Joe Mardon
West Brom
Newcastle
Sp*rs
The list of lesser clubs who have come the Grove this season and left with three points in their pockets.
Lesser clubs without the resources of the richly assembled Manchester City brick wall we faced last night, and without their supposed title ambitions.
Second in the league, last night was a chance to make a statement of their intentions to challenge for the title. Their over cautious approach, with ten men behind the ball at all times and Joe Hart taking a minute to take every goal kick from the first, suggests that, despite the investment, they still don't truly believe they can win the league.
Their Manchester neighbours won't be so reserved when they pay their visit. As City fans arrived for work yesterday morning, happy with their point, they found their United colleague's even happier with the result, as the cards begin to fall into place for Fergie's men.
I heard some defenders of City's approach compare the tactics employed to that of Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan team last year, particularly their second leg display at Camp Nou in the Champions League Semi Final.
Here's the contrasts;
Despite our best attempts at imitation, we aren't Barcelona. Although Mourinho's Inter were based on a solid defence, they also managed to score three in the first leg. They had a desire to get into Barcelona's box and score. Scoring can be quite important in football. They did so three times, meaning they were even more defensive in the second leg with the final in sight. I understand that. I even liked it, because even if Inter were dull, Mourinho wasn't, and 90 minutes of defence, defence, defence were brought to a climax with him sprinting across the Camp Nou turf in wildly entertaining fashion.
We started with a high tempo and controlled the game throughout. We were unlucky not to go ahead, as we might have done if Wilshere been more decisive in shooting, or the rebound off the post from Van Persie and Cesc was kinder in our favour.
In the second half our tempo understandably dropped, and City became even more reserved. It was all too evident by around the seventy minute mark that we were physically spent. We were still allowed as much of the ball as we wanted, but our ability to break our opponents down and create chances decreased because we were knackered.
And this is where Mancini's tactics could've proved golden, and three points might have been stolen had they shown half an inclination to do so.
After nullifying us for the majority of the game, we were then there to be taken advantage of. West Brom, Newcastle and Sp*rs have done so in the too recent past, yet even though the introduction of Johnson meant City then had two players with attacking instincts as opposed to the lonely Tevez, they didn't threaten. They didn't want to.
Perhaps we should take small credit for this. Gael Clichy was having his finest game of the season and Alex Song was also superb. Djourou is now the main centre back in Vermaelen's ever extending absence, and he again showed why.
When the freshness of our fine first half display was fading, we needed a contribution from the substitutes. Arshavin did little but frustrate. Bendtner was playing wide when his presence would surely have been more beneficial in the box. Chamakh seems to have been granted a mid-season break following his exertions in the first half of the campaign.
Afterwards, Arsene said we had the performance we wanted, but not the result. Spot on. It makes catching United that little bit harder, but we almost did all that we could.
Two clean sheets in a row is a pleasing stat, despite it not being hard to keep the blunt pencil that was City at bay.
The point they came for was bored out. Arsenal frustrated. City happy. United happier.
*** For more of my Arsenal based ramblings, follow me on Twitter @TheArsenal_
