Arsenal 3 Manchester City 1: Three more points!

Baptista - On target

Brilliant tackle by Diaby to start the move that bought the opening goal. We mullered them for 40 minutes and then a pants clearance by Jens, followed by a brilliant or fluky pass and a well taken goal for City. We rocked for five minutes at 1-1. We missed Diaby when he went off. Rosicky was great tonight and Cesc was in total control in a match which he crowned his performance with another fine goal. The Butterfly scored our third with a tap in after City had gone to three at the back and Hleb was given too much room otn the right.

Once again we huffed and puffed before we scored, loads of control but few killer balls. Deep defending by City and very little fire power from them or us. Lehmann gifted their goal with a crap clearance scuffed along the floor. Eboue was pretty awful. Gael was pure class. A major standing ovation for Cesc when he was subbed late on - totally deserved. After Cesc's goal we found far more space as they had to attack. Our passing was ace tonight and although we still did too much of it we did also have a poke every now and then. The Butterfly had a great free kick deflected for a corner.

Diaby picked up a head wound and needed a lot of treatment but I'm not sure if that's why he came off? Anyone know?

Thing that struck me tonight was how we missed Robin cutting in from the right and burying the ball in the net. Hleb was good but doesn't have that kind of shot in his locker. Tomas's goal was another speedy cut in from the left sneaking in before a defender.

We were well worthy of the win but I'd still be surprised if we get more than a point from six against the Totts & Chavs on this form. Optimistically - maybe we can lift our game - we seem to have a lot of players who like big matches far better than the bread and butter stuff. A weeks training also works for our passing game.

3-1 final score 59,913 crowd figure with a lot of empty spaces.