shown our intelligence, and we slowly took over the game," Wenger said. "Sometimes we have played 11 against 10 and not won.

"We were on a few yellow cards so we had to calm down and play in a positive way in the second half.''

Of Fabianski he added: "He was important as he did everything right. The first chance was for them and he saved it and I cannot fault him on anything.''

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 24 Oct 10

Gunners claim valuable City scalp

Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner were on target as Arsenal struck a blow for the old guard against 10-man Manchester City, triumphing 3-0 at Eastlands.

City had been looking to reclaim second place in the Premier League but hopes of a fifth successive win were all but dashed with the early sending off of Dedryck Boyata.

Nasri put the Gunners ahead 20 minutes into a fiery contest and although Joe Hart kept City in contention with a penalty save from Cesc Fabregas, Song and Bendtner finished them off.

Victory lifted Arsenal back into the top four, above City on goal difference, and contradicted recent criticism of the Londoners' record against their perceived title rivals.

The momentum all appeared to be with City prior to the match, which was preceded by a memorial service and minute's applause for their late manager Malcolm Allison.

Carlos Tevez was back to lead the City line while Emmanuel Adebayor, despite a midweek hat-trick, was left on the bench against his former club.

And the hosts appeared in a rush to impress as Boyata, starting ahead of Joleon Lescott, released Tevez with a superb ball down the right after one minute.

Tevez raced beyond the defence and into the area but David Silva failed to make firm contact with his ball into the middle and Lukasz Fabianski saved his scuffed shot.

Tevez then set Micah Richards free down the right but this time Bacary Sagna slid in to deal with the cross.

Yet no sooner had City started to look dominant than Boyata, as the last man, was sent off for bringing down Marouane Chamakh as he raced onto a Fabregas ball.

Mark Clattenburg took time to consider his verdict but showed a straight red card. After that it became clear Clattenburg was in for a tough afternoon as the tackles started to fly in.

He booked Denilson for a late challenge on Tevez but showed restraint after Nigel de Jong felled Fabregas Gareth Barry was shown a yellow card for fouling the Spaniard but Song escaped such punishment for a bad tackle on Silva.

In terms of chances, City had the next when Tevez mishit a shot at Fabianski but Johan Djourou then headed over from a Sagna cross.

The opening goal came after 20 minutes as Nasri played a one-two with Andrey Arshavin on the edge of the box and clipped the ball over Joe Hart.

Fabregas, still being given close attention by City, was booked himself after tangling with De Jong. City responded by again attacking down the right as James Milner played Richards through.

Arsenal struggled to get back but were relieved as Richards checked back onto his left foot and screwed his shot wide. Song and Djourou also went into Clattenburg's notebook before the break after challenges on Silva and Tevez respectively.

The game refused to settle down and Clattenburg was called upon again as Vincent Kompany recklessly lunged in on Fabregas just inside the area. A penalty was the obvious outcome but Hart kept City in the game with a brilliant save from Fabregas' spot-kick.

Fabregas had another opportunity early in the second half after combining well with Chamakh and Nasri but his first-time shot was weak and easily saved by Hart.

City boss Roberto Mancini decided to make a bold change after 52 minutes, gambling on the determination of Adebayor to impress and removing usual talisman Tevez.

An intricate move saw Milner feed Silva inside the box and the Spaniard's curving right-foot shot was brilliantly tipped wide by Fabianski. Adebayor had a chance from the resulting corner but Fabianski's presence forced him to direct his header over.

Arshavin then drilled a shot straight at Hart from 20 yards as Arsenal continued to push. Song finished City off in the 66th minute when he grabbed an opportunistic second for the visitors.

Wayne Bridge had blocked a Fabregas pass intended for Chamakh but the ball ran loose and Song, unchallenged, pounced to smash it into the top corner.

Adebayor raised City fans' spirits when he forced a fine save from Fabianski with a firm header but a flag had already been raised for offside.

There was a stoppage 15 minutes from time when an object appeared to be thrown from the crowd as Arsenal prepared to take a corner.

Substitute Bendtner put the result beyond any doubt five minutes from time when he raced clear and finished from a tight angle. Fit-again £23 million signing Mario Balotelli went close to a late consolation when he forced Fabianksi to tip over.

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 24 Oct 10

Wenger's reaction to the Manchester City 0-3 Arsenal match

On a good away win…
It was under special circumstances maybe a little bit but for us it was important to get a win in a big place to strengthen the belief of the squad and continue our march forward. What I think we did today [we did with] intelligence and overall the needed performance to play against ten men.

On the sending off...
It looked to me it was a sending off from the bench and that the referee had no option.

On the number of tackles in the first half…
After the sending off it became a bit electric. We got some yellow cards I felt were quite quick but then it was important for us not to get a second yellow. I asked the players at half time to focus on playing in a positive way and to try to score a second goal. To try and get us to focus on football and not just defending our advantage. You could see that for the whole game as long as it was not 2-0 we played with the feeling that ‘we need to win, we need to win’ and there was a little bit of restriction in our game. After [we made it] 2-0 it became easier.

On the positive reaction of his players after the penalty miss…
What people forget [is that] at Sunderland we were down to ten men and we dominated completely the second half, we missed the penalty and conceded an equaliser in the last minute of the game. Today it was a reverse but overall I am very pleased because we look like we have matured.

On Samir Nasri’s progress…
He is becoming more efficient. I think he has become stronger physically and you judge a player with his numbers. Today he had a goal and an assist so that’s what you want from players who have a lot of talent like he has. He is quite a complete player because he can run with the ball, he is quick and he is a clinical finisher now. I believe we have a great player in him now.

On Lukasz Fabianski’s performance…
From game to game he shows what we see in training. Sometimes in our job you have to be steady and fight against opinions. It’s easier for you when you know the player has the talent and I believe he has the talent.

On whether he will be number one when Manuel Almunia returns…
I never say that definitely because you always want the freedom to change when it is needed. At the moment looking at his performances you can absolutely not fault him at all.

On how his team has matured…
In terms of negotiating in an intelligent way the difficulties of the game. That means not getting a red card today, being patient when that was needed and I think collectively we dominated completely the game.

On the win being the first in ten games against a 'big' side...
I can’t explain to you why but it is true. In some games we were close to winning and finally we just lost. For example at Chelsea we lost 2-0 - when you watch the game again it’s difficult to understand how we lost the game apart from the fact that they took two great chances. It was a level game. I hope that will give us the belief and the confidence to transfer that into other games.

On whether there is more to come from Nasri...
At 23 years old your career starts at the top level.

Source: Arsenal.com on 24 Oct 10

24 October 2010: Manchester City 0-3 Arsenal, City of Manchester Stadium

Arsenal climbed back to second place in the Premier League with a crucial 3-0 win at Manchester City on Sunday.

Goals from Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner secured the points in a confidence-boosting afternoon for Arsène Wenger’s side. However the turning point of the game occurred as early as the fourth minute when Manchester City defender Dedryck Boyata was dismissed for a last-man foul on Marouane Chamakh.

