Arsenal (0) 1 - 1 (1) Manchester City
Highbury, Tuesday January 4th 2005
FA Premiership
Arsenal:
Almunia
Hoyte Toure Senderos Cole
Ljungberg Vieira Cesc (Pennant 65) Pires
Henry van Persie
Chelsea extended their lead thanks to this draw and
their win over Middlesbrough. Disappointing stuff, and
hardly a great performance by Arsenal against a hard-working
Man City team. Dunne was superb in defence and Wright-Phillips
scary in attack. And Fowler worked harder than I've ever
seen him before. Arsenal played with 2 inexperienced defenders
in Senderos and Hoyte. Both did alright, without setting the
world alight. If any individual can be picked out for a
substandard performance it has to be Vieira who gave the ball
away far too often, including for the goal.
It was Fowler who got the first effort in, with a looping first-minute
header from near the penalty spot which Almunia had to jump, high to
his left, to save.
Pires went on a terrific run, coming forward and central from the
left wing. He fed Ljungberg on the right hand side of the box and
when his chip towards the 6 yard box was cleared it came to van Persie
who turned well and whose shot was deflected for a corner. Soon after,
Senderos came up with a terrific last gasp tackel to stop Wright-Philips.
It took 3 tackles to stop a run by Cesc, at least one of which the
ref spotted as a foul. Henry took the free kick from 25 yards out on
the left and swung it towards the far post. It came past Pires, unmarked
just forward of the spot, but he failed to make contact when he stooped
to deflect it and James was able to get over and save low at his
left hand post.
Hoyte rode a couple of tackles bringing the ball down the middle
but perhaps had run out of steam a bit by the time he shot from
the D, and it went straight at the keeper.
20 minutes gone now, with Arsenal making all the play. Cole's long
ball forward was controlled brilliantly by Henry on the left of the D
and he slipped it to van Persie on his right whose first-time shot
again went straight at James. Pires played a nice ball to van Persie
with his back to goal on the edge of the box. The Dutchman dragged it
behind him nicely but turned to see he'd just overdone it enough to
allow a defender to nip in and clear.
City had started to come out a bit more and to hassle us on the ball
deep in our half. Arsenal's insistence on playing the ball out
of defence rather than just clearing it can create some nice goals
for us, but for the opposition too... It was Barton who caught
Vieira spending too much time on the ball a few yards outside
his own box. The ball went to Wright-Phillips a bit further out
and he let fly from a long way out, the shot going like a missle
inside Almunia's top right hand corner.
5 minutes later a great tackle by Toure on Fowler (I think)
saved a certain second. Then a dangerous Arsenal cross from the left
was headed over for a corner. It was on the left where Henry usually takes
them (and hits them straight at a defender on the near post) but
instead Pires came over for it and found Vieira's head but although he
caught it well he directed it just wide.
Arsenal started the second half well. A cross/shot from the left
was nearly deflected in by a defender, and then a Cole header
forced James to scramble to his right hand post to save. We had long
periods of pressure and a few long range shots. Up the other end
Almunia fluffed a clearance straight to a City shirt and was lucky
to see it go wide when hit straight back in. Soon after the Spanish
keeper came up with a great catch under lots of pressure.
Pires hit a great shot from distance which
James had to tip over the bar.
Finally with 15 minutes to go the breakthrough came... a corner was cleared out of the box
to our left and Henry chased it then hooked it back into the box
with an overhead kick. It caught the defence out and found
Ljungberg stooping near the spot to head it in. It looked offside
but turned out that a defender outside the box over on the right had
been slow in coming out and had played Freddie on.
4 minutes later we got a free kick over on the right and
Henry let van Persie have a go. He got it over the wall and
was unlucky to see it crash down off the bar and out, with
James nowhere near it. The rebound came to Freddie but he
didn't catch his first-time shot quite right.
Pennant, who'd come on for Cesc, went on a good run down the
right and hit a cross towards the near post which van Persie
had to stretch for just a bit too much.
Henry hit a great free kick from over 30 yards out which was
probably going over but
James got his fingertips to it just to be sure.
This match brought to an end our record sequence of 11 Premiership wins in a row over the same opposition (see record-breakers page) | 
