By Walter Broeckx
No changes were made by Arsenal for this match against Manchester City.
So Wenger went again for Giroud and Walcott together in the starting line up. The name we were all looking for wasn’t included even on the bench: Alexis. So Iwobi and Jeff Reine-Adelaide were also on the bench.
The team that started was: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Campbell, Ozil, Walcott, Giroud.
On the beach: Ospina, Chambers, Gabriel, Gibbs, Reine-Adelaide, Iwobi, Oxlade-Chamberlain
A vert closed match in the opening minutes. Neither team really going forward with full throttle. Walcott missing a control that might have set him free and City have a few shots from distance but nothing close to the Arsenal goal. City with a dangerous looking attack but no end product and Arsenal can clear. De Bruyne kicks Walcott who wanted to start an attack. A dangerously looking cross from Monreal but a Ciry player first on the ball. 0-0 after 15 minutes.
City with the first corner but Arsenal can clear. Walcott almost with a rebound after City shoot the ball against him but too close to the goal line and he can’t keep it in. De Bruyne with a low shot but Cech can save in a corner. Both teams very disciplined when they don’t have the ball and so very few chances for both teams. Still 0-0 after 30 minutes.
Silva gets a yellow card for a few small fouls. Suddenly Aguero gives the ball to De Bruyne who is in space and goes for own success instead of giving a pass to Silva and his shot goes wide. The first real chance of the match. And then after 32 minutes Özil in some space a pass to Walcott, a cut back and a fierce shot that ends up in the far corner. GOAL! 1-0 to The Arsenal. A lovely goal from Theo, Theo, Theo, Theo…
Walcott almost plays Bellerin in but a City defender can clear for a corner.Özil with the corner Koscielny with header but Ramsey cannot get on to the ball and can only keep it in play. Campbell with a pass that was just too hard for Walcott. Otamendi kicks Giroud and the City fans protest against the ref. Come on it was a clear foul. Walcott picks up the ball in the last minute of extra time, a pass to Özil who puts Giroud in on goal in a little bit of space and Giroud scores the ball with a low shot! GOAL! 2-0 To The Arsenal right on the stroke of half time.
Arsenal very disciplined when defending and then hitting City when they get the chance and being very clinical when taking their chances.
City made one change at half time as Sterling came in the place of Delph. Otamendi gets a yellow card when he deliberately pushes Giroud in a very blatant way. City with some early pressure but only a tame shot from Aguero to show for it in the opening minutes. Monreal with a low cross and Campbell cuts inside but his effort goes just over the crossbar. Aguero with header after a free kick but in the arms of Cech. Campbell away on the flank but Hart can stop his effort with his foot this time. Otamendi can just clear a cross from Bellerin. Aguero again with a header from an offside position but no problem for Cech.
A great attack from Arsenal ends with a final pass from Campbell to Ramsey but his shot hits the face of Hart and the ball goes out for a corner. Some up an under football for a few seconds is ended with a clear foul on Campbell. Should have been a yelllow card.
Still 2-0 to The Arsenal after 60 minutes.
Aguero goes off and Bony comes on for City. Ramsey with the ball after a pass from Giroud but he was too much out of balance to get his shot on target. After 69 minutes Campbell came off under a loud applause and Gibbs came on. Monreal with a cross that almost finds Özil but he can’t make contact with the ball. Sterling looking for foul but the ref so far not falling for it. Both Touré and Sterling diving to win a penalty, should have been at least one yellow card to stop this, mr. Marinner.
Silva goes off and Navas comes on for City.Mertesacker with his umpteenth interception to clear a cross from City. Bony with a header after a City corner but easy for Cech. Still 2-0 to The Arsenal after 75 minutes.
Oxlade-Chamberlain comes on for Özil who once again added 2 assists to his impressive stats. Navas suddenly away in clear offside but the assistant let it go but Per and Kos come to the rescue. Walcott with a low shot but Hart can stop the effort. The Ox trying to set up Monreal but his pass was too hard. Out of nothing suddenly a left footed shot from Yaya Toure that ends up in the top corner of Cech. 2-1 after 82 minutes. No record breaking clean sheet.