The red card certainly affected the Sky Blues but a highly-effective Arsenal side made them pay. They took the lead, recovered when Joe Hart saved a Cesc Fabregas penalty, withstood Manchester City pressure and then pushed on for the three points.

Make no mistake, this game was massive for Arsenal. They had something to prove to themselves as well as others after the defeat at Chelsea earlier in the month.

Although this was not exactly the performance of champions, it was the type of result champions pull off.

At this rate, Wenger’s side WILL be part of the title race until May.

The manager made three changes from the side that has won so handsomely against Shakhtar in midweek. Jack Wilshere started his three-game suspension so Denilson came into central midfield. The fit-again Bacary Sagna was back for Emmanuel Eboue while Andrey Arshavin replaced Tomas Rosicky.

This was not a traditional ‘Big Four’ game but you could argue Manchester City had taken over the position vacated by Liverpool over the course of the last 18 months. And, of course, Wenger's men had built up a poor record in recent seasons against direct title challengers.

That simply had to change.

For all their possession at Chelsea, they had left without the points – and it was only those that would keep Arsenal in the title race.

However while Wenger's men started wonderfully in West London that day, the opening stages at Eastlands would belong to the home side. Manchester City were lively and vibrant – the exact opposite of the way they would end the game.

In the second minute, Carlos Tevez tricked Djourou in to a mistimed challenge on the right. The Argentinean scuttled to the byline and cut the ball back into the heart of the six-yard box. David Silva’s backflick was instant and goalbound. Fabianski thrust out his right hand and clutched the ball on the line.

A couple of minutes later, Yaya Toure broke down the same flank and Sagna hacked the ball away.

Arsenal had made a nervous start and needed a break.

In the fourth minute, they got one.

Fabregas sent Chamakh clear in the right-hand channel with Boyata in hot pursuit. The Moroccan poked the ball clear of the Belgian defender and was brought down just outside the area. As the centre back was the last man a red card was inevitable.

The sides swapped bookings in the minutes that followed. A tense affair was now becoming tetchy too.

Fabianski made a simple save after confusion in the Arsenal defence allowed Tevez a glimpse of goal.

In the 17th minute, Fabregas worked the ball wide to Sagna, whose cross was nodded over by the unmarked Djourou at the near post.

There was a feeling that Arsenal were settling down.

Something that was confirmed by the opening goal a couple of minutes later.

Nasri collected the ball on the right and played it to Arshavin before darting into the area. The Russian waited for his colleague to overlap then fed him the perfect pass. Nasri delayed his shot until Hart was committed and then lifted his shot over the stranded keeper. It was his seventh goal in his last six starts.

The game was now the polar opposite of the first minutes. Manchester City were nervous and inhibited, Arsenal composed.

However the home side might have been level just before the half-hour. James Milner’s ball sent Micah Richards clear on the right. The defender weaved inside and tried to curl a shot into the far corner. Fortunately for Arsenal he sliced his effort wide.

The chance was an anomaly. Broadly speaking the visitors were in command. And they had a chance to strangle the game six minutes from the break when Vincent Kompany clipped Fabregas just inside the area.

The Spaniard stepped up to take the spot-kick. His contact was decent but Joe Hart threw himself to his left to make a fine save. It was the third penalty Arsenal had missed this season.

It was also the shot in the arm that Manchester City had needed. Before half-time Kompany nodded narrowly over the bar from Silva’s corner and, just before the whistle, the Spanish striker miscontrolled a through ball when well-placed.

Both sides went into the tunnel with something to think about. Arsenal had the advantages of a goal and a man but, in reality, were not in complete control. Manchester City had limped through the first half after that double blow but they had created enough to feel they were in with a sniff.

However in the opening moments of the second half, that chance was almost extinguished. The visitors attacked with purpose down the left and, had the ball properly fallen at the feet of Fabregas or Chamakh, Arsenal would have grabbed an early second.

Mancini had made a change at the break – Wayne Bridge for Toure. Six minutes into the second half, he made another - Emmanuel Adebayor for the limping Tevez.

The latter move was guaranteed to shake up the match but it also heralded Manchester City’s best period.

In the 57th minute, Silva darted into the area and, from an acute angle, let fly. It would have found the far corner but for a wonderful touch by Fabianski.

The Arsenal keeper was starting to be over-employed. A couple of minutes later, the Pole missed his punch and Adebayor nodded over the bar.

You sensed it was now or never for Manchester City. They had been chasing the game ever since the sending off and had to redress the balance at this point.

In fact Arsenal would double their lead.

In the 65th minute, Nasri and Fabregas combined on the right of the area and tried to slip in Chamakh. However Bridge got a toe on the ball and it turned into a perfect lay-off for Song, who fired first-time into the top corner.

The goal pretty much sucked the life out of Manchester City. They nearly got an immediate response when Adebayor’s header was brilliantly palmed away by Fabianski. Neither knew the chance had been flagged offside. Apart from that, the visitors were now exerting proper control.

Tomas Rosicky’s dangerous-looking cross toward Denilson was touched aside for a corner and Chamakh thundered a shot high over the bar.

Two minutes from time, substitute Bendtner raced clear on to Nasri’s through-ball and slotted his first goal of the season past Hart.

Fabianski saved wonderfully from Boateng to preserve Arsenal's first Premier League clean-sheet away from home for almost 10 months. In injury time, Sagna steered a shot inches past the far post.

At the whistle, the home fans threw their anger at referee Mark Clattenburg. However this afternoon the official had got the key decisions right.

All Arsenal had done was take full advantage.

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 24 Oct 10

Match Preview: Manchester City vs Arsenal

In football, reputations can be hard to shake.

Over the past 14 years, Arsène Wenger’s Arsenal have been labelled with many terms – good and bad. You can pretty much take your pick from a rainbow of colourful tabloid terms – from fluent to fragile, irresistible to ill-disciplined.

But there is one description that the Frenchman will not accept anymore.

Soft.

Arsenal head to Manchester City on Sunday for a game that has massive implications for their season.

By May it seems likely that Roberto Mancini’s big-spending side will have formally taken Liverpool’s seat at the Big Four table. The sky blue side now have sky-high expectations and the hype surrounding them is following the same trajectory.

But then Sunday is seismic for Arsenal now. Having played so well for no reward at Chelsea last month, Wenger requires the performance AND the points at Eastlands.

Otherwise you may hear them, albeit prematurely, labelled ‘also-rans’ on Monday.

While the defeat at Stamford Bridge was a crushing disappointment in certain respects, for the manager at least, it did have significant benefits. Like nailing that ‘soft’ reputation for good.

“I still get this criticism a lot,” he said. “But I feel we have matured. Yes we lost the game at Chelsea but I never felt that was because we were too soft. I never felt we were dominated physically.

“On the day they scored two exception goals but overall we had as many chances and as much of the game as they had. We are close to really showing our special quality. But we have to transfer that into a big title game.

“I feel we are a much more competitive side now. At 18 or 19 years of age - unless you have exceptions - you do not have the same body build and experience. You can be impressed upon a bit more at 18 than 22 or 23 because you are a man at 23.

