Premier League - Duo off as Man City hold Arsenal
Manchester City stifled Arsenal to earn a goalless Premier League draw at the Emirates Stadium as Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta were both sent off in the closing stages by referee Mike Jones.
Roberto Mancini's suffocating tactics made clear the visitors only had designs on a point and they were fortunate to see the Gunners twice hit the woodwork during an imposing opening spell.
Although the hosts at least showed the determination to get the three points, they ran out of ideas in the second half apart from a Robin van Persie drive that brought the best out of Joe Hart.
Manchester United will be pleased to see their title rivals cancel each other out and Sagna and Zabaleta will both be banned for three games after going head-to-head in a silly set-to towards the end.
The hosts started at a furious pace and should have been ahead in the second minute when Samir Nasri danced into the box to pick out Jack Wilshere but the youngster overhit a simple cross to Van Persie in the middle. Theo Walcott retrieved the ball but City eventually cleared the danger.
Although City quickly broke to fire off target through James Milner, the Gunners carried all of the threat with Hart's hands warmed by Wilshere.
With nine minutes gone, Van Persie bought himself some space on the edge of the box and thudded a low drive against the outside of Hart's right-hand post.
With City reeling, Wilshere then forced a diving save from Hart to clutch his clever attempt.
Mancini's side weathered the storm but were still fortunate that Walcott dragged a shot wide after a neat turn saw him find plenty of space inside the box.
A rare scare at the other end came when Gareth Barry's free-kick went all the way to Carlos Tevez at the far post but he sliced his volley and Alex Song cleared for a corner.
The brief moment of panic only sparked Arsenal into life again as Nasri teed up Cesc Fabregas, who clipped a shot against the woodwork with Hart giving it up as a goal. The rebound fell to Walcott, who crashed it against the other post but the wide man was offside in any case.
Gradually, Tevez's endeavour enabled him to fight his way into the game and he sprung the offside trap to volley off target from a difficult angle after holding off Laurent Koscielny impressively.
Walcott blew hot and cold in the first half but he felt he deserved a penalty when his cross struck Vincent Kompany on the arm from close range. It would have been extremely harsh and referee Jones was right to only award a corner.
Hart safely fielded another shot by Van Persie as City were relieved to get in to the break on level terms.
Mancini's men were more comfortable after the interval but Van Persie seemed a man on a mission as he blasted a couple of speculative shots off target.
Just past the hour mark, the Dutch striker again tried his luck from long range and this time forced a superb save out of Hart, who dived to paw away in spectacular fashion.
It was to prove to be the closest Arsenal came to scoring in the second half and Mancini hinted at showing a little more adventure by bringing on Adam Johnson for surprise inclusion Jo.
Time and time again, the Gunners' moves were smothered by some stout City defending with Kompany and former Arsenal defender Kolo Toure in no mood to be beaten.
Arsene Wenger replaced Walcott with Andrei Arshavin, much to the England international's frustration, but there was no real Plan B and even the late introduction of Nicklas Bendtner as a target man failed to alter the shape of the game.
Just when everything was petering out, Zabaleta and Sagna decided to square up to each other after a clash on the touchline and their heads touched on a couple of occasions.
Zabaleta was shown the red card first by referee Jones, which seemed harsh, and Sagna had to follow as he was slightly more aggressive during the incident.
The Emirates crowd vented their frustration at City's performance as they tried to run down the clock and it is the home side who will be disappointed with a point.
City set their stall out to get a draw, as they did in their big game with rivals United at the City of Manchester Stadium, and they managed to hold out pretty comfortably in the end.
Comment 160 - 179 of 179
Rayez . . . hi, I care not a jot about what other fans think of us . My team is Man U . What do you expect of a Man U fan ? Re : Luck . Yes, it was obvious you were talking about this campaign - please ! My point was , how do you explain our past two decades ? Also lucky ? How would you define luck ? Or is luck merely a euphemism for " hell, i wish we were that good " . Luck is abundant and available for all .
One more question , as i am curious - have you stood on the terraces ? With real fans , i mean ? Well, i have and i know what real fans are like . They mostly hate each other and believe that their team is the d'ogs b; ollcks . Sound familiar .
Regarding other teams , i think Arsenal and Wenger are the future for football , only they need to balance out the pursuit of perfection and the need to win. Alex Ferguson is a purist at heart , but also a realist . Mancini is also a realist and a survivor - God , all that good-will , i feel rather un-well
ha ha ha ha haaa , we LOVE you Wolves !!! & we love Blackburn for puttin' one over on the scousers , Ms**ty and Ars-nil draw & buy-success-chelski lose again , ha ha ha ha ha ha can't stop laughing
manchester City a joke, how much money have they spent and look at what they produce, they played behind the ball and happy for a single point, sad lot HOW MUCH MONEY SPENT, got no chance if you qualify for CL football.
Boring city boring city.
Anybody including Man U win the league.
