Arsenal, in the days when they won trophies, often went to the grounds of their major rivals and enjoyed wins like this. Let’s make no mistake, Manchester City are now one of the big four, effectively displacing Liverpool. In effect, the new Chelsea, although built from a less solid foundation in terms of playing staff, so taking slightly longer to gel. Roberto Mancini is a decent manager and will lead them to success, given enough time. He certainly has the financial back up to do it. City will qualify for next season’s Champions League alongside 2011 league champions Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal. The visits to Eastlands was a big test for Arsenal’s Premier League season. Four points from the last 12 available, and some pretty unconvincing football over that period meant the Gunners had to put a marker down or risk their campaign descending further into hopelessness as the Stamford Bridge machine rolls on.

The early red card for City certainly played into their hands. Big pitch, good playing surface and possession football can hurt a team a man down badly in such circumstances. City played a high line and diced with death in doing so. Arshavin had a case for being onside before the red card incident and would surely have scored if allowed to continue. The first goal was a thing of beauty, an example of what can happen when Arsenal play decent penetrative one touch football and do not try and over-elaborate. When Fabregas missed the penalty, I feared a repeat of the Sunderland result a month ago, following Rosicky’s miss from the spot. Fortunately, it was to prove as significant as Arshavin’s miss in Belgrade. It was a powerful strike, but simply at the wrong height. Either keep it low or get it high.

City had a few decent opportunities and fair play to Lukasz Fabianski for playing as well as the manager has told us he can. With a run of games, his confidence has grown and howlers are not expected. If he keeps putting in performances like this, then the odd mistake will be forgiven. All keepers make them, it’s simply a matter of whether they are isolated blips or become habitual. It did appear the latter was the case with the Pole, but recent displays have led to a re-think. It is certainly difficult to imagine Manuel Almunia could get another chance.

Fans have got a little nervous about Alex Song’s increasing number of excursions upfield, but against City, we saw the reward, a second goal for the midfielder this season and a tasty strike at that. City’s reduction to ten men certainly helped in this regard, but a lack of cover for the centre backs has led to problems already this season. If this is to become a regular part of Song’s game, then the team are walking a tightrope and should expect to be punished by better sides. I like the idea of two holding midfielders, and I am not convinced yet that Song has the football intelligence to form a Petit-Vieira style partnership with anyone currently on the club’s books.

Once the second goal was scored, for a change, I did not feel nervous that City would be allowed back into the game, probably because of their being a man down. Bendtner’s goal to make it three was pretty academic, but another quality finish in an afternoon of quality goals. That this was City’s first home defeat of the season (and recalling they beat Chelsea here) was testament to the quality of Arsenal’s display. Yes, you could argue that they were a man up for almost all of the game, but that was a consequence of their own good play. At times, they still over-elaborated when you’d have preferred the man in possession to shoot rather than pass, but after a result like this, such complaints are churlish.

Bottom line is that this was a fantastic result and a quality performance. Hell, it was the first clean sheet in a competitive away match since January! Arsenal must now establish some consistency and start winning their away games convincingly, so as to build up something of an aura, a reputation, for being a team that the opposition feel they cannot beat. And then, we hope that Arsene Wenger has the last laugh. Such wins are great news, but if they are one-offs they just become frustrating.