And with that, I’m off. It’s been joyful. Bye!
“We know our quality. If we play our game we can win the league,” adds Özil as he collects the man of the match award.
Here’s your super soaraway match report:
Arsenal have a great chance now to win the league. They must still, however, visit Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City, so their second half-season looks a little tougher than their first. “I am happy to help the team,” says Özil. “On the pitch my team-mates help me, and I can play my game. So I try to help the team. I tried to give my best, and yeah, we won the game.”
So, in summary, the grass was a little short at kick-off but over the first half-hour it grew just the right amount, allowing Arsenal to dominate exchanges until it got a little overlong towards the end. Oh for a fourth mow! The Gunners are now favourites for the title, with William Hill making them 11-10, and City 15-8.
Updated
Final score: Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City
90+5 mins: It’s over! And City’s 15 minutes of excellence is nearly – but not quite – good enough to make up for their 75 minutes of impotence.
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90+5 mins: And another one. No hurry. Tick tock.
90+4 mins: Arsenal win a throw-in on the left, in City’s half. And then another one. The clock ticks.
90+2 mins: Everything’s going down City’s right, where Sagna-Touré-Navas are controlling the traffic. Sterling, out on the left, has done very little since coming on.
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90+1 mins: The referee wants four minutes of stoppage time, and Giroud wastes the first of them pretending to be hurt.
90 mins: City are hammering on the door now. Battering at it. Sterling passes to Otamendi, who pulls out of the challenge as Giroud slides in. As a result of which, Giroud wins the ball. A natural penalty-area predator would probably have got his toe to that and won a penalty.
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89 mins: Arsenal reinforce their defence with Chambers, who replaces Walcott.
87 mins: Arsenal have 11 men back now. Touré plays a one-two with De Bruyne, whose return ball is just fractionally out, and the Ivorian stretches and turns the ball behind.
Great finish!
— R.Lukaku Bolingoli10 (@RomeluLukaku9) December 21, 2015
86 mins: City are knocking on the door. Here’s Touré opening it:
Unreal finish by Yaya. pic.twitter.com/iGUdHhRU5f
— City Watch (@City_Watch) December 21, 2015
84 mins: And then Bony flicks the ball into the path of the onrushing De Bruyne, and only a lovely flick of the boot from Mertesacker denies the Belgian a near-certain goal. Suddenly, anything is possible!
83 mins: And moments after the kick-off Ramsey is played through, but his attempted curling cross-goal chip floats wide.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City (Touré, 82 mins)
Arsenal ignore Touré on the edge of the area – which, on the basis of this match, was a reasonable enough risk to take – and get punished for it, as he lets the ball roll across his body before sidefooting it with his left foot perfectly into the top corner. Lovely finish.
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81 mins: Ramsey makes a fine run into the area, but Oxlade-Chamberlain is not Özil, and his chipped pass flies out of play. “in regards to Colin Livingstone’s comment – Lovren, or maybe Skrtel,” ripostes Paul Quigley.
80 mins: While down the other end, Walcott has a low shot from just outside the area that Hart dives on.
79 mins: Chance for City! Fernandinho spears the ball through to Navas, who looked fractionally offside, but instead of taking a clear shot he attempts a difficult pass to the covered Bony.
76 mins: Özil is off, which means Arsenal are now officially banned from further scoring. Oxlade-Chamberlain comes on.
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75 mins: City win a corner, from which Bony heads goalwards. It’ll go down as an effort on target, but there’s little power in the header and Cech gobbles it up. “I wonder what name you might pick for a centre back that can mangle a pass, mangle a tackle or mangle almost any aspect of being a centre back?” wonders Colin Livingstone.
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73 mins: David Silva is off and Jesús Navas is on. Also, Gibbs came on for Campbell a few moments ago.
72 mins: … and from the looks of City’s performance he’s not alone. From the first glimpse of any kind of adversity they have stunk the house out tonight. Yaya Touré does something, which makes a change, taking the ball into the area before diving miserably. The referee doesn’t book him, kindly.