Ramsey with a chance but his lob goes wide. That should have been the 3-1 almost in the same minute.
City of course now full going for the equaliser and putting Arsenal under pressure. Toure with a chance after a 1-2 with De Bruyne but his shot went wide this time. Chambers came on in the place of Walcott with 3 minutes to go. Giroud with an injury when he made an excellent block in the final minute. 4 minutes of extra time.
Chambers using his body well to force Toure in to a foul so Arsenal get the ball again. Arsenal trying to keeps the ball in the City half in the extra time. City can’t get the ball forward in the direction of Cech and the ref blows the final whistle.
Arsenal win 2-1 against City. We should have finished the job earlier as it got rather tense in the final 10 minutes. But under the guidance of Özil (is the jury really still out Mr. Moyes?) we score 2 goals and stay in touch with Leicester.
The only bad thing is that Cech couldn’t get his 170th clean sheet.
JINGLE BALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy Christmas everyone. That one was for you Adam!
cheers to all Untolders!!! Im off to the oxygen tent…
I look at the stats and think to myself:
Is that Plan B again ?? No, surely not ?
Well done lads. Brilliant performance.
Walter, that was fast.
Walcott defended very well. First time anyone can say that about his game!!
Yes, Ozil did it again but my pick for the player of the game was Mertesacker. He didn’t put a foot wrong all game and his defending against De Bruyne/ Silva two on one, was text book.
Credit to the whole team and the manager, well done.
Carragher:
It’s all about the other teams ‘dropping off’
What a f**king wanker that man is. And worse, Henry stands there and takes this shit.
Embarrassing.
Well done boys, well taken goals, could have been more, but City finished strongly, a nervy end.
Our players were really up for this. Ozil is a master, Cechs record can wait, the points were all that mattered against this team.
Hope Giroud is ok.
Sitting pretty.
@Jambug
Now that you mention it…
Bayern-Arsenal 0:2
Borussia-Arsenal 0:1
Manchester City-Arsenal 0:2
Arsenal-Manchester City 2:1
What these four games – played since March 2013 – have in common (aside from Arsenal winning all of them)? 🙂
An excellent performance, some wonderful football, two excellent goals and some very determined defensive play. The team looked a bit tired towards the end – but they showed real determination the way they kept going.
Very importantly a priceless three points!
Well done the team and manager!
For once I liked a caption on Sky Sports – “Wenger Wonderland”!
Tonight a wee dram is on the cards!
What I don’t get is apparently we have to win the PL this year because NEXT year all the others will be spending big and leaving us behind !!
WTF. So they haven’t been spending big these last 5/10 years ???????
Did they miss the £100 million city spent last summer. United? Chelsea?
Carragher again. Is Giroud world class? No !
WTF does he have to do.
I f**king hate these guys.
And as i say, Henry, you are also a disgrace.
@Jambug
Carragher has been nothing more than a clown as a punter – should have a pointed hat!
bjtgooner
Maybe, but why does one of my heroes have to stand there and agree with every word he says?
That’s what really pisses me off.
Jambug,
It must be something written in henry’s contract. no British pundit MUST go against the LAW that says there is some good, talk less a great good, in anything Arsenal. The priviledge of place for that belongs yo Liverpool, Man U and any other team apart from Arsenal or Arsenal players or Wenger.
Jambug 10:14
Exactly. These guys are jokers, haven’t they just been banging on about Arsenal being the only side that didn’t buy any outfield players last summer? So these sides need to go and spend more, again? Why can’t these pundits look past spending as the sole platform for success. The only thing they said that makes sense was who can Wenger buy that is available to strengthen his team upfront. Noone.
Carragher – stick to selling stolen hub caps!! You need to take ‘O’ level oral English to do your job. Your employer needs to get their HR educated as a dumbo like you cannot be employed in a role that needs some sense.
honestly is Henry an intellligent pundiit? ithink no.can he make as acoach? m not sure.he lacks something Wenga has.calmness and intelligence required of an Arsenal manager. about him
But what’s the matter with Henry? I loved the guy and he just stands there and takes this shit?
Great game, great crowd, great result, GREAT TEAM! Well done to all tonight and Happy Christmas to all on Untold!