“So we are not anymore what I could sometimes see - a soft team. That’s finished.”

There may be only one place between Manchester City and Arsenal right now but the contrasts are stark. They are arguably the two most financially secure clubs in the top flight but have achieved that status by vastly different means.

Meanwhile the distinction in playing styles is best illustrated by the following stat. Arsenal have had 121 goal attempts this season in the Premier League, the highest in the division. Manchester City may have acquired an array of costly forwards but they have mustered only 70 – the fourth lowest tally.

If we are sticking with labels then Arsenal are “cavalier” and City are “cagey”.

However, importantly, Wenger rejects the notion that Mancini’s midfield heavily favours destruction over construction.

“I expect them to play De Jong, Barry and Yaya Toure,” he said. “They are three midfielders who can both defend and attack. Even Yaya Toure is as well a creative player, he is not only defensive.”

Bacary Sagna returns for Arsenal following a thigh injury but, as expected, Laurent Koscielny (back) will not figure. Jack Wilshere starts his three-game suspension but Cesc Fabregas is available and working his way back to full sharpness after a month out. Significantly the Spaniard was not present at Stamford Bridge.

Right now, Arsenal need a big win.

They were beaten home and away by both Manchester United and Chelsea last season while Manchester City might have done the same thing if Mancini had shown more ambition at Emirates Stadium late in the campaign.

The Frenchman is right to draw positives from the Stamford Bridge game but a defeat is still a defeat. No-one wants to be a gallant loser for long.

Between 1996 and 2006 Arsenal won seven straight League games at Manchester City but the home side have since won three out of four – including an explosive 4-2 early last season.

“The big games are always decided by the first goal,” remembered Wenger. “In that match Manchester City scored the first goal and then they took advantage.

“But in the big games you have to do first what you do normally. You always feel you are under special pressure to perform exceptionally but it is a matter of just focussing on doing well what you know you can do. We have to relax and play our game.

“For me, overall Manchester City are a side in the same level as Manchester United.

“But I am convinced that we convinced people we can stay in this title race with our game at Chelsea. What we want to do is transform a good performance into a positive result.

“Let’s just turn up with the same attitude and the same performance again and I’m sure we will not always be unlucky.”

‘Unfortunate’. Now that would be surely the worst reputation of all.

But in the end, it is down to Arsenal to make a name for themselves on Sunday.

Source: Richard Clarke, Arsenal.com on 24 Oct 10

Walcott confident ahead of City test

Theo Walcott is confident Arsenal can stop big-spending Manchester City in their tracks at Eastlands on Sunday.

Arsenal face another stern test of their title credentials against City, whose owners have bankrolled an unprecedented spending spree in an attempt to become the dominant force in the Premier League.

The extraordinary investment appears to be paying off this season, as Roberto Mancini's men head into the weekend's fixtures just two points behind leaders Chelsea, three in front of Arsenal.

However, Walcott - fit again after suffering ankle ligament damage while on international duty for England against Switzerland in September - feels the Gunners can use the momentum from their midweek 5-1 Champions League demolition of Shakhtar Donetsk to get a result against the Blues.

"Man City have some fantastic players, but we have just to take the positives from the Shakhtar game and I am sure we will be fine," Walcott said. "They are starting to gel now and so only time will tell where they can be.

"Beating Chelsea at their place shows City are very strong, and against Blackpool they showed that they can grind out a result. Hopefully, though, we can stutter their season and try to get a win for us."

He added: "What is good for the Premier League is that you really do not know what is going to happen every week. It is very open now and is going to be very tight this season.

"We are only five points behind. We always want to be part of the title race and to be on that podium at the end of the season."

Walcott has been plagued by a succession of injury set-backs, which arguably cost him a place in the World Cup squad, but he is not going to let it play on his mind as he looks to terrorise defenders with his pace.

"I am a player who gets kicked all the time, so I just have to get up from it and move on. That is all you can do. Hopefully through training I can get back to the physical side of things with my ankle - I have only been whacked on it once so probably need a couple more just to make sure it is okay.

"I am sure I will take a few whacks and bruises, but I am sure I will be fine."

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 23 Oct 10

Gaël Clichy: Ending Arsenal trophy drought has become an obsession

France's chaotic World Cup has only added to the Arsenal defender's burning desire.

Everybody knows what France did last summer and, equally, everybody knows what Arsenal's players have not done for the past five seasons. Take a World Cup meltdown or a club trophy drought in isolation and they represent potent motivational forces. Combine the two for Gaël Clichy and it is a wonder that he does not begin to froth at the mouth.

The defender is, among others things, the ultimate test of a journalist's short-hand and, as he bombs along at speeds in excess of 200 words per minute, he radiates excitement and enthusiasm. The 25-year-old from Toulouse is an infectious kind of guy, engaging and articulate in his second language and ever quick to challenge perceptions, particularly those that have built around Arsenal.

It is when he slows, though, to offer a simple response that he kicks open the door to his soul. Clichy is Arsenal's longest-serving player, a small but important part of the "Invincibles" Premier League triumph from 2003-04, who then missed out on the FA Cup victory of 2005 because of injury. He wants so desperately to find a cure to the emptiness that has come to characterise the end of Arsenal's seasons. "It has become an obsession," he says simply.

Clichy has heard the explanations a thousand times, the put-downs, and the doom and gloom. Arsenal can be a beautiful team but they fall short against the biggest opposition when it matters most. They can look lightweight and frivolous. Where is the clinical edge? Where is the winning mentality? If the criticism exasperates Arsène Wenger, then it also grates like fingernails on a chalkboard with the players.

"When you play for a club like Arsenal," Clichy says, "you don't lack the mentality. You are a winner. To be at the top level, whether it's NBA, NFL or whatever, you are a winner. If we play for Arsenal instead of another club in another country with smaller teams, it's because we have the winning mentality. After, it is other things that make the difference."

Those things, according to Clichy, are the minutiae, which can include the bounce of the ball, a split second's hesitation or the taking of a simple chance. He argues that the league match at Chelsea three weeks ago, which finished in a 2-0 defeat, would have played out differently if his team had accepted presentable early opportunities.

Then, there are the factors such as games after an international break against opponents who have few internationals, general fatigue and, invariably in Arsenal's case, injuries. Clichy's friend and team‑mate Theo Walcott once mused that he wished injuries "could be turned off, like in a PlayStation game", so that we could truly see which was the best team over the course of a season. It routinely feels as though Arsenal carry more injuries than their rivals.

"You don't want to hide behind this but come on," Clichy says. "At Chelsea, we missed Van Persie, Fábregas, Walcott, who was on fire, and Vermaelen. Take off Drogba, Lampard, Malouda and Terry from Chelsea and it's a different story. The fact is we've been without some massive players and it's quite difficult to cope. Football is sometimes not just as simple as 'you are the best team so you are going to win'."

Clichy believes that Arsenal are a "stronger side, with greater strength on the bench", compared to last season, when they remained in contention for the title in April, only to finish 11 points off the pace. This time out, he feels, it is a question of keeping the faith and hoping that fate deals them better cards. When you are so close in your own mind, the torturous yearning surely intensifies.