71 mins: “I’m confused Simon. Is Aguero injured or did he leave early for Christmas holiday?” I don’t think he’s any more injured than he was a couple of hours ago – he was never expected to complete this game, and obviously felt he’d had enough.
69 mins: Arsenal don’t score again! Giroud chips a lovely pass to Ramsey, just inside the area, who chests it down but has two defenders crowding around his left foot. He checks back onto his right, and really should at that stage have spotted Walcott all alone a few yards away, but he was thinking only of goal by then, and shot wide.
Updated
68 mins: In the first half Arsenal rarely looked like scoring and nevertheless did, twice. In the second half they have been in a perpetual state of almost-scoring, and haven’t, yet.
65 mins: Bony is on now. And in this minute City celebrate the 400th (minute) anniversary of their last away league goal. Many happy returns!
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63 mins: Otamendi’s diving tackle stops Campbell getting free in the area. He’s having to defend for two at the moment, because Mangala’s occupying some strange state in between existing and not existing.
@Simon_Burnton Ah, autocorrect... May have been going for 'ham-fistery' there...
— Panini Cheapskates (@CheapPanini) December 21, 2015
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62 mins: City are down to 10 men – Agüero has left the field, even before Bony is ready to replace him. He’s got his anorak on and is sitting down, and Bony’s still pulling his socks up.
Updated
60 mins: How did Arsenal not score this? They break at pace and it ends with five on three as City’s midfield just can’t really be bothered getting back – they’re literally all standing around 20 yards away, watching – Campbell pokes through to Ramsey, but the midfielder’s first touch is bad and Hart is able to block the shot.
59 mins: A save from Cech! City actually create something, with a cross from the right picking out Agüero at the near post, but the ball flies straight to the keeper.
56 mins: Another Arsenal miss! Campbell again! But the ball’s rolling away from him, and he can’t get the fullest of contacts, and Hart saves!
55 mins: “Am I mistaken, but switching between your concurrent live MBM English and Spanish broadcasts, the latter seems to be twice as excitable for half the action,” notes Ray Reardon (perhaps the snooker-playing one, I don’t know). They do love their exclamation marks, the Spanish.
53 mins: Miss! Howling miss! Monreal gets free on the left and crosses low to Campbell, who side-foots left-footed over the bar from eight yards! That should have put it to bed!
52 mins: De Bruyne passes to Agüero in the area, and he spins and shoots. He had Koscielny hanging on to his shoulders, which made it a little trickier, and the ball bobbled calmly back to Cech.
51 mins: “Can we add psychic powers to Özil’s talents?” asks Charles Antaki. “Or at least eyes in the back of his head, as he seemed to sense Walcott’s shot coming straight at him from behind, and duck just enough to let it fly past and into the City net. Even Superman doesn’t have 360 degree vision.” There was indeed an excellent duck as the ball arrowed its way goalwards. It was quite a hard shot – there may have been some kind of low-level sonic boom involved.
48 mins: Another booking, Otamendi elbowing Giroud in the back on the touchline, for little obvious purpose. “Arsenal dropping at nudges, but City thoroughly agrarian/cynical,” writes Alex Whitney. “How does the 2nd or 3rd most expensive team in the world play in such a way? Bad coaching, or bad recruiting?” Their recruitment dept (and a few others’) does need to take a long, hard look at themselves, I feel.
47 mins: In the space of about 20 seconds City win the ball three times and lose it three times. It all ends with an Arsenal corner, but tonight could get worse for City if they don’t stop giving possession away in their defensive third.
Özil's Arsenal career is beginning to look like Bergkamp's. Slow start with plenty of doubters, then build to greatness @Simon_Burnton
— Gary Naylor (@garynaylor999) December 21, 2015
I think he could still be more influential, which I appreciate is a ridiculous thing to say about someone who has created 13 goals in his last 11 league games, but I think there’s more potential there still. A lovely and brilliant footballer, but greatness is just over the brow of the hill.
Raheem Sterling is warming up at half-time. Is he City’s game-changer?