And Mesut Ozil gave his first post match interview in English. And very good he was too. Also, he got man of the match. At last.
Fantastic 3 points. So proud. Buzzing.
Not bad for a shit squad, a shit manager and a creative player who’s ‘nicking a living’.
It’s even sweeter watching the naysayers squirm, isn’t it.
Well done to all the great supporters on Untold, I know you share my elation tonight! Well done for all the positive support of this great club throughout 2015. Kev.
Quoting a ManU fan:
“Premier League assists 2015/16:
Mesut Ozil: 15
Man United squad: 12
Chelsea squad: 11
Unbelievable form!”
I totally agree 🙂
And I think Jamie’s jury should come in now … or forever hold their peace. Rubbish!
Jambug i watched match of the day damn what alot of verbal diarrhoea. what is the term world class? that they play international for their country? such utter idiocy! Caraggher should talk more about how amazing Liverpool is right now!
well we are a one man team oh wait alexia wasn’t playing!
A great evening.
Hope my regular dislike gimps enjoyed that game as much as I did
I was impressed with Per, especially his positioning for the De Bruyne / Silva attack just before Theos goal. He really reduced the percentage chance of the pass being successful enough to force De Bruyne to go for the glory.
Other players will get the headlines, but should Flamini be getting a bit of credit……would be interesting to see the stats……but thought he did a real job this evening.
Ok I know aguero is coming back from injury, but aguero and silva substituted when city are behind, that surely says something about the performance of our players this evening.
Good on Jonathan Pearce (the MOTD commentator) for calling out the three City divers as disgraceful. You rarely hear this on TV, and I think he deserves credit for saying it.
He’s not everybodies favourite, but I really like the way that he sees plays developing. It takes practice to get this good.
Point 1: the team were set up well by AW to do the Ali-Rope-a-Dope tactics. They executed well and everyone (including Theo) tackled back. Calmness exudes from Petr Cech, and class oozes from the feet of Ozil. We should have had a couple more in the 2nd half, but maybe that’s being greedy.
Point 2: It go a bit frantic in 2nd half, but we saw it through in an organised way.
Point 3: The pundits continue to regard us as flaky as an EPL title contender. This is the football pundit equivalent of whistling in the dark. If we win the title this will make them all look the useless gits they are.
P.S. They will of course use the excuse that it was an “easy” season to win the title !!
COYG
I’m really happy there is no British MOTD here in the US. NBC Sports is barely decent, but still looks miles ahead of BBC, judging by your comments here. Anyway.
The way City set up their defense was suicidal. We were regularly able to find and exploit spaces between their DMs and the back line. Ozil and Ramsey constantly overran Toure and Fernandinho, who looked worn out (or lazy, whichever you prefer).
Also, I was really impressed with Joel Campbell’s work rate. Had he managed to get a goal out of his 2 opportunities, he would have been in contention for Man of the match. Proof for that, once he got subbed off, City came alive and attacked our flanks with persistence – especially the left one, where Nacho was left without cover against Toure, de Bruyne and Navas, which eventually led to their goal. When Alexis comes back, Wenger will have a tough choice to make in dropping someone to the bench 😉
I’ve been gone for a few days, and got back to see that Arsenal had won, and that the two FIFA muskateers had been banned. Wonderful!
Congratulations to the Gunners and Gooners who made the win possible.
Now to see what the medja are saying about the game.
Great match, excellent performance from the team. Hopefully it’s a battle between Arsenal and Leicester come May. We can win this. Where are the anti-Wenger boys? They must be really peed off.
Merry Christmas to all, stay safe and enjoy.
I feel a little dirty…took a sneak peek at Le Grove…even after a victory they were slating Wenger for…not winning by more…for almost losing (sic). Jesus wept…what a sad lot who can’t even enjoy a victory over a top team, instead complaining that we didn’t score more, concede less…well they didn’t blame the weather on AW.
I get a laugh out of people saying that championships aren’t won in December…last I looked a win in December is worth 3 points and a win in May is worth…3 points. The 4 point gap between us and Man City means we have the breathing room of 2 draws or 1 loss without falling behind City…they don’t have that luxury.
