Arsenal started the first half brightly, but things got scrappy, especially since Bob Pires was forced off through injury. He'd been involved in most of our good moves up to that point.

Shortly before half-time, Tiatto was sent off for his second bookable offence, barging Henry off the ball as thr Frenchman bore donw on goal. Bergkamp rolled the ball to Ashley Cole who hit a sweet low shot inside the near post.

Sometimes teams down to 10 men dig in and look stronger at the back because of it. No such luck for City. Arsenal made the most of their advantage in terms of numbers and telents in the second half.

First Bergkamp scored from the edge of the box after a nice back-heel from Ljungberg made space for him. Then Wiltord nutmegged Weaver after Henry set him up.

Wiltord repaid the compliment for Henry, twice in fact, to make it 5, and all of them classy goals.

Weaver must have kept out at least 3 or 4 more Arsenal goals with some excellent acrobatic saves. City only really threatened twice, one a Goater shot which Lukic saved superbly almost immediately after Cole's opener, the other an extraordinary Goater miss when faced with an open goal from 2 yards out.

Arsenal stay 2nd thanks to Man Utd achieving the exact same scoreline at home to Southampton.

The down-side, along with Pires's injury, was one to Vieira which saw Arsenal also reduced to 10 for the last few minutes since Luzhny had already limped off, and Parlour had been replaced too. We await news of these injuries. I wonder if they might perhaps be rested for the Ipswich game in midweek?

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