Ross should know:
Ozil is different class. #simple
— Ross Barkley (@RBarkley20) December 21, 2015
“If Arsenal have further success with three pre-match mows, the club should adapt an alternate badge featuring Three Lawnmowers,” suggests Peter Oh. “‘Three mowers on my chest, I know we can’t go wrong!’”
De Bruyne’s comedy corner in full:
De Bruyne, Man City's record signing. pic.twitter.com/3okRPagAqb
— Away Games (@awaygamesinfo) December 21, 2015
Half time: Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City
Half a very quiet hour, with City looking more likely, and then Arsenal make their move. They have had two shots. They have two goals. Özil has two assists.
@simon_burnton City'll be OK - Pellegrini will give them a Pep talk at half time
— Andrew Dunn (@lairdoflard) December 21, 2015
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City (Giroud, 45+1 mins)
They’ve got another! And it’s a howler from Mangala, who gives the ball away totally needlessly. It’s worked to Özil, who shuffles it to Giroud in the area, who blasts the ball low with his left foot, through Hart’s legs and in.
Updated
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there’s only going to be one minute of it.
43 mins: Otamendi arrives after Giroud had pushed the ball clear, and the home fans boo City’s frequent fouling. Their team do nothing with the free kick.
41 mins: With Walcott racing left to right with a yawning chasm of space in front of him, Joel Campbell overhits his through-ball.
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40 mins: “But remember, Arsenal aren’t a threat because Theo Walcott, ‘can’t-score-and-doesn’t-have-a-football-brain-and-also-isn’t-a-striker’™” notes Phil Reilly. Thirteen goals in 17 league starts suggests he might be OK at it.
37 mins: Back to three-mowsgate, I believe Arsenal falls inside Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North constituency. He can’t even stop the cuts there.
36 mins: Arsenal win a corner. Özil curls it in, Koscielny flicks it on, and then someone in a City shirt executes an excellent overhead clearance.
35 mins: David Silva can give De Bruyne an extra-vicious scowl now. Ninety massive seconds there, as City could have taken the lead, and then Arsenal actually did.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Manchest City (Walcott, 33 mins)
Well they’ve had a shot now! Walcott picks up the ball just inside the area on the left, cuts onto his right foot and edges away from goal before, from 19 yards out, whacking it across goal and in at the back stick!
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32 mins: Miss! Big miss! Agüero finds De Bruyne in all sorts of ludicrous space on the right with a first-time flick, and the Belgian carries the ball into the area, ignores Silva to his right and sidefoots across goal and wide.
re 3 cuts: is it not possible that a lowly staffer at Sky took a sarcastic "short, back & sides" reply literally? @simon_burnton
— ToffTwits (@ToffTwits) December 21, 2015
31 mins: The referee waves play on on three occasions in a single move, as Arsenal players keep being pushed, kicked or blown over. Eventually one Arsenal player too many goes over, and David Silva gets booked.
29 mins: That bit when Walcott hit the ball off the pitch in the 20th minute hasn’t gone down as a shot in the official statistical tally-book, and the Gunners are thus being derided for not having had an effort of any description whatsoever in the first half-hour of this match.
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26 mins: “It’s amazing how quickly De Bruyne can change the tone of the match,” writes Ezra Finkelstein. “A few half-hearted passes between the City midfielders and the Belgian star, who looks like tintin, sends ripples of excitement down ones spine with his shot.” Ripples of excitement down one’s spine, eh? What happens when he actually scores? Perhaps it’s best you don’t tell me.
26 mins: I’d missed the moment when De Bruyne tried to take a quick corner, accidentally kicked the flag and nearly fell over. What a moment.
25 mins: Arsenal win the ball in defence and think about counter-attacking, at least until Kolarov took out Özil to put a stop to that nonsense.
24 mins: “It seems the grass is growing so fast that the quality of the game is already impacted,” writes Mads Pihl. “Will they cut it at half time?” This hasn’t been a thriller so far and it seems only fair to blame the pitch. I reckon the grass, after it’s treble trim, is too short, but I’m optimistic that it’ll grow enough for the second half to be a scorcher.
