WENGER DODGES SPOT OF PAIN
Ref misses Monreal’s handball in box after battle of the cavaliers
ARSENE WENGER says he has long been an advocate of video technology. Just as well it wasn’t in place yesterday, though. It may well have cost Arsenal this game.
We were deep into second-half stoppage time when Nacho Monreal got into a bit of a tangle under pressure from Jesus Navas. The ball was in the air, and Monreal had lost his bearings beneath it. It dropped on his arm. He tried to move his arm away, but too late. Far from retrieving the situation he succeeded only in flicking the ball back towards goal.
It looked an accident but, as cliche dictates, we’ve all seen them given. Using video replay, it is hard to see how it wouldn’t have been.
One man who was quite certain was Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. As referee Andre Marriner waved play on, Guardiola screamed his disapproval at the fourth official. Of course, there is no guarantee City would have scored the resulting penalty, but the odds were in their favour. And it would have been deserved.
City shaded this, the battle of the cavaliers. They hit the woodwork twice, forced the better saves and Sergio Aguero could have settled the game with two second-half headers. Arsenal spent 46 minutes chasing, and 44 minutes level. They were never in front and only really dominated a 20-minute spell in the first half. The rest of the time, they were forced to play City on the counter-attack.
It is not a familiar position for Wenger’s side and they never looked entirely comfortable with it. Losing Laurent Koscielny to an achilles injury at half-time was a blow, too — although there was consolation in not losing 5-1 from that position, which was how it panned out in the Champions League against Bayern Munich.
The problems for both teams, however, remain. You would always pay to watch Arsenal play City. You just wouldn’t put a penny on either of them winning the title.
So, this was a game that was fun and thrilling, yet at the same time very predictable. Finishing 2-2 meant it went entirely to form. We know what Arsenal are about, and City too. And, equally, we also know the failings of these teams.
It was no surprise that they should share four goals, some calamitous defending, entertain the hell out of everyone and fail to exhibit the steel that wins the biggest trophies.
Without improvements at the back, that won’t change.
This was a cracking game — just as Liverpool’s meeting with City was last month — but there remains the suspicion that some of the beauty may have to be sacrificed if there is to be advancement from either club next year.
Yet that upgrade may be easier to come by at City with bigger resources and a likelier chance of Champions League football. Looking at the league table, this point was of considerably more use to them than Arsenal, now trailing fourth-placed City by seven points with only a game in hand.
Still, whatever flaws there have been in Guardiola’s plans for City this season, his philosophy does produce some thrillers.
The meetings of the Premier League elite can deteriorate to stultifying chess matches, certainly in the first half before tired legs open the play up. This was more like draughts as played by two six-year- olds, all attacking moves with little thought to consequence or defence.
Guardiola started Jesus Navas as the right back in a flat four, up against Alexis Sanchez. This tells you all you need to know.
Imagine that coaches’ meeting. ‘Arsenal’s best player?’ Sanchez. ‘Where does he operate?’ Outside left, coming in. ‘Good. I know the very man…’
By the eighth minute, Navas had been booked for a high tackle on Monreal, and two minutes later would have given away a penalty had a flag not already gone up for offside. Navas had not seen that when he made the ill-timed challenge. Fortunately, though, while Arsenal don’t put wingers in key defensive positions, they sometimes play as if they have. So by the time Navas was dealing with Sanchez, City were already a goal up — and, for Arsenal, it could have been worse.
In the fourth minute, Fernandinho played the ball through to Raheem Sterling, who sprung Arsenal’s defensive line and brought David Ospina haring out in a panic. He smashed his clearance into Sterling’s shin and the ball ricocheted goalwards, travelling just wide as the locals watched wide-eyed.
Within a minute, calamity reigned once more. A goal-kick by Willy Caballero was headed back downfield, finding City’s Kevin De Bruyne in a deep midfield position. He clipped a pass through to Leroy Sane, who was somehow free of attention. He outpaced Hector Bellerin — no mean feat — sidestepped Ospina and tapped into an empty net.
A fine finish but, heavens, did Arsenal invite it.
City could have improved their lead soon after. De Bruyne hit a low shot which struck the right post, before David Silva forced a fine recovery save from Ospina with the rebound.
It was not until the 21st minute that Arsenal significantly threatened City’s goal, enjoying their best spell of the game.
The move came down the left, naturally, Sanchez slipping a pass inside to Mesut Ozil, whose shot on the turn forced a first save from Caballero.
The equaliser came in the 40th minute. It wasn’t pretty but, given the weaknesses of these teams, hardly unexpected. John Stones headed an Arsenal set-piece move clear, the ball returned by a header from Shkodran Mustafi.
It would have been harmless had City’s Gael Clichy got the memo about pushing out. Instead, his team-mates bolted, he remained, and played Theo Walcott onside as the ball fell tamely at the Arsenal striker’s feet.
It wasn’t his cleanest finish, scruffy by his standards, but it did the job.
Sadly, Arsenal didn’t. City went immediately to the other end and De Bruyne hit the left post. Maintaining the pressure, the Belgian
collected a clearance and fed Silva, who played the ball to Aguero on the right. He finished smartly past Ospina, meaning Arsenal’s equality had lasted all of a minute.
the game continued at this breathless pace. Walcott could have claimed his second goal had his neatly dinked shot not travelled narrowly over the bar.
Aguero missed a relatively easy chance, with an unmarked header at the near post from a navas cross, and a harder one, flicking the ball on for an Ospina save after 65 minutes.
Fernandinho was also thwarted by Arsenal’s goalkeeper.
yet, in the spirit of equal opportunity that seemed to have developed, Arsenal levelled. Ozil took the corner from the left and Mustafi rose above nicolas Otamendi and his own player, Danny Welbeck, to head past Caballero.
Professionals might say he just wanted it more. if either of these teams ever get to feel that way about defending, they could be dangerous.