Tomorrow's visit to Manchester City is significant on many levels, not least as it pits two contrasting business models against one another. Wenger has long championed balanced books, sustainability and gradual development; City intend to blow that and everything else out of the water with their eye-watering spending power.

"Arsenal are one of the only big clubs in the world that is not losing any money," Clichy says. "With less money, we are managing to get to semi-finals, for example, and with young players. We have to give credit for this.

"Of course, this is not enough for people, football is about trophies and, in terms of trophies, we are not there yet. We need to win trophies but it is certain that Arsenal will be challenging for many years."

Clichy's competitive instincts, though, tend to hold sway. He welcomes the influx of fresh quality to the Premier League that City's petrodollars have permitted, reasoning that "you always want to play against the best" and he finds himself stimulated by the project at Eastlands.

"City have to be considered as title contenders," he says. "The question is not: 'Can they compete?' They have to compete. People don't accept how Arsenal are not performing and so City cannot spend all this money and just keep on finishing fifth or sixth or whatever. The pressure is on for them. They have built an incredible squad but now they must deliver."

For Clichy, the challenges keep on coming. In the Premier League, there is not only City and the more established top clubs but a larger and increasingly robust chasing pack. And at international level, there is the small matter of fashioning a new dawn under Laurent Blanc after the shame and regret of the World Cup finals.

Clichy went to South Africa with four caps to his name and dreams before his eyes. He returned as one of France's humiliated band of brothers, who sparked outrage with their ill-conceived decision effectively to go on strike in protest over Nicolas Anelka's expulsion from the squad.

Clichy's tournament was not all bad. He started in France's final group tie against South Africa and nobody can take away from him the fact that he has played at a World Cup. But his reflections on South Africa centre upon it being "a good experience in a bad way".

"It's a new generation, a new chapter now," Clichy says. "We're trying to give our best and get back the fans because that's important. As a professional footballer you need something to drive you and the disappointment of the World Cup does that. I have a double objective this season – to do well for Arsenal which, in turn, will hopefully allow me to do well for France."

Arsenal's quest for success continues to be built on the squad's togetherness. It was tested in the close-season with the latest instalment of the Cesc Fábregas-Barcelona saga but Clichy's take on whether the team has to win a trophy to keep the likes of the captain and Robin van Persie next summer is interesting.

"It's too easy just to leave if the team doesn't win things," Clichy says. "The challenge is to stay and help the team achieve glory. And who can assure that by leaving, you are guaranteed trophies?

"We have the examples of Alex Hleb, of Mathieu Flamini [who left for Barcelona and Milan, respectively]. Maybe you win a few trophies but you only play 10 games. And nobody can be assured that by going to a certain club, you are going to win the Champions League.

"Cesc is like Thierry Henry when he was here or Patrick Vieira, who was wanted by Real Madrid. You know as a team you are doing something right when great clubs are after your best players, you know that you have a truly amazing player. Besides, nobody can question the commitment of Cesc. Whatever he is thinking – when he puts on the shirt he is 100% committed and he was our best player in his first five games this season. That showed the character of the guy."

Single-mindedness. Professionalism. Obsession. It is what drives the very best. Clichy now wants the reward.

Source: David Hytner, The Guardian on 23 Oct 10

Arsène Wenger: Manchester City have become rivals to match United

Arsène Wenger believes tomorrow's opponents, Manchester City, can form a rivalry with Arsenal to match the one the Gunners already have with Manchester United. Roberto Mancini's side, who are second in the table and three points better off, having spent heavily on players last summer.

Asked whether City may be about to compete as fiercely as United have done, the manager said: "Of course. City now will be one of the contenders because they are not at the end of an investment cycle. It looks like they are at the start of it, so you have to consider them as one of the teams that will challenge."

Mancini's lavish investment last summer included David Silva (£30m) Mario Balotelli (£22.5m), James Milner (£26m) and Yaya Touré (£25m), and Wenger admitted the petro-billions of the owner, sheikh Mansour, have affected Arsenal. "At the start they [were] not at the same level football-wise but when they are at the same level football-wise, it will be easier for them to attract the players."

When Roman Abramovich took over Chelsea in the summer of 2003, the Russian oligarch also spent heavily. Wenger was asked whether Manchester City are the new Chelsea. "I know what they paid for our players, that's it," he said. "You know as well as I know I am not interested to speak about Manchester City." City bought Emmanuel Adebayor for £25m and Kolo Touré for £14m, and Wenger seemed to hint that Arsenal had hiked their prices.

When the question was posed, the Frenchman followed a long silence by saying "no" and then laughed.

Despite Mancini's ability to operate at the top of the transfer marker, Wenger said he is not envious of the Italian: "I am happy where I am and I work in the way I work. I could do it [work with Mancini's level of finance] but he has his own problems and I have my problems."

Whereas City have a seemingly endless supply of money, Arsenal are the Premier League club with the firmest financial footing, as they have reduced the debt on the Emirates stadium and show a profit each year. What, then, is the best model, City's or Arsenal's? "It is a different way," Wenger said. "In our own way, we are [also] at the start of a cycle.That's what is good in football. Every club can work with his own rules. Sometimes it is an advantage for the players.

"You see today, Wayne Rooney has signed a five-year contract. Certainly, the threat of City behind [them] made Manchester United respond as well. The players are the beneficiaries."

Adebayor scored against Arsenal at Eastlands in City's 4-2 win early last season, a goal he followed with a pitch-long sprint to memorably celebrate in front of the Gunners' fans. The centre-forward also scored a hat-trick yesterday in the Europa League, against Lech Poznan, yet with Mancini often favouring Carlos Tevez at the head of a 4-5-1, there is no guarantee Adebayor will face his former club.

"He will be determined to play but he will not decide that," Wenger said. "What I can master is the team that I will play, and the way we focus and the way we play. We feel we have, of course, won again [twice in the past week] and we are very close to doing something special. There is a good spirit in the side, we have seen already at Chelsea that we are close to winning these big games and that is what we want to do."

Wenger said he and his players have never considered whether they should forgive Adebayor for the overzealous goal celebration. "We never spoke about that. I am sure we have forgotten that. We are all focused on putting in a good performance on Sunday. We have played so many games since that we don't even care about that now."

Wenger expects Andrey Arshavin, 29, to stay beyond the end of his current contract, which has two years to run. "I think he has a long future at the club," he said.

Source: Jamie Jackson, The Guardian on 22 Oct 10

A Maturing Talent to Go With a Mature Spirit

Every night in European soccer turns a new page, offers up new perspectives.

When the Champions League resumed Tuesday, it brought good, solid evidence to suggest that Real Madrid and Chelsea will not be far away when this season’s top prize is contested at Wembley stadium in London next May.

It also brought a reminder than when Arsenal is on its game, its youthful élan can be pretty irresistible.

And it brought sad portents that Italy, despite holding the Champions League crown through Inter Milan, can at the same time look like a soccer nation in decline. The A.C. Milan side that lost, 2-0, in Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid had a careworn, aging and at times apparently disinterested appearance.