23 mins: Arsenal’s attack ends with not one but two of their players going down on the edge of the area in a vain search for a free kick, and City head off down the other end, where De Bruyne’s low shot is turned round the post by Cech, a straightforward save.
20 mins: Özil’s low centre from the left deflects off Sagna and should have been safe, but Walcott flew after it, caught up with it and had a shot, from a silly angle, that went wide.
Updated
19 mins: City win a corner, which is half-cleared and worked back to the taker, De Bruyne, who jinks to the edge of the area before unleashing an optimistic low shot. Highly unlikely to go straight in, but I suppose it could have fallen to anyone after it pinballed around the crowded area a bit. It fell to a defender.
Updated
17 mins: The game is starting to stretch, with both teams having turns to push and prod. Arsenal’s left-wing cross is headed clear, and City’s probing ends with the ball ricocheting off an Arsenal leg.
16 mins: Ding ding! That’s your sixth-of-the-match bell right there.
14 mins: De Bruyne tries to tackle Walcott, mistimes it, and catches the Arsenal player’s foot. Much rolling about ensues. Which, on the plus side, is probably also good for the pitch.
13 mins: City win the ball on the right flank, deep into their own half, and break fast. Arsenal, to their credit, get numbers back fast, and City make no more than a vague fifth of a chance, and Silva’s shot is blocked.
11 mins: Koscielny roars forward, marauds his way through City’s half, then gets confused and knocks the ball out of play.
9 mins: Another shot! it’s Fernandinho this time, with his right boot, from about the same position as Silva if you’d looked at Silva’s shot in a mirror. It goes to almost the same place, too.
7 mins: A shot! The first of the night, and it’s from the left boot of David Silva. It flies high. “The grass at the Emirates is not perfect until Mesut Özil says it’s perfect,” insists Dean Potter. I still cannot believe it’s been mowed three times today. The world’s gone crazy. First Miss Universe, now this.
6 mins: Özil tries to pass to Walcott as he Englishman puts on the afterburners and leaves the City defence in his wake, but it’s a little too strong and rolls out of play.
6 mins: Delph seems fine, and he helps City enjoy a full minute and a half of possession, in which at no point do they get more than a few yards into Arsenal’s half.
4 mins: Delph tries to challenge Özil, holds his ankle, winces, and then gets up likes an arthritic nonagenarian and starts limping about.
2 mins: According to Sky the groundsman “had to cut the grass three times today”. Crikey, what do they feed the stuff?
Peeeeeeeeeep!
1 min: And they’re off! Giroud gets the ball quite literally rolling, swiftly followed by a mighty hoof down the left wing. It’s the Arsenal way.
The players are now very much on the pitch, and we’re just a brief ad-break from action.
The players are in the tunnel. Agüero is the last City player out.
Classic embarrassing Christmas-themed cover photo on tonight’s match programme:
Sterling on bench, Aguero starts for the visitors. Arsenal name unchanged side with Campbell, Walcott, Ozil and ... pic.twitter.com/Sa7lHxvT1b
— Camden New Journal (@CNJArsenalFC) December 21, 2015
Arsène Wenger talks to Sky, though the sound on my screen mysteriously goes for most of it. Still, this is good, right? He was asked first about choosing an unchanged side:
Well, there’s always one or two uncertainties but we’ve built up some belief and some confidence and tactically we were alright, didn’t concede goals, and that will be important tonight. With Walcott and Giroud we can score from crosses and can score also from counter-attacking, and if Özil has a great night he can deliver the final pass.
Currently enjoying Thierry Henry’s analysis of where Manchester United are going wrong. He keeps repeating the same word, so I thought I’d offer a soundtrack – after all, it’s as close as any United forward is going to get to freedom …
“‘Maybe he’s not fit for 90 minutes …’” quotes David Flynn. “Uh oh, this has an Agüero first-half hamstring explosion written all over it.”
