Man City 6-3 Arsenal: 4 Key Points From Arsenal’s Thrashing By City

Arsenal slumped to a 6-3 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday afternoon. Here, Gunner333 gives us 4 thoughts from the game.

The Gunners made their way to Manchester to play perhaps their most crucial fixture of the season so far. Both came off the back of two rather contrasting Champions League outings. City victors over current European title holders Bayern Münich and Arsenal going into the last 16 via a whimper defeat to Napoli. Tensions were high at the Etihad as an Arsenal victory would push the Gunners eight points clear at the top.

After some early pressure, City grabbed the opener. Demichelis flicked on Nasri’s corner allowing an in-form Sergio Aguero to pounce with a well time volley into the roof of the net. The home side then continued to pile on the pressure as Alvaro Negredo was played through by an excellent Kompany pass, only for the Spaniard to fire wide.

Wenger’s men were hunting an equaliser desperately and it came through Theo Walcott, who just recently returned from injury. Ozil’s well placed pull back set up the Englishman to push a weakened effort into the bottom corner with Pantillmon’s vision blurred by Demichelis.

Just moments later though and City responded at the other end through an Alvaro Negredo goal. The Spaniard polishing off a low Zabaleta cross to put his side ahead once again. It really was looking like a Gargantuan task for Arsenal to gain anything over a resilient City side.

This intriguing goal-fest then turned to a moment of panic for both sides, key men Koscielny and Agüero forced off with rather severe-looking injures. The fate of not only this game but this season now hanging in the balance for both sides.

Moments later, midfielder Fernandinho drove forwards before unleashing a sublime curling attempt which flew passed Szczesny. The Brazillian’s first for his new club made it 3-1.

Arsenal yet again pulled one back through Theo Walcott, this time the finish slightly more spectacular. Ramsey’s lobbed pass allowed the forward to emulate that of Fernandinho’s effort as his curling shot found the top corner of the net. Now 3-2 to City and some optimistic Gooners may have felt it was game on.

Any hopes of an Arsenal revival were then shot down though as City went on to add two more. First, David Silva flicking a shot in from Navas’ well-place cross before Fernandinho compiled an abysmal day’s work from the Gunners with a nice chipped finish.

One saving grace of an abhorrent afternoon is that of Arsenal’s scoring capabilities and they added a third through Per Mertesacker, the German understandably not celebrating. But City had to have the last word, Gnabry caught in possession caused Milner to drive through the Gunners’ back line only to be dragged to the floor by Szczesny. Yaya Toure took the spot-kick and converted. Final score:  Manchester City 6-3 Arsenal.

Here I will now analyse 4 stats and facts and what they show;

1) City Dominant in Passing Stats: More Total Passes – 476

It is seldom seen for the Gunners to be outwitted in the middle of the park, so perhaps this contributes greatly to our hammering defeat as Toure and Fernandinho bossed the game. They held the ball comfortably and dragged the front-line back when it suited them, and the home side put together more passes throughout the match. Manuel Pellegrini’s man were able to dictate play and constantly cut through the Arsenal back line. The home side were also comfortable in possession having 53% of it.

2) Losing Laurent

The defeat may not have come as a surprise to some, but the loss of Laurent Koscielny is a truly devastating one. His performances will be sorely missed as his consistent last-ditch tackles combined with Mertesacker’s first-line sentinel approach blunted even the sharpest of opponents. Over the festive period Vermaelen will be drafted in as the Frenchman’s replacement so it’s time for our captain to step up and stake his claim for a regular first team spot.

3) Caught Offside?

The Gunners could, and perhaps should, have had two more goals from the game if it were not for the linesman. Firstly, Giroud sent home a bullet from a seemingly onside position, the official saying otherwise. Before Bendtner was denied a headed goal for the same reason.

Now perhaps this may have gone a different way on any other day but the fact remains they we were unfortunate for the ‘goals’ to have been disallowed. Who knows how the game would have panned out had the Giroud effort have been allowed to stand, as it should have been. It’s not an excuse for the defeat, as we defended horribly as a team, but we certainly didn’t get the decisions go our way.

4) Six In the City: Diabolical Defence

The departure of Koscielny did not help our problems, but we defended poorly from the first whistle none-the-less. Despite the quality of each City goal, all were embedded with an Arsenal error.

The opener came from Koscielny falling asleep at a set-piece whilst their second and fourth goals were at fault of our full-backs not closing down Navas before he got a cross in. Fernandinho’s pile-driver and the late penalty decision came through being caught carelessly in possession. To be title contenders you must have consistent defending abilities as well flowing attacking play.

Of course it’s easy to criticise but the Gunners put in a poor shift and are capable of so much more. However, we are still top and are enjoying a wonderful season so let’s not let this disappointing week get us down. COYG!!!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment below.