Roma looked even worse. Playing at home, in front of a pitifully small crowd in the Olimpico, Francesco Totti and company surrendered, 3-1, to Basel. “We started badly,” the Roma coach, Claudio Ranieri, lamented. “Approach was bad. We were too far apart and disjointed.”

In what sounded like a resignation speech, though he immediately insisted it was nothing of the kind, the coach said at his postgame news conference that he had asked his players why their performance was so sluggish.

“They can’t answer,” he said, “and neither can I. We have to figure out why we can give our best in some games and not in others.” Around the same time, in Madrid, the Milan coach, Massimo Allegri, was giving his own mea culpa. “Our approach was all wrong tonight,” he confessed.

“With all respect to Madrid, one of the best teams in the world, I think we made their lives very easy with a soft approach.” Their frankness might be commendable, but if the coaches are not responsible for the attitude of their teams, who is? When things are so wrong, when aging stars like Totti or Clarence Seedorf no longer seem to muster the urgency or the pace to compete at the highest levels, the coach has to react.

Of course, Seedorf, with all that he has achieved, and Totti, with all the gifts he was given, are the first choice on any team as long as they still can do it. Their experience, alone, is invaluable.

But it cannot be deemed irreplaceable. Sports are ruthless about that fact.

Athletes age, and there comes a time when they have to be replaced for the good of the team.

“Genius is great when it’s on song,” the former Manchester City manager Joe Mercer used to say. “But when it goes off, it contaminates.” Harsh judgment, but with a searing ring of truth.

But where, in these times of financial restraints, is the money to replace them? How can once competitive clubs compete with Real Madrid, Chelsea or Manchester City, whose wealth allows them to outspend all the rest and attract the very best? The answer has to be to nurture the next generation. And Tuesday gave an example of that, too.

Arsenal’s manager, Arsène Wenger, is an incorrigible cultivator of young talents. He trusts youth more than he does aging stars, and he at times almost willfully gives a young lad a chance at the expense, as many an Arsenal fan sees it, of spending a fortune on big-name players.

The youngster at the heart of Arsenal’s 5-1 crushing of Shakhtar Donetsk in London on Tuesday was Jack Wilshere.

Living and training with skilled midfield internationalists like Cesc Fàbregas, Tomas Rosicky, Samir Nasri and Andrey Arshavin must impress the 18-year-old English apprentice. Impress him, but not make him feel in the least bit inferior.

Wilshere - born 30 miles, or about 50 kilometers, from Arsenal’s home stadium - has been growing toward the first team for two years now. Arsenal has worked on his talent since he was 12, and the head of Arsenal’s youth academy, Liam Brady, has tried all he knows to keep the precocious youth’s feet on level ground.

Brady, one of the finest playmakers of world soccer, knows that such a talent is born. But attitude and aptitude, the very things experienced coaches were despairing about on Tuesday, have to be learned.

Wilshere has the best of examples right beside him on the field. He only has to remember how Fàbregas was thrown into Arsenal’s side as a 16-year-old, and how Fàbregas grew, game by game, into a young leader of the men around him.

But Fàbregas belonged to Barcelona before he arrived at Arsenal. And Fabregas, we believe, will go home to Barça one day - maybe even as early as next spring.

It seems to be a given that Fàbregas will go, and Wilshere will inherit his role.

In terms of that progression, we have just witnessed back-to-back examples of Wilshere’s initiation. Last Saturday, he was rightly red-carded for a reckless tackle in an English Premier League match. Unlike some senior pros who foul and then rail against the punishment, Wilshere apologized for his mistimed attempt to win the ball.

He apologized in person to the opponent, to the referee and to his coach.

Wenger told him to learn the lesson, and atone in the next match.

That came Tuesday. Donetsk has a blend of Ukrainians and Brazilians, but Wilshere left them in his wake. His ability to read moves ahead of time is exceptional — like Fàbregas’s.

His accuracy in making a pass, sprinting to receive a return pass, then going onward and upward into goal-scoring or goal-making situations is innate.

“Jack’s maturity is miles ahead of his age,” Wenger said Tuesday. “He can play in any position across the midfield, or he can play behind the striker, because he can penetrate.” Indeed he can. One of Arsenal’s five goals, the finest one, was Wilshere’s hallmark. He shaped the goal and scored it. He gave short passes to two willing teammates, and drifted into spaces between the Donetsk defenders to receive it back.

The coup de grâce was his ability — almost a sixth sense — to wait a split second until goalie Andriy Pyatov went to the ground. The instant the keeper did so, the kid gently lifted the ball over him into the net.

As easy as shelling peas.

Source: Rob Hughes, The New York Times on 20 Oct 10

Arsène Wenger says Cesc Fábregas will stay at Arsenal for 'many years'

Arsène Wenger has said he is confident that Cesc Fábregas will remain an Arsenal player for "many years" to come, as the club's chief executive told shareholders that football's shifting economic sands and new European regulations would play in their favour.

Speaking at the club's annual general meeting, Wenger said Fábregas, the subject of intense interest and a £35m bid from his boyhood club Barcelona in the summer, stayed because he "loves Arsenal deeply". The manager said: "You also have to remember that Barcelona has an attraction, because he grew up there, but I believe he wants to win with this club. For how long? You never know but hopefully for many years."

"It is about our potential to win also, how well he can do. I am not pessimistic about him and I am confident we will keep him for a few more years."

Wenger, aware of the pressure to win the club's first trophy since 2005, faced questions from shareholders about his failure to buy a goalkeeper this summer and the side's defensive frailties. He said there was money available to add to the team in January but called on fans to trust him and get behind the team before Sunday's match at Manchester City.

"I see a real opportunity to have great achievements this season – we have the spirit, talent, hunger and desire," he said. "I do not say there are no weaknesses but we work very hard."

Wenger, who has been accused of undervaluing the domestic cups, said: "We will go for every single competition this season with every resource we have and we will give absolutely everything."

Wenger sidestepped a question from the floor about whether he would be interested in signing Wayne Rooney, saying the subject was "too sensitive". But he said the Manchester United striker's attempt to force the situation was a further example of the "inflationary" effect of the current system and the power of players since the Bosman ruling.

"It shows you how fragile the position of any club is at the moment, considering the length of contracts of players," he said. "When the players reach two years before the end of the contract, if you want to keep the value of it, you have to extend it or he will go for nothing in the end. The system is inflationary."

Wenger, who turns 62 tomorrow and recently signed a contract tying him to the club until 2014, vowed to continue in charge of the "club of my heart and my life" as long as he was physically able.

Ivan Gazidis, the club's chief executive, said recent results, which revealed pre-tax profits of £56m and showed the club no longer carried any debt attached to its property deals, proved its self-sustaining business model was working and left it well-placed to prosper under Uefa's financial fair-play regulations that are due to be introduced in 2012-13.

Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman, said that a "world-class" new commercial management team would be responsible for ensuring that the one-off cash injection from the property sales was replaced by new revenue streams.

