Match Report: City 0 - 2 Arsenal

City held a lot of the first half possession but were unable to muster any chances on net. Arsenal's dangerous attack were bound to open up City and they were rewarded with a foul by Kompany. A very lazy foul from Vinnie gave Arsenal a PK, which was converted by Carzola. As the half wound down, City began to show a little life as Arsenal committed more men to attack. Some counter attacks almost left Arsenal open to a City counter, but City were unable to grab a goal. An absence of creativity in the first half left City down a goal heading into the dressing room with a lot of work to do to get a goal back.

The second half was much more exciting and Jovetic added a bit of life to the attack for City. Despite this, the boys were unable to grab a goal. As the second half went on the game got very stretched as Arsenal looked to add to their lead and City looked to draw level. Arsenal got their second from a free kick. Another display of sloppy free kick defense confounded City and Giroud nodded home a goal to make it 2-0. At 2-0 City’s hopes to grab a point from the game were fading. City tried throughout to no avail and the game ended 2-0 for an impressive Arsenal side.

A telling sign of City's struggles in the first half came in a stat with the boys having no shots on goal in the first half. It reflects the lack of creativity we showed in the first half. Another telling observation from the first half was the lack of meaningful touches that Aguero and Silva had during this time. Without those two, especially Silva, it is tough for the City attack to create anything. Navas has been increasingly frustrating as he has not been creating on the right side, especially given his talent of speed and creating space for himself.

Another more glaring problem this season has been the defense and today was no different. We continue to concede multiple goals per game, making it more important that we as a team score multiple goals each game. It doesn't matter much when you have a big lead, but when those defensive holes lead to a comeback (Burnley and Sunderland) or outright win (like today) it's a big problem. Not saying that scoring multiple goals each game is impossible for a team of our talent, but it can be tough from time to time. No need to be all down and out but it was a frustrating game to watch.