Emirates Stadium
Sunday, 13 January Kick Off: 16:00
Sky Sports 1
Referee:Mike Dean
Preview number two takes a trip to the Emirates unlike a large portion of us who unfortunately in these times of austerity simply cannot justify taking a second mortgage to pay for the ticket. Someone at that club must be pocketing a serious amount of money though because they definitely haven’t been spending it all on playing staff. There is growing discontent down in North London as Arsenal continue to slide further away from being a team challenging for silverware and a board that bizarrely doesn’t seem to put winning at the top of its priorities. The growing malcontent is not helped by the now annual selling off of the clubs best players (and Samir Nasri) and this has seen Mr Wenger shift his policies slightly – he now puts a decent team out in the League Cup, although the results didn’t reflect that. A Sunday League score win over Reading and defeat at the hands of Bradford. It may take more than a League Cup win to placate the fans anyway.
Last Week
Looking back at the Watford game I’ll start with what you’ll soon come to realise is a collectors item from me; praise for the match official. Mr Dowd played a wonderful advantage in the build up to our second goal. Sadly that’s where it ends as the rest of the game he was as hopeless as normal. I got home looking forward to finding out exactly why we had a goal disallowed in the first half but sadly ITV didn’t manage to fit that clip into the 23 seconds they afforded the Champions of England. (Having seen the highlights online I’m still none the wiser, any ideas?) Instead they provided extended highlights of the Rags miserable draw with West Ham which was earlier broadcast in full.
Game build up was dominated by a minor dispute between our two favourite Italians (leaving aside the two from Nintendo.) It all seems to be much to do about nothing, but as usual it happened at City so it was front page news for the national papers. The opposition weren’t of the highest quality but when Mario came on he did well enough. He offers something our other forwards don’t in that he’s very direct. Every time he picks up the ball he looks to go forward and he’s not afraid to hit a shot from outside the box. Admittedly we’ve got no shortage of players who are happy to have a go, but few tend to get them on target with the regularity that Mario does.
The team performance was as expected; City looked comfortable on the ball and apart from one break of the offside trap which drew a smart save from Romania’s Number 1 Watford rarely threatened. In all it was a fairly straight forward victory where the only danger seemed to be a red card and a suspension courtesy of Mr Dowd.
Connections
Any excuse for a trip down memory lane and a look at those who’ve swapped Arsenal for City and vice versa should always be taken. I’ve talked before about the man with the disco pants in my last preview so I’ll start with another cult hero, Mr Paul Dickov. Forever in our hearts for that late goal on the 30th May 1999 the best way to describe Dickov is a nuisance. The closest thing I’ve seen to Paul Dickov recently is probably our very own Carlos Tevez. A man who never knew when to give up he would tirelessly hound opposition defenders and whilst he never possessed the ability of Tevez this writer won’t love him any less as a result. Another man to have bridge the divide is City ‘legend’ Patrick Vieria. Whilst he played a few games for Arsenal at the turn of the century and picked up the odd trophy I’m fairly certain his proudest moment would be that 5th and final FA cup. We’ve also stolen Clichy, Adebayor, Toure and Nasri away, and even though they haven’t all being the biggest of hits it has managed to further upset the Arsenal support.
Arsenal
A side I used to have so much time for in the days of Vieria and Co, Arsenal were brilliant. They seemed the perfect blend of power, technique and ruthless finishing ability. Campbell and Toure were solid and dependable. Vieria was a colossus in their midfield, Pires and Ljungberg provided the ammunition and Bergkamp and Henry were deadly in the box. And let’s not forget Jens Lehman who regularly did his best to put an end to their unbeaten season. Fast forward a few years from the ‘Invincibles’ and Arsenal just don’t cut it for me. They have plenty of style but just not enough substance. Cazorla, Arteta and Wilshere can all pass the ball but aside from Wilshere’s petulant streak (which is a bit embarrassing) there’s just no fight in the middle. They miss Alex Song, and Diaby hasn’t fulfilled the early promise he showed. Szczesny will continue in goal for them and the bank four should be Sagna, Gibbs, Koscielny and Vermaelen. It’s not a bad defence but there’s nobody that stands out. In midfield they should line up with the three mentioned earlier and the front line is most likely to be Theo ‘Honest I Don’t Just Want More Cash’ Walcott, Alex ‘Head Down And Run Into Blind Alleys’ Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas ‘I Quite Rate Him In Fairness’ Podolski. Whilst we’ve been undoubtedly weekend by the African Cup of Nations you could argue Arsenal have been strengthened as Gervinho is no longer available. I’m always careful about really bad mouthing players as it can come back to haunt you, but as he’s not here I’ll give my frank assessment. Quite possibly one of the worst players I’ve seen play at the highest level.
The Citizens
As ever it’s always a risky business trying to predict a Roberto Mancini side. With Arsenal being a particularly mobile unit going forward I’d expect Nastasic to come into the side at the expense of Lescott and partner Kompany in the middle. Kolarov is rumoured to be close to a return but Mancini may prefer the pace of Clichy and Zabaleta may well be the first name on the team sheet these days. Up top, expect Balotelli to be kept on the bench again so Dzeko and Tevez will lead the line. With injuries, suspensions and the African Cup of Nations the midfield nearly picks itself. Milner to operate mainly from the right and Silva from the left, or wherever he sees fit and Barry and Garcia continuing in the middle. I’m concerned about the lack of mobility in that central pairing and if anywhere I think that’s where Mancini will surprise us, although I have no idea how with the personnel available. Scott Sinclair is again the man left out. When he signed I had high hopes as he looked good for Swansea and his pace stretched defenders and created more room for others to work in. Unfortunately the way we play doesn’t seem to suit him so well, the build up is a little slow and as teams tend to park the bus we don’t always have the space he needs to open up gaps. He also looks to be totally lacking in confidence, when he comes on he doesn’t seem willing to run at defenders and so never manages to make an impact. Unfortunately it’s difficult to see him getting an extended run in the side unless we pick up any more injuries.
Prediction
I’m always the optimist with my predictions and again I’m going to go for a City win, I like the look of 3-1 this week. Although given that we haven’t won away at Arsenal in the league since the dawn of time and if memory serves correctly the last City player to score in the league there was none other than the great Damarcus Beasley (who now ply’s his trade in the Mexican League if Wikipedia can be trusted – just this once I promise, I don’t have time for thorough research this week) maybe I’m being a touch too optimistic. We’ll see!!
Huge thanks go to barryconlonsbaldspot for writing thie preview for www.mancityfans.net