WOO HOO , HOO ! Well done guys , a great game and very well played . Except for that goal , of course !
Why is it that we always concede such out of this world goals ? Felt sad for Cech – nothing he could have done . Ah well , hopefully a clean sheet in the next game and the record .
Some very interesting quagmire of games for the chasing pack . Probably won’t know whom to back for a win ! But will still be smiling at the outcome !
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !
Other than our matches ,which by the way ,I hope we remain unbeaten , the following matches will be of close interest to me !
Saturday 26th December 2015
Stoke V Man Utd
Chelsea V Watford
Liverpool V Leicester
Monday 28th December 2015
Watford V Tottenham
Man Utd V Chelsea
Tuesday 29th December 2015
Leicester V Man City
Late to the party. Great match, great win, great match report and comments. Saving a thought for the WOB, AAA and FFM. I can see their foolishness on the dislike buttons.
You know Giroud is sh*t because he can’t score against the big teams (Man city was a small team today because Kompany didn’t play). What about Bayern, Manure? How stupid can these ostriches be.
Did anyone see our UA banner on TV after the match? Yeah it was for about 20 nanoseconds but I saw it. Football should be an art.
Wishing all Gunners and Gooners a very merry Christmas.
Great win lads, was so happy last night that i well, you can guess as you all were too.
Convincing play even though they had a few moments.
they = Manc
And here is the 2017 preview !!!
Help Untold, we are not going to win the 2017 EPL !
My world crumbles….I am terrified to get out of my home
I will not be able to enjoy games for the rest of this season !
They are saying we cannot win in 2017….
http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2015/12/21/carragher-admits-arsenal-are-favourites-but-writes-off-their-201/
I mean, well, words fail me.
I hope Untold is going to look into these 2016-2017 stats and do some fact based reporting !
And believe me it AW’s fault. He is utterly responsible and should be sacked in advance.
Wonder how the press would act had he Pellegrini’s away record this season…And yet with this record they are seen as serious contenders and Arsenal just an injury away from losing any chance….
JC before the match “Arsenal will beat City but still lose the title”.
JC after the match “Arsenal are favourites for the title”
What a punk!!!
Great write up Walter, Great job done (by team/manager/loud home support) on ManC, Great feeling this morning, Great to shove it up AAA!!!
Carragher: Worlds most inapt footballer and even worse pundit – the man has absolutely no clue and is totally biased against anything to do with Arsenal. Cant wait for the day he too pisses off to manage and fail in the same way Neville will.
3 big Emirates victories so far this season : Bayern, Utd and now City. Great occasions, all. Well played the squad, especially without Alexis, Cazola and le Coq. Flamini was tireless and disciplined last night, Campbell was again energetic and a pretty smart on the ball and Theo’s goal was very Alexis in style.
Stunning strike by YaYa I have to say. He was the City threat last night.
Despite my doubts and a dodgy November, we are doing well. Hats off to the Manager, the squad and loyal Wenger fans everywhere ..and a Happy Christmas to all Untolders.
Also read that Michael Owen blew a gasket, because he didn’t reckon Ozil’s pass for Theo’s goal was an assist.
Another of the Liverfool/Manure stable of witless pundits. He may know something about horses, which is maybe why he spouts a lot of horses**t
COYG
Merry Christmas
Barry L
Ok, we all saw it wasn’t a ‘Killer’ pass, but equally we all know that the last pass counts as the assist, no matter how much it contributed to the goal, or how intended or lucky it may of been. It’s the way it’s been for years.
I bet he had no issue claiming a goal, no matter how slight the touch, how lucky the deflection, how far he was offside, or how much he dived for the penalty !!
But the sad point is, only when it’s an Arsenal player would anyone be petulant or disingenuous enough to question it, let alone throw a hissy fit over it.
Owen, grow up you fool.
Barry L. I agree.
Michael Owen was a fair striker before his legs gave up on him. However, he doesn’t seem to rate the people that gave him the ball (like Gerrard) to score. And, despite playing about 60 more EPL matches than Thierry Henry he created (assisted) on less than half the number of goals. Selfish maybe?