6-3, Premier League, Etihad Stadium, 14 December 2013
Walcott 31, 63,
Mertesacker
Manchester City have been solid all year at their home turf, while we have been excellent in more or less all of our away games. While a loss would not be a complete disaster, a win here and we would have been in an extremely good position ahead of Christmas.
The start of the first half consisted of lots of early pressure from Manchester City, with several corners and free-kicks. Therefore it was of no great surprise that their first goal came from a corner-kick, and the identity of the goalscorer was not of a particularly surprising nature either. Koscielny lost track of Aguero in the box and the Argentinian went on to score from close range.
With half an hour to go Walcott had a free-kick cleared by City 'keeper Pantilimon, the ball found its way to Özil, but his touch was too poor and the ball went out of his reach. The following minute we caught a break and got back in the game, through Theo Walcott! Ramsey nicked the ball off Yaya Toure and played it to Özil, who cut it back to the Englishman, whose shot was placed past Pantilimon and into the back of the net!
Mere minutes later we got extremely lucky as Negredo got in a golden position to score as he got past our defence, but fortunately he put it wide. Five minutes later we were not as lucky, Zabaleta was completely free at the edge of the box and played it in to Negredo, who scored from close range. In that situation Koscielny picked up an injury to his knee and had to be stretchered off, a huge set-back for us. Vermaelen came on to replace him.
At the start of the second half things took another turn for the worse as Fernandinho scored. We lost possession in a dangerous area, which cannot happen in these games, and so it fell to the City player who curled a shot past Szczesny.
Giroud then had a trio of chances to get us back into the game, but all of them failed. First he received a cross at the far end of the box, but did not get a proper hit at the ball and it went over the bar. He then miss-kicked the ball, forcing it to go wide rather than towards the goal. Last, but definitely not least, he had a header going inches wide! It was Sagna who provided the brilliant cross that was met by the on-rushing Giroud.
We had a penalty shout denied as the ref failed to see how Zabaleta used his arm to maintain possession. Shortly after that we got back in it for the last time, and once again it was Theo Walcott who scored! Ramsey chipped the ball to him and it was a brilliant finish from the Englishman, curling it into the top corner past Pantilimon!
Merely three minutes later we were once again two goals behind. Silva was unmarked in the box and could score from close range. Wilshere then had a decent shot tipped over the bar by Pantilimon while Navas hit the side-netting on the other end of the pitch. Szczesny had to make a save as Fernandinho fired on target, while Nasri just fired high and wide.
Whatever hope remained died with two minutes to go, as Fernandinho scored yet again. Wilshere lost possession in the middle of the field and eventually Fernandinho put it past Szczesny. Walcott would have scored a hat-trick had not his free-kick been saved by Pantilimon. Instead it was Per Mertesacker who ended up as our final goalscorer of the day. Sagna provided a very good cross, which was met by Mertesacker and headed past Pantilimon.
Then, yet again, we lost possession in a dangerous situation, leading to Szczesny bringing down a City player and them getting a penalty. Yaya Toure scored from the penalty spot, which was the last thing to happen in the game.
A very disappointing result, we were just not good enough and definitely need to step it up against Chelsea next Monday.
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