Arsenal edge City at
Emirates
Arsenal defeated Manchester City 3-1 at Emirates Stadium to go
third in the Premiership table, albeit possibly temporarily with
Liverpool in action on Wednesday.
Arsene Wenger's men took the lead on 12 minutes through Tomas
Rosicky, only for DaMarcus Beasley to pull City level just before
half-time.
Cesc Fabregas finally fired The Gunners back in front with 17
minutes remaining and the win was wrapped up with Julio Baptista's
goal seven minutes later.
The victory almost certainly seals Arsenal's place in the next
season's UEFA Champions League, with an eight-point gap on their
nearest challengers.
Arsenal were their usual flowing selves early on and after Beasley
saw a shot blocked by Kolo Toure, Rosicky opened the scoring in
similar fashion to his equaliser in the win over Bolton at the
weekend.
Abou Diaby battled to win the ball back before playing in Emmanuel
Eboue down the right. The full-back's cross should have been dealt
with by Nedum Onuoha, but the City stopper was napping at the back
post, allowing Rosicky to nip in and beat Andreas Isaksson with a
neat finish.
Diaby was forced off not long after having suffered a head injury,
with Baptista coming on in his place.
Baptista was quickly into the action and won a free-kick just
outside the City area. The Brazilian took control of proceedings
and his effort looked to be heading goalwards until a vital
intervention from Richard Dunne sent the ball over the top.
Isaksson had to make a firm stop from Fabregas' drive from
distance, before City equalised with what was their first real
attack since the opening five minutes.
Jens Lehmann's clearance was straight at Joey Barton and City
capitalised to level things up. Michael Johnson's through ball from
the edge of the box was perfectly weighted for Beasley and the
American winger finished first-time into the bottom corner to make
Lehmann pay for his mistake.
Sensing Lehmann was low on confidence, Barton curled an attempt
towards Arsenal's goal which should have produced a routine save,
but the German keeper flapped at the shot and unconvincingly
diverted the ball away for a corner.
City started brightly following the restart, with Johnson and
Beasley again linking up well and the latter crossing for Sun
Jihai, but the Chinese defender, in an unfamiliar forward position,
was unable to make the desired connection.
After City's early domination in the second-half, Arsenal began to
enjoy the majority of possession, with City happy to play on the
break, and Barton's shot from the edge of the area was easily
gathered by Lehmann.
Emmanuel Adebayor latched onto Fabregas' brilliant ball over the
top and forced a fine stop from Isaksson at his near post from a
tight angle, and moments later Alexander Hleb's left-footed effort
flew across goal.
Adebayor had two great chances to put Arsenal ahead as The Gunners
stepped up their game a notch in the final quarter of the
game.
First, the Togolese front man saw a shot blocked by Sylvain Distin
after the ball was pulled back to him by Rosicky, before rising
highest to meet Hleb's cross, only to be denied by Isaksson down
low.
Arsenal finally beat Isaksson for a second time on 73 minutes as
Fabregas netted his second goal in as many games.
Rosicky gave possession away on the edge of the City box but the
ball dropped to the Spanish starlet and his brilliant volley from
25 yards left Isaksson with no chance of making the save.
Beasley had the ball in the net, but the goal was rightly ruled out
for offside, and with ten minutes remaining, Baptista added a
third.
Hleb picked up possession on the right-hand side and ran at Michael
Ball into the City box, only to lose the ball, however, there was
Baptista inside the area to poke past Isaksson and secure
victory.
Georgios Samaras could have set up an exciting finish but wasted a
glorious chance as he shot straight at Lehmann, while Eboue sent
Arsenal's final effort way off target from a tough
angle.