Re Gerard, 163. Thank you my friend for your wonderful words.Now, just in case you pick me up wrong, AGAIN, I do not, repeat, do not, hate man utd at all. But their fans, yes, I absolutely detest them. Ungracious, undignified, pompous and arrogant in every way my friend. Just remember Gerard, when you are having a go at me, you're having a go at millions of other supporters as well, so much are utd supporters despised.So go ahead my friend, indulge yourself. When the cap fits and all that, you know what I mean ole son.Ps, you say I left the best til last Gerard and also mention two decades of luck. Without even locating my post to check otherwise, I certainly do not recollect saying anything about two decades of luck, they were your words. Yesterday is history and I thought it was obvious I was talking about this years campaign. Apologies if it wasn't obvious to you that the LARGE pot of LUCK that utd seem to be enjoying at the minute is relevant to this season. Cheers. Now, as for whos your daddy, post 165.I think son you should try telling all the manu fans when the league can and cannot be won. From where I'm standing, most of them think it's all over already.Before you try to lambaste me, may I suggest you read ALL the posts on the forum and not just look out for the one's you may not agree with.That way, your obviously over sized mouth may not get you into trouble.
good day to all arsenal fans out their,as for me no congrat too the young team, they played well, but they all ways camble with the ball at the opponet goal post. i surgest they should keep trying the goalkeeper with good short.
For two high profileing football clubs, this was a disgrace!! these two clubs should get the book thrown at them!! a disgrace to the premier league!! these two clubs WILL never win the premier league the way they play and the way they conduct themselves!! whats more certain players need to have a good look at themselves at the way they conduct themselfs on the pitch such as diving, rolling about the pitch,timewasting, and most of all waving imaginary cards!!. absolute disgrace!!
Happy 2011 everyone....This has got to be a better year!...
My friend Vanessa, a 25 yrs lady, has announced her wedding with a millionaire young man Ronald who is the CEO of a MNC. It's amazing, she said she just posted her profile on a millionaire d'ating site called ----------ageromance c'om----- - and received his chat invitations a few days later. Then, everything went so well that I can't believe it's true! Every love story will unfold on it's own. you can start your own wealthy love story for real at there too !many famous and wealthy people had a profile there ,why not me ?
(*()_)^W
Manchester - footballing capital of Great Britain!
Arsenal for life. Good strong game, proper men football. Check your team player any defensive midfielder or defender that have no yellow card or red card at this point in the league is not a good player. The best defensive mid-fielders and defenders take yellow or red card because they are ready to do the dirty job and see their side win or draw. Good game, Arsenal for life
this was a boring match considering with all the players man city have, they came to the emirates to defend. they did the same thing against man united as well(@ home), shame!
Mr A of E . Well, as a yooonited fan , i'm used to Mr Ferguson's sometimes unpopular methods - dropping Berbatov for Park , playing Jon-Jon Evans etc - but ultimately , ultimately , he shows himself to be a canny reader of the game.
Hey,, any chance of a Rooney / Silva swap ? He looks like a mouse amongst elephants . We need a midfielder and you can re-ignite the love-thing 'tween Carlos and Wayne . I'm sure there's a deal to be done here. . .
hell's teeth,there's still a bottle of blue nun under the Chrismas tree . . .
The plain fact is that City were good enough to follow their plan successfully by defending as a team, and Arsenal weren't good enough to break them down. We came for a point and went home with it, but we worked blo ody hard for it. It is plain stupid to call City a defensive outfit with the attacking capabilities we have, but when we decide to defend we have proved we can. City are where they are in the league on merit. After 22 games that is a fact which cannot be argued against. We might not go on to win the league (don't bet against it) but even the most enthusiastic City haters have to agree that we are now a TEAM to be taken seriously plus we are still strengthening the squad. All in all, City fans are very happy at this moment in time thank you very much.
170#Mr Angry of eastlands ..... U got a Point and i think joe hart is the best keeper for england : ) oh btw i gotta make my own headlines World Class Defending by City tht shows we r ready for Champions league and Home Away games :D Come on Cityyyyy (L) :D
i cant believe we have pulled out such a gap on the hotspurts and chavski, for all your whining it was a great point for us, fair enough you yooniteds are telling all that you will win the league i care not if you do, 2nd would be a great improvement on last season, in fact if you look at our stats we haven,t stopped improving since that magical moment in the div 2 play-offs " and dickov waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhayyyy" anyway my point being we are on track for what we need this season so moan all you like but we mancs are very happy to be 2nd...........for now
gerard- nice to see somebody who can see through the bitterness. i think it,s a great point for us, we were under strength and defended too deep but still came away in second place, great defending and a great goalie behind them. if he would have been in goal for yoonited all the headlines would read "HAIL THE NEW GORDON BANKS". in fact if that had been yoonited that played that way they would be hailing yooniteds world class defenders. pah some people eh
paul whats wrong son? had a bad night son? are you a bitter arsenal fan son? are just a very angry man son?
Ah,mornin' Mr A . . . wishing you a bright and prosperous New Year . Intriguing match . Know what , i think Mancini has hidden depths . Clever fellow . He knows how to survive and is clearly in this for the long-term . I watch with interest .
whos your daddy..are you a @#$% or do you feel the need to use the word SON every 5 seconds?
Always in the shade.....
rayez2005 all this because arsenal failed to win oh boo hoo cry me a river son,and everyone just loves arsenal fans dont they? ask spurs fans what they think of you and everybody else,best quote ever," if man utd played like arsenal they would have won the league by now,1. its impossible to win it in january.2 why are assfil not top then? thats what i thought son. heres laughing at you son goodbye
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