Gazidis also made reference to the fact that Arsenal's major shareholders did not take a dividend, meaning "everything we earn [goes] back into the club", drawing an unspoken comparison to the situation at Liverpool under their former owners and Manchester United under the Glazers.

"Our club has built everything it has and everything it represents without relying on outside investment for success," Gazidis said, this time bringing to mind the benefactors at Manchester City and Chelsea.

"This is a challenging path to tread," he told the AGM, "but we have earned our independence. We do not have to rely on anybody but ourselves for future success. However, we have to keep moving forwards – standing still is not and never has been an option."

Members of the Arsenal Supporters' Trust fanshare scheme, which the sports minister, Hugh Robertson, believes could be a model for supporter representation at other clubs, were also present at the meeting, alongside Stan Kroenke, the club's largest shareholder.

Source: Owen Gibson, The Guardian on 21 Oct 10

A comfortable evening at the Arsenal Stadium

I expected more from Shakhtar Donetsk, just as I expected more from Braga. I guess, as Arsenal fans, some of us can be ultra-critical of our team, but the view from outside is sometimes very different. The club certainly has a reputation on the continent, and it seems that many sides come to Arsenal in the Champions League already defeated. Damage limitation seems to be the order of the day from the moment they step out onto the pitch.

As Arsenal have been in the top set of seeds in this competition for a number of seasons now, the opposition in these groups often seems to feature relatively unglamorous teams. I recall being in a group with Inter Milan a few years ago, but since then, my memory is struggling to recall many crunch encounters until the knockout stages. And for this reason, the 60,000 plus attendance given at the stadium last night was certainly nowhere near a reflection on the number of bums on seats. Many choose not to come for any of the group matches. The preference is presumably to have the feet up in front of the fire with the game on the TV after a day at work. Watching the half-time highlights of other matches, I pondered briefly whether Roma’s match v Basel might have been played behind closed doors. It’s difficult to knock the number of people that did turn up to watch Arsenal when you see stadiums as empty as that. On this level, the Champions League, although a commercial success, sure doesn’t capture the imagination of football supporters before the turn of the year. There comes a point where games are just being played for the sake of fulfilling the schedule, with seemingly little at stake. This will surely be the case by the time Arsenal entertain Partizan Belgrade and maybe even the game before when they visit Braga.

In a sense, it is a triumph that so many people do come, but having paid for the ticket (these games being on the season tickets), I guess many think they might as well get their money’s worth. And in fairness, they were rewarded last night with an authoritative Arsenal performance. I guess Diaby was injured as thankfully Wilshere remained Song’s partner with the return of Cesc Fabregas. It will be the last we see of young Jack for a couple of weeks, and he will be missed at Manchester City. It was interesting to see that the moment Cesc went off, he moved forward into the skipper’s position and scored. It looks like the shape of things to come, so it will be intriguing to see what the manager does with the £40 million or so that the club receive for their captain next summer. Other areas might be addressed rather than a direct replacement. Then again, going on past times, the money might not be spent at all!

Good as the spectacle was, I’d be interested to see what kind of crowd the club would have had in attendance if the seats were not on the season tickets. This surely was the case in Rome. I haven’t followed the fortunes of Shakhtar since Eduardo’s move there, but was surprised to see him on the bench. Maybe he is not a regular starter, which – given his price tag – certainly demonstrates the Ukrainians are not hard up. I have a recollection of a 3-2 win against them with Martin Keown scoring the winner in the Highbury days, but this game was nowhere near as closely contested. So much so that by the time Eduardo came on and found the net, Paul Burrell announced the goal in the style of one scored by the home team. That ain’t gonna happen often, but fair play to the PA man for capturing the mood of the moment. It was a corking volley too.

What distinguishes these matches from the bread and butter of the Premier League is that, often, there is no real physical resistance – by way of tackling – from the opposition. So Arsenal are allowed to play their football with sometimes devastating consequences. Of course, when the business end of the competition comes about and better teams come into view, then the script changes and Wenger’s lack of focus on defence pays its price. The refs are less indulgent as well, something which should actually benefit Arsenal throughout the competition, although it never seems to work out that way.

I’ve not much more to say about this match apart from well played Arsenal for doing the job at hand and doing it convincingly. The last word to the Highbury Spy, who sat next to me for this game (such is the plethora of empty seats on such nights). He saw a St George flag which simply read ‘The Arsenal’. He proposes we should re-name the club ‘The Arsenal’. Over to you Mr Gazidis…

Source: Kevin Whitcher, The Online Gooner on 20 Oct 10

How amazing is our Jack?

To my mind the only amazing thing about the Jack Wilshere story is that the media in England are not drooling all over him. You would have thought that with an absolute dearth of English creative midfielders capable of doing anything other than pass sideways (Lampard, Barry or Carrick) the English footballing media would be going totally OTT about a new potential saviour of the English game. The only Englishmen I can only think of who have shown such amazing ability at such a young age are Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne, Wayne Rooney or Michael Owen.

Is it because the media now expect Wenger's 18 year-olds to be more technically gifted than all the other Premiership's under twenty-ones that they're not eulogising about such a rare creature as a technically gifted Englishman? Or is it because they wouldn't recognise a real footballer if he bit them in the arse? Or is it perhaps, more probably, because they've all nailed their colours to the Wenger's destroying English football rollocks?

Charlie George, Liam Brady, Cesc Fabregas and now Jack Wilshere - you just knew how much you were going to enjoy them in years to come from the very first touch you saw them play in the first team. Just as with Charlie, Liam and Cesc you know that as Jack starts his career he's a long way from being the finished article but you also have no doubts whatsoever that he has the potential to be as good if not better than any of them. Jack glides past players like Liam, just as if he's on rollers rather than running. Also similar to Liam is his ability to maintain total control of the ball without even looking at it and by using any part of his foot from whatever angle to control it. As with Charlie he has a certain self-confidence that money just can't buy and an understated swagger which tells everyone that not only is he a class above the rest, but that he knows it and given the opportunity will prove it.

His similarity to Cesc is the way in which he seemingly knows where everyone on the pitch is at any given point, this comes from keeping his head up and perpetually looking around. He's busy like Cesc and not only always wants the ball but is usually in sufficient space to receive it. Just like Cesc he not only knows where everyone is at any given time but also their pace and direction of movement, so that any passes he makes appear to be instinctive rather than considered. Again as with both Cesc and Liam he knows where the ball will be going before it arrives and, as you will no doubt have observed, his passing range is seemingly limitless.

I doubt that his sending off on Saturday will be his last, but I love the fact that he's the sort of player that won't take crap from an opponent. It's time we had some more of those in the team and Jack is rather Berkampesque in that regard. He might be younger, shorter and less experienced than his opposite numbers but that that's not going to stop him putting it about whoever you might be. Try to kick him by all means, he knows you'll try and is expecting it, but you better be aware that is not going to be the last you hear or more probably feel regarding the matter. I love the way he can take it as well as dish it out, he almost always bounces straight up again when knocked down. For an eighteen year-old that's quite remarkable, but then again I have no doubt that opponents have been trying to kick him since he was about eight or nine so he's well practised in the art of tackle avoidance. An eighteen year-old. I have to keep repeating that because he doesn't play like an eighteen year-old. Technically he's eighteen going on about twenty-eight.

