Not many surprises in the starting line-up... which was something of a surprise in itself given the importance of the game in Amsterdam on Wednesday! Particularly surprising to see Keown start given the doubts over his fitness and the importance (surely!) of having him available for the Ajax game. Cole was the only player rested, with Gio van Bronckhorst filling in.

Taylor;
Lauren, Keown, Campbell, Gio;
Pires, Vieira, Gilberto, Wiltord;
Henry, Bergkamp

The first threat of the game was at the wrong end after 3 minutes, when Anelka did well to stay onside on the left (learnt something since he left us, then) but Fowler's diagonal pass was woefully far in front of him and went out for a goal kick.

From that goal-kick, the ball came to Vieira in the centre circle, anbd Lauren picked it up just inside City's half. His pass forward split Pires and Wiltord on the edge of the box, and that perhaps confused the defenders. But there should have been a reaction from at least one of the 2 defenders that it trundled past, finding Bergkamp ghosting into the box from the left. He had only to side-foot it past Carlo Nash in the City goal.

Richard Dunne, just back in the side thanks to Distin's suspension, was at fault again 8 minutes later when his clumsy clearance went straight to Henry on the left wing. He took it to the goal-line, skipped past a defender as he made his way goalwards, then cut it back nicely for Pires whose first-time near-post finish wasn't half as easy as he made it look.

Henry got the wrong side of Dunne (oh dear) and took a long high ball down beautifully with his right foot on the edge of the box on the left, then hit the rising ball with his left, looping it past Nash and inside the far post.

Nash had conceded 4 to Arsenal on his City debut, and before long he'd matched that. Henry won a corner which he took from the left, and Campbell rose to head it down and in from 7 yards out.

A great passing move from Arsenal saw Wiltord taking the ball into the box on the right and skipping past Nash. He could easily have tried to beat his man at the post but unselfishly tried to find Bergkamp who was in space on the far side of the box. But Dunne was (finally) alert to it and cut the cut-back out.

Up the other end City nearly got a first-half consolation but Taylor made a great point-blank save from Fowler. The ball came back to City and Anelka shot wide from an angle on their right.

At half-time Wrighty's boy Shaun came on for Dunne, and City switched to a back four. Keegan admitted later that he'd started with 3-5-2 to try and take advantage of Arsenal's heavy schedule in the past week by taking the game to us. Whether it was because of their change of attitude or because Arsenal didn't feel such a need to score any more, they actually created more and better chances after the change.

Anelka shot wide after a Campbell slip had left him clear on the right corner of the box, the miss being thanks largely to Taylor's presence of mind in coming out quickly to challenge.

Then on 52 minutes Vieira played a one-two with Bergkamp, finding himself running in on goal at the end of it. Normally a little shot-shy, he didn't have any options this time, and good thing too as he slipped the ball under the outrushing keeper for 5-0.

City should have had a penalty when Vieira held Wright-Philips back. A free-kick was given but it was clearly inside the box.

With 3 minutes to go Anelka finalyl got the consolation that City deserved, with a tap-in from Fowler's cross. Slightly sloppy defending to allow both of them the space.

Six goals, a crushing win. But I've hardly mentioned the real star of the game. On this form, we might not be looking for a new star keeper in the summer after all. Stuart Taylor was simply superb. Apart from what I've mentioned above, there was: an Anelka shot from the edge of the box which Taylor got down brilliantly to his right, to tip round the post; a chance for Fowler on the 6 yard line after Berkovic's pass was deflected through for him, which Taylor came out to block; a terrific save from Wright-Philips; a deflected shot from Fowler on their left which took a defletion and was looping inside the far post if Taylor hadn't made a great stretch for it; and a Taylor tip-over from a rising blast by Berkovic.

If you look at the stats for the game, City had 3 more shots on target than Arsenal. The difference here was not only the clinical finishing by Arsenal (in those 20 minutes at the start, they defended poorly, and we simply did not miss), but also the excellent goalkeeping of the incredibly patient Stuart Taylor.

Man Utd could only draw at Bolton today (and that thanks to another late goal, Solskjaer's equaliser) so the lead is stretched to 5 points. But as Fergie pointed out, Bolton were fresh for the game having had a nice rest for 2 weeks while United were playing tough FA Cup and Champions League games. [Note to Fergie: please check out when Man City last played!]

A bit more of this on Wednesday, please!