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Nice statsmanship here:
13 - Premier League assists in 2015-16: Mesut Ozil 13 Man Utd players combined 12 Chelsea players combined 11 Influence.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 21, 2015
Manuel Pellegrini does some chatting, first about Agüero:
For him it’s important to start the game. Maybe he’s not fit for 90 minutes, but he brings different things to our team. He makes important runs. We’ll see how long he can play.
I hope that he’ll return in a good way. This week he worked the whole week normally, so we’ll see during the game.
And then about Delph, and the game in general:
He brings different things. He is very dynamic, good running from the left side, so I think for this game it was important for him to start. Raheem is a box player, a lot of 1v1. I think today we’re going to have space, maybe we’re not going to need him at the beginning but he’s always an important player coming from the bench.
I think the most important thing is which team can have more possession of the ball. You need to know what to do with the ball but I think both teams have very creative players.
Brilliantly exciting fixture this, between the only two teams the bookies consider seriously capable of winning the league this season (William Hill have City at 6-5, Arsenal at 13-8, and Leicester next best at 10-1). There’s a lot of water to pass under a lot of bridges yet, but this could – will probably – be one of the defining games of the season. Phwoar.
City make four changes: Sterling, Clichy, Navas and Bony are out, De Bruyne, Kolarov, Delph and Agüero are in.
No sign of Alexis Sánchez in Arsenal’s squad.
The teams!
Your big match teams in full:
Arsenal: Cech, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Flamini, Ramsey, Walcott, Özil, Campbell, Giroud. Subs: Gibbs, Gabriel, Ospina, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Chambers, Iwobi, Reine-Adelaide.
Man City: Hart, Sagna, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Touré, Delph, Silva, Agüero, De Bruyne. Subs: Sterling, Caballero, Bony, Jesus Navas, Clichy, Demichelis, Iheanacho.
Referee: Andre Marriner
Team news dripping in – and Sergio Agüero starts for City:
City XI: Hart, Sagna, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Toure (C), Delph, De Bruyne, Silva, Aguero #arsenalvcity #mcfc
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) December 21, 2015
Hello world!
Well then, here we are. Manchester City’s Premier League record at Arsenal is downright abysmal, with one victory in 18 attempts, and the Gunners’ home record this season, at least domestically, is roaringly impressive, with their only defeat coming against early-season, puzzlingly-good-away-from-home West Ham. Since that game, their first at the Emirates, they have conceded a parsimonious three goals in six matches. City, meanwhile, have three away wins to their name this season, level with West Brom, Stoke, Liverpool, Tottenham and Bournemouth, not quite as good as Watford and way behind Leicester and Arsenal themselves, with six (though they’ve both played two more away games than City’s seven). Their last Premier League away win was on 12 September, at which stage they had a 100% away record – they haven’t won in four since.
So, 0-2 then? It is, after all, a funny old game.
Simon will be her shortly. In the meantime, here’s what Arsène Wenger has been saying via the medium of a David Hytner article:
Arsène Wenger recalls the pre-season conversation with clarity. It was 1994 and his friend, Jean-Claude Suaudeau, the Nantes manager, was in trouble. The Arsenal manager was at Monaco and Suaudeau wanted to borrow one of his players. Wenger said no.
“The player was not 100% a regular but I said: ‘I cannot give him to you because I need him,’” Wenger said. “He said: ‘You’re unfair, because I will go down. They have sold my players and I have nobody left.’”
What happened next has gone down in French football folklore. Suaudeau played the kids and the kids stormed to the league title. Claude Makélélé, Christian Karembeu, Reynald Pedros, Patrice Loko and Nicolas Ouédec were aged 24 or under at the start of the season and Nantes thrived on their fearlessness.
They lost only once – in the 33rd match – and coasted home 10 points clear of second-placed Lyon. They would reach the semi-finals of the Champions League the following season.
“Because he had no choice, he played all the young players,” Wenger said. “For fuck’s sake, 32 games unbeaten! They won the championship with Loko, with Pedros. That’s the first time I’d seen it. Now, we have a second.”
You can read all of that here:
