Arsenal 1 Manchester City 0: A messy win and a farcical penalty

Last updated : 22 October 2005 By Brian Dawes

Henry challenged by the pugnacious Mills
It was bitty, gritty and sh*tty in about equal parts. City were well organised, consistently late in the tackle and to make the game totally unpredictable we had that top clown prince of referees Mike Riley in charge. He was in ‘don’t know what you’re doing mode’ his favourite I believe.

Pre-match the ‘Wenger Day’ was totally upstaged by Thierry’s 186th goal celebrations led by Wrighty himself and assisted by over 50 Junior Gunners wearing white shirts and carrying flags of all the teams against which Titi has scored. Together with the number of goals he’s scored against each of them on their backs. So if I read the shirts correctly Leeds and Charlton 11, Chelsea 10, United and Birmingham 8 are his favourite to teams to destroy.

Arsenal kicked towards the North bank in the first half and Distin did well against Flamini from a Pires through ball in our first attack. Lauren hit a great cross following a fine one-touch move. Mills then conceded a corner he didn’t need to and was roundly jeered. Dennis to Pires almost. Lauren was again involved and found Henry well who teed up a sitter for Pires that he aimed at row ZZ. A brilliant move and an appalling miss. A good cross from Clichy as both forward lines interchanged positions well.

There was a strange bounce up between Pires and Mills and Rob just stepped aside as we predicted. Barton with a blatant intimidating obstruction on Clichy was followed by a seriously late tackle on Pires by Mills. Play-acting by Reyna won a free kick against Dennis and shortly after Barton lost his rag and threw the ball away. Typically Riley booked him for dissent whereas he could have been booked any number of times for some seriously late tackles. If it weren’t for our players’ ability to hurdle one or two tackles would have resulted in both injuries and red cards. Flamini was tripped, free kick Man City.

A rare City corner highlighted their rotational ploy of shoving Jens. Winding up players is a good weapon but City over did it today. That said they managed to get to both Rob and Dennis because Riley failed to give either of them any protection, no change there then. Barton was late and high on Cesc but the kid hurdled well – no card. Mills late on Lauren – play on. Riley was acting like the jerk he is and wound the crowd up further by giving a free kick against Pires for a fair shoulder charge.

Henry to Lauren, a great cross-field ball to meet a fine run, Lauren cut inside but could only aspire to a poor shot. Musampa did well with a great shot that went narrowly wide of the post. Flamini did well and then Mills hit a perfect long ball to our corner flag. Vassell jumped into the back of Lauren and picked up a yellow card. A good cross by Lauren before Pires sorted out Barton, just one of the very many things Riley missed. Sibierski jumped at Cygan but landed badly and needed treatment. A Barton cross was easy for Jens. Dennis to Henry to Cesc in a good move to end a poor half containing not a lot in the way of football. The announcement of the ‘highlights’ on the big screen was met with the odd jeer or two. Six shots between one shot shy team in Cherry and one unambitious team in light blue.

At half time Paul Burgess our very excellent groundsman picked up yet another award for being supreme at his profession. He also explained in the programme how lighting systems will be used in THOF2 to enhance growth of the new hallowed turf.

Bergkamp is brought down for the second penalty
There were no changes to either the personnel or the quality after the break. Dennis won a corner, Pires took it but James got a touch. More free kicks including one against Titi as he tried to up the tempo. Reyna once again fell down unaided and Musampa had an angled shot. For a while we had problems getting it out of our box because we cleared erratically. Jens was called upon to cut out a cross but I don’t recall him having to make a serious save all game. Pires with a decent through ball to Dennis but it hit his heel. Flamini very nearly worked his way in but we were still shot shy. Mathieu, who is growing in stature and confidence, did really well and put Lauren away yet again but his cross was too deep. A shoulder charge by Thierry resulted in another joke free kick to City. Flamini nearly got in.

An encouraging Kolo Toure charge upfield had that ‘I’ve had enough of our forwards pissing about’ look. Henry was chasing a 50/50 but going away from goal and James was altogether too rash as he felled Henry, the Clock End appealed and Riley pointed to the spot. Top marks to Rob for having the bottle to step up after a couple of rather naff penalties of late. He blasted it and James went the wrong way, which is just as well as it was at a saveable height. 1-0 to the Arsenal. ‘One nil to the Arsenal’. Jordan late on Fabregas and another fine piece of hurdling prevented injury. Clichy in hard on Barton for what I recall to be his first foul. Yellow card, well that’s Riley for you isn’t it? Musampa on Lauren with his studs showing and another yellow card. Musampa claimed it was his first foul, but that’s Riley for you. Musampa then had a good run and a crap shot. Reyna had a long shot that was low and wide and the game became rather more ‘tasty’. Tasty that is in a ‘Psycho’ led sort of way. I love Stuart Pearce but any team of his are going to pick up bucket loads of bookings.

Dennis got into their box and with two players attempting to stop him, Musampa had two ‘forwards’ type digs and I thought the first one was a penalty. Riley I think however gave the second one, which I wasn’t sure about. But that’s Riley for you. Why Henry didn’t take the penalty is beyond comprehension. But Rob lined up for it. What happened next was like a Monty Python sketch. Rob appeared to attempt to pass it to Henry, didn’t really touch it properly, Henry didn’t arrive, a City player did, Rob touched it again and it was a free kick to City. If I was a City fan I would have pissed myself laughing for the remainder of the game, Rob looked like he wanted to dig a big hole and crawl in it while Henry was slagging him off. You have to laugh don’t you. Well no actually because it was a total fecking farce – Henry should have taken the penalty in the first place. Being shot shy at a penalty has to be the ultimate joke; we needed Van Persie on the pitch if only as someone to have a pop at goal.

City were greatly encouraged and Lauren did really well to stop a fast break. Some slack defending, a good cross and a fine header resulted in our net bulging. But the Lino had his flag up before the header was made. Offside presumably. Can’t say I had the best of views but I couldn’t quite figure who was offside. Dennis on Distin for a yellow card. City continued to press and Cygan got the wrong side of Vassell as our defence seemed to have forty winks. Yes I did say winks.

Henry implores the crowd not to laugh at the comical penalty
A two-footed tackle by Barton was waved play on. As someone suggested at the time Riley should be a Conference referee. Dennis was shoved over; there was another altercation and more words of wisdom from the man with the white stick. Mills and Musampa were subbed and replaced by Richards and Jihai who sounds like he should be rounding up a herd of cattle in a Western film. A great run by Gael, who improved greatly upon last week’s performance and also made some good defending headers, meanwhile his run found Henry who put Cesc through, but he tried to walk it around James and failed. Please shoot Arsenal was the general plea from all four stands but the phrasing was just a tad different and included numerous expletives. Fabregas to Henry who tried to set up Flamini. Barton backed into Pires and won yet another free kick from the man nominally in charge. Three minutes added time saw Gael clear with gusto and nearly into orbit, Richards shoot wide and a number of balls pumped high into our box by City.

As messy wins go this one was seriously messy. Crap was the most used word I heard on leaving the ground. I thought City spoiled well, denied us space, got stuck in and nearly caused us to lose our rag on occasions. They could have grabbed a point with a lucky shot but my guess is Arsene will claim we were tired after our Champions League game. Maybe we were and we've often failed miserably after a European trip so I’m happy to grab the three points and forget about our performance.

No doubt all of today’s subs will be involved at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday. Where it’ll be ‘Haway the lads’ versus the ‘young lads’ I suspect.