Kompany, the leader Arsenal do not have

I NEVER thought I would see the day when an Arsene Wenger team were so outclassed. It has become the norm for Wenger to reach a showpiece final and rescue his reputation, but not this time. Arsenal never laid a glove on City. There was a real naivety. Wenger is a fighter. When I played under him, his biggest strength was that he could create this belief among the group of players that we could beat anyone. That belief was glaringly absent at Wembley. It was not like when they beat City in the FA Cup semi-final and Chelsea in the final last year. When Arsenal’s passing does not click, they do not have the basics to fall back on to rescue themselves. If the basics had been in place, they would not have conceded such a calamitous first goal. Shkodran Mustafi should have dealt with a standard long ball but made a mess of it. He jogged back from a corner when he should have sprinted and at no point did he get goal-side of Sergio Aguero. It was schoolboy defending. The second goal, from a corner, raises questions as to how well Arsenal are drilled for set-pieces. Ilkay Gundogan was unmarked on the edge of the box, so was Leroy Sane two feet from the goalkeeper. No Arsenal players were on the posts and Kevin De Bruyne picked out Gundogan, who then set up Vincent Kompany to score. For the third, Calum Chambers should have been marking on the side of the ball and on David Silva’s left foot, ready to intercept. He wasn’t and got punished, in a similar fashion to the goal he was responsible for against Ostersunds. As bad as Arsenal were at the back, they offered little creativity in attack. Goalkeeper David Ospina completed more passes than Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey — a damning statistic. Conversely for City, they had everything in their captain’s performance that Arsenal lacked. Kompany has shown great dignity over the years while he has not been able to play a part on the pitch. He was magnificent yesterday. He was like a brick wall and Arsenal could not climb over him.