I get the impression he has a winning mentality but that has yet to be proved. I also reckon that in time we might see him unleash the sort of power shots that made Charlie the hero of the North Bank. I have no doubt also that there a lot more tricks in his locker that some day will amaze us in the way that Henry or Bergkamp did. Time will tell. I know it's far too early in his career to predict how it might go, I know he's yet to suffer the standard distractions that come the way of young men with far too much money. I know too that nothing is certain in life, I've seen a lot of players with potential who didn't make it big time but the idea of being there at first hand to watch Jack's career unfold is a fabulous prospect. It's also one I feel could well be worth the price of my season ticket in years to come.

Source: Brian Dawes, The Online Gooner on 19 Oct 10

Eduardo hails Arsenal fans for 'fantastic' reception

Eduardo says the rousing reception he received from Arsenal fans on Tuesday night made him feel like he still plays for the Premier League club.

The striker left Arsenal to join Shakhtar Donetsk in the summer and returned to Emirates Stadium for a Champions League fixture that Arsenal comfortably won 5-1. However, Eduardo scored the final goal of the night and despite seeing their side concede, Arsenal fans stood to applaud the striker and chant his name.

Memories of his sickening injury against Birmingham City in February 2008 are yet to fade and Eduardo clearly still has the sympathy of the Arsenal support. The Croatia international was certainly grateful for the reception afforded to him.

"It was great to come back here. It was unbelievable - it was like I still play for Arsenal," Eduardo said. "They called my name and it was fantastic."

Asked why he did not celebrate his goal, Eduardo explained: "I had a great time with many of the players and supporters and I had to respect that."

Meanwhile, Lukasz Fabianski says he feels "pretty confident" after assuming the role of Arsenal's first-choice goalkeeper with Manuel Almunia sidelined due to injury.

Fabianski has become known for a tendency to commit shocking errors in recent seasons but his five appearances this season have been largely without incident. The Pole is now looking forward to the weekend's tie against Manchester City as he aims to retain the jersey.

"I've had a small run of four matches now and I think I'm pretty confident on the pitch now,'' Fabianski. "I think it's always good for a 'keeper that he plays regularly and hopefully I can continue improving."

"It's a massive game for us [against City] because we want to be in the title race. We want to go there for sure to win the game. We have to win it."

Source: ESPN Soccernet on 20 Oct 10

A Welcome Return

Eduardo the latest in a long line of returning heroes.

It seems to me nowadays that, regular as clockwork, Arsenal face one of their legendary former sons every season in the Champions League. And true to form, this season is no different. Just as Vieira, Henry and Pires have returned to a rapturous reception, so too will Eduardo tomorrow night at the Arsenal Stadium.

Times like these, I really want to put together a commission to study how the draws are made for the Champions League, because this to me is one heck of a coincidence. But having said that, it is a very welcome one. As the doom and gloom factor has set in already this season, annoyingly early after a set of dodgy results and the usual deluge of injuries, tomorrow night we get the chance to celebrate and applaud Eduardo’s past contributions, and say the kind of goodbye that we fans never get to. And that can’t be all bad.

Too much of Eduardo’s three-year Arsenal career will be sadly connected to one dark day in Birmingham, but this should not overshadow all else about him. This was a striker whose red-hot streak of late 2007/early 2008 produced a strike rate that had Eddie mentioned in the same breath as Wrighty for his predatory finishing. This was also a striker whose return to fitness was inspirational, as the first victim of the horror tackles that now demand so many column inches in the media.

Twenty-two goals over three years may not sound that much on paper, but when some are of the kind of quality I got to witness on a drenching FA Cup afternoon against Burnley, you can forgive any notion of profligacy. That Eduardo never really rediscovered his form is undeniable; while he chipped in with the goals in 2009/10, in retrospect it made sense for him to move on with the arrival of Chamakh and the continued development of Vela.

Having said that, Eduardo was a player I didn’t want to see go, and a big part of that stems from the emotional investment that we all made into wishing him back to fitness, in the same way that we do for Ramsey now. Tonight, amid the pageantry of the Champions League, we get to pay homage to a player who came through what no player should have to, and I hope he gets the post-match standing ovation that he deserves.

As long as he doesn’t score a hat-trick.

Source: James Southby, The Online Gooner on 19 Oct 10

You can't buy instant team spirit, Cesc Fábregas tells Manchester City

Cesc Fábregas has told Manchester City, who Arsenal face on Sunday, that they may be able to afford the best players but their riches cannot buy them instant team spirit.

The Arsenal captain believes it is the key element Roberto Mancini will struggle to create despite being able to reach into the coffers of City's owner, Sheikh Mansour. "Of course you cannot buy it in one year," said the Spaniard, who returned from a hamstring injury in the Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk last night, scoring the third in a 5-1 win.

"You need a few years to get everyone together to know everyone well, all the players. It's not easy. You don't do it in one season or two, I would say. Of course they are in a very good position – they have all the ingredients to become a great club. We have to fight hard against them."

City are second in the league, three points ahead of Arsène Wenger's team going into the meeting at Eastlands. Wenger's ethos has been to buy modestly, and nurture homegrown talent but Fábregas was reluctant to criticise Mancini's lavish summer spending, which has included Mario Balotelli (£24m), James Milner (£26m) and Yaya Touré (£24m). "Everyone chooses their own politics, everyone decides how to win," he said. "They have a lot of money, they are taking advantage of it and that's it. It's not our style, but we respect everyone's decision."

City represent the latest test of Arsenal's ability to win the league, six years after the Invincibles went unbeaten to claim their last championship. "They are improving, they have a lot of money, they are buying good players so you expect them to be at the top level," Fábregas said. "It has always been difficult since I've been here to go to Manchester City. I remember my first few years – it was difficult but now they have some of the very best players in England."

Three weeks ago Chelsea defeated Arsenal 2-0 at Stamford Bridge. Tomas Rosicky, who operated on the right against Shahktar, is clear that City must now be beaten to indicate Arsenal are serious challengers. "It's a massive game. We couldn't wish for a better result before this game and we want to do better than against Chelsea," he said. "I think this team will show it. It was the same old story [against Chelsea]. How we presented ourselves there, we were very disappointed.

"But you ask whether we will go out from this game [against Donetsk] with the feeling we can do it: all this stuff, is just words. We need to finally show it on the pitch. We cannot always say we are unlucky, it doesn't work like that. It's time to prove it."

Rosicky said that while Wenger has not formally talked about the requirement to have a ruthless mentality, everyone at the club is conscious of it. "I wouldn't say we are discussing it, or we had meetings about it. But I think everybody has realised how it is and I know that I will say it again but we finally need to show it on the pitch. We have a great opportunity to show it on Sunday and this [result] was a good boost before the game."

