ARSENAL 2, MANCHESTER CITY 1
Goals by Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud put counter attacking Arsenal 2-0 up
Yaya Toure pulls a late goal back for Man City who can’t find an equaliser
City now 6 points off Leicester at the top of the table, 4 points behind Arsenal in second
Manchester City lost their fifth Premier League game of the season as Arsenal put distance between themselves in second and City in third with first half goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud.
Yaya Toure scored a late consolation for City who briefly threatened an equaliser at the end to no avail and have now failed to win in five Premier League away games.
The shadow of Pep Guardiola, who will be leaving Bayern Munich this summer, must now weigh heavily on Manuel Pellegrini whose side failed to capitalise on early domination and were hit by two counter attacks by Arsenal.
Pellegrini made four changes from the side that won 2-1 at home against Swansea with Sergio Aguero, Fabian Delph, Kevin De Bruyne and Aleksandar Kolarov returning to first team action.
Wilfried Bony, Raheem Sterling, Jesus Navas, and Gael Clichy stepped down but the glaring miss for City once again was the captain Vincent Kompany.
It seems a long time ago since City chalked up 5 straight clean sheets at the start of the season but since Kompany got injured City have only kept two clean sheets in 12 Premier League games.
Pellegrini gambled on a half fit Sergio Aguero and an out-of-sorts David Silva but were short of goal threat against a disciplined Arsenal side despite dominating the first half possession.
The Gunners bided their time and struck twice with their only shots on target in the half. Mesut Ozil was the architect of City’s first half downfall.
The German play-maker provided the ammunition for a 33rd minute world class strike from Theo Walcott moments after Kevin De Bruyne had shot wide with Silva in a much better position, but City were hit by a sucker punch not long after when Walcott cut inside and curled a great strike past Joe Hart.
Ozil provided another assist for Olivier Giroud to slot past Hart in first half injury time after a poor pass out of defence by Eliaquim Managala was seized on by the Gunners.
The German finished the game with 15 Premier League assists this season, as many as Silva had registered in the whole of the 2011/2012 season and only five short of Thierry Henry with the all time Premier League record.
Joel Campbell spurned a couple of chances to win it 3-0 for the Gunners in the second half while Giroud’s shot was deflected for a corner by Nicolas Otamendi.
Aaron Ramsay was denied by Hart and curled a shot over the bar as the Gunners continued to press City, who were reduced to speculative efforts and lost much of their notional threat when Aguero was withdrawn on the hour following a knock.
His replacement, Wilfried Bony, was joined in attack by second half substitutes Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas, but the Gunners were already parking the bus by the latter stages of the game and Silva had been withdrawn just when City needed his craft.
To illustrate the point, Navas was put clean through but tried to pass the ball instead of chancing his arm and failed to find another blue shirt.
It wasn’t the first time that the Spaniard, who had gone 65 games without scoring for City, had made the wrong choice with the goal at his mercy.
City unexpectedly pulled one back with eight minutes to play after the otherwise pedestrian Yaya Toure came up with a moment of magic to give City hope.
The Ivorian exchanged passes with Sagna and beat Petr Cech with a casual left footed sidefoot into the top corner from the edge of the area after the Gunners’ defence was lulled into a false sense of security.
The stage was set for a big finish with Bony’s shot was blocked shortly after Ramsay missed a sitter to restore Arsenal’s 2-goal lead.
De Bruyne provided the ball to Toure who slid the ball wide with Walcott in close attendance as the Gunners resorted to desperate defending to hold onto their slender winning margin in the closing stages.