The Manchester City Project

Now are you going to believe us? (See the match goals and incidents in the video below). Manchester City sent a further shot across the bows of the top four with a 4-2 win against Arsenal. Robinho and Tevez were both missing through injury – however City have such a strong squad that they insured they kept a 100% start to the season.

Arsenal started the game brightly and should have gone ahead when Gallas missed a header from a corner. City took the lead after 20 minutes when Richards headed a Gareth Barry free kick towards goal, the ball struck the upright and bounced into the net off the head of Almunia.

In the second half Arsenal stepped up to the plate and pressured City’s goal. The end result was a goal from Van Persie on 62 minutes. Lescott making his home debut made his only mistake of the match when he slid in to win the ball but missed, leaving Van Persie to turn and shoot low to Given’s right. Van Persie then ran over to the City fans shouting “F*** Off”.

City regained the lead moments later when Richards did well to cut inside the box and slide the ball into Bellamy with pace. Bellamy struck first time with power to beat Almunia.

Shaun Wright-Phillips rode a heavy challenge to cross the ball into Adebayor who headed in City’s third goal on 80 minutes. I was really pleased for Adebayor to score against his former club, especially considering all of the abuse he has received from the Arsenal fans – which was on a par to a Spur’s welcome to a former player. Unfortunately my heart sunk when I watched him cross the half way to run the full length of the pitch to celebrate infront of the Arsenal fans. I was now witnessing a three match ban for inciting the crowd, not a goal celebration.


However Gary Neville did the same when celebrating a goal for Manchester United against Liverpool and he recieved a £500k fine and no match ban - see the video here on my previous post.

City scored a forth goal when the very impressive Craig Bellamy won the ball deep in his own half and then headed a counter attack with Petrov, Adebayor and Wright-Phillips all running at pace towards the Arsenal goal. Bellamy released Wright-Phillips who deftly chipped the ball over the advancing Almunia. Wright-Phillips will have been pleased to score after missing a sitter from six yards minutes earlier. Adebayor had dribbled past four Arsenal players before cutting the ball back to Wright-Phillips who miss hit the ball wide.

Rosicky scored late in the game after a fine Arsenal move, however it was too late to influence the final result.

The other clear talking point during the game was the Adebayor “stamp” on Van Persie. Slow motion replays show Adebayor making contact with Van Persie’s head after a rash challenge. Van Persie has released a statement about the incident on the Arsenal website and the FA have already started to review the match footage.

With City’s injury list increasing Adebayor will be sorely missed when he is undoubtedly handed a ban from the FA. The ban may even be in place by the time City face Manchester United in the derby at Old Trafford next week.

For the Van Persie Statement in full and video of the stamp incident then please see the previous post: click here.

Match Facts:
Manchester City 4 (Almunia o.g. Bellamy, Adebayor, Wright-Phillips)
Arsenal 2 (Van Persie, Rosicky)
Saturday 12 September 2009, 3:00PM
Att: 47339

Manchester City: Given; Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Ireland Petrov, 72), Barry; Adebayor, Bellamy. Unused subs: Onuoha, Zabaleta, Taylor, Sylvinho, Vidal, Weiss.

Bookings: Lescott (14) Adebayor (81) De Jong (90)

Arsenal: Almunia; Sagna (Eboue, 76), Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy; Diaby, Song Eduardo, 76), Denilson (Rosicky 52), Fabregas, Diaby; Bendtner, Van Persie. Unused subs: Ramsey, Silvestre, Mannone, Gibbs.

Bookings: Sagna (18) Song (72)