Source: Jamie Jackson, The Guardian on 20 Oct 10

Imperious Gunners stroll on Eduardo return

They rose as one, all 60,000 of them, to acclaim the final scorer on a night full of goals. Familiar chants rang out around the stadium and the PA announcer enthusiastically bellowed his name to those in attendance. But the man who scored the goal remained silent as he turned back to the halfway line, with a furrowed brow and a distinct air of reluctance. It may be a surreal scenario, but that was precisely how Eduardo's goal for Shakhtar Donetsk was greeted at Emirates Stadium - a surely unprecedented turn of events, and one that demonstrated just how comfortable an evening this was for the Gunners as they won 5-1.

Thierry Henry and Robert Pires have both benefitted from warm receptions upon their returns with Barcelona and Villarreal in recent seasons, but there was something especially heartfelt about the welcome afforded to Eduardo, who departed in the summer, his Arsenal career brutally interrupted and then shortened by that horrendous leg break.

The issue of Eduardo's injury hung grimly and inescapably over this game, but stripping away such sentiment, the result was an emphatic one for his former side. Arsenal have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League for the past seven seasons and an eighth will surely follow after this disconcertingly easy procession. Arsene Wenger's suggestion in his programme notes that the Ukrainians are "one of the best sides in Europe" was perceptibly false on this evidence.

This stroll against Shakhtar hardly resembled a contest but, then again, the Gunners have been here before - Arsenal have lost only one of 25 Champions League fixtures at Emirates Stadium. Already this season, faced with the Arsenalistas of Braga - a team who drew inspiration from this enclave of North London when choosing their livery - Arsenal have rattled in six goals. Against a Shakhtar side known for their pretty passing, they dominated another team in their own image and plundered five.

Ukraine's premier club side made headlines on their previous visit to London when, prior to a Europa League game against Fulham last season, they were denied access to Harrods. Once again on Tuesday, they were treated like interlopers at another London institution and quickly ushered out of town without so much as a point in their bag. Two years ago they won Europe's second cup competition; on Tuesday, having won their previous seven games, they were nigh on humiliated.

In response to whether the game was in fact too easy for Arsenal, Wenger replied: "When you win 1-0 it's too difficult, when you win 5-1 you think it's too easy. It's difficult to assess why you win 5-1. I think tonight we had an intelligent team attitude and a good tactical level. We made it easy because we had a good team performance. I believe our technical quality slowly got them tired."

Of course such consistency on Arsenal's part - enforced here by goals from Alex Song, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and Marouane Chamakh - is admirable in the extreme, particularly when accompanied by such an impressive scoreline. In an era in which some of his managerial brethren are spending hundreds of millions of pounds, Arsene Wenger can rightly be proud of the regularity and style with which Arsenal progress to the latter stages of the competition on a much smaller budget. The problem is that it does not make for an exciting spectacle for the neutral, a scenario mirrored in Group F where Chelsea have nine points from three games, and possibly in Group C where Manchester United will remain top with a victory over Bursaspor on Wednesday. Where is the drama and tension?

Well, Eduardo provided some drama at the conclusion, but any semblance of tension was swept away inside 20 minutes as Arsenal benefitted from a large chunk of good fortune. Goalkeeping errors have been all too frequent a subject of conversation at Emirates Stadium in the past 12 months, but for once it was the home support rejoicing in ineptitude. Shakhtar 'keeper Andriy Pyatov came to meet a harmless, looping Sebastien Squillaci header from a corner and somehow managed to let the ball slip out of his grasp to allow Song to score.

It appeared Arsenal were beginning to exert real control over the contest - a concept that the talented, but over-enthusiastic Jack Wilshere must still become acquainted with. Since his first real exposure to the Arsenal first team in the Emirates Cup of 2008, Wilshere has been skidding round the turf like a clockwork toy with its spring coiled so tight it looks ready to snap.

On Saturday it did just that, when his poor tackle on Zigic earned him a red card and a three-game ban in the Premier League. Here, on European duty, the teenage midfielder clattered into Tomas Hubschmann after 25 minutes and was told in no uncertain terms by the referee that that type of challenge must be his last. Wenger will no doubt express similar sentiments in private, though he defended the midfielder in his post-match press conference, saying: "You want the player to go for the ball, as long as he has the intention; if he is a bit late that can happen. Today he was a fraction late but he went completely for the ball."

But that brief flashpoint was certainly the exception in a first half during which, performing from a deeper position than Cesc Fabregas, the 18-year-old exerted control of the flow and direction of Arsenal's attacks, usurping the captain's usual role to a certain degree as he enjoyed 74 completed passes at a success rate of an eyewatering 96%, compared to Fabregas' figures of 65 and 83%. Indeed, such is Arsenal's embarrassment of riches in the playmaking department, Samir Nasri was once again utilised in a wide position. However, the Frenchman, who continued what has been an excellent start to the season, was the centre of attention with just three minutes remaining of the half when controlling a cross from Song, holding off his marker and lashing a shot past Pyatov to give Arsenal a 2-0 half-time lead.

Lukasz Fabianski - who, like the safety sign at a hazardous factory can now boast a few weeks without serious incident - had to be sharp to deny Luiz Adriano at the start of the second period, but in truth there was no interruption to Arsenal's dominance. That much was confirmed when Adriano hauled down Johan Djourou at a set-piece, allowing Fabregas to score from the penalty spot. It was his fourth goal in three games, Arsenal's seventh penalty in ten Champions League home games, and more than enough for Wenger, who replaced the returning captain with Denilson for the final half hour.

Still the goals flowed. The excellent Wilshere finished coolly following a one-two with Rosicky, while Chamakh added a fifth when beating the offside trap to collect a lofted pass from Nasri. He even had time to gaze over at the assistant to check he had permission to stick the ball home. Eduardo's goal for Shakhtar merely completed a perfect night for Arsenal, as perverse as that may sound. Wenger admitted: "If you wanted someone to score for Shakhtar, it was Eduardo. We are all happy for him." It only drummed home the feeling that this was an all-too easy evening for Arsenal.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Jack Wilshere
Though his tackling remains cause for concern, this was another wonderfully mature performance from the teenager. He gladly accepted the responsibility of exercising authority in possession and his one-two with Rosicky and finish was delightful. Wenger urged the press to prevent the hype machine going into overdrive though, saying: "Give him time, let him play, I know that it isn't easy for you and that isn't your greatest strength."

ARSENAL VERDICT:
Imperious. Though not approaching their very best, the Gunners enjoyed almost total dominance from start to finish and now sit proudly atop the group with maximum points. The return to action of Fabregas and Walcott also offers some hope that the usual injury problems may be subsiding.

SHAKHTAR VERDICT:
Pretty woeful. They missed the authority of Fernandinho in the centre of midfield and failed to retain possession effectively in any area of the pitch. Their priority must be securing second spot and a place in the next round, though whether they have the quality to go any further is doubtful on this evidence.

THE ROONEY QUESTION:
The press never miss the chance to grab Wenger's perspective on the big issues in football and Wayne Rooney's desire to leave Manchester United was no exception. On whether he would consider a move for the United striker, Wenger said: "It's a story I will be happy to read in the newspapers, but I want to keep out of it. We have enough strikers."

Source: Tom Adams, ESPN Soccernet on 19 Oct 10