Robert Exley
After suffering relegation on the last day in 1982/83 Man City spent two season in the second tier, finishing fourth in 1983/84 and securing promotion by coming third in 1984/85 with a 5-1 win over Charlton at Maine Road on the last Saturday of the season (although City’s joy would have been overshadowed on the back pages by the Bradford Fire, which occurred on the same day. On their return to the top flight, coverage of the first half of the season had been lost to the TV blackout, however the first Manchester derby upon their return had been caught for foreign broadcast, with run away early leaders Man United securing their eighth straight win from the start of the season, beating Man City 3-0 at Maine Road.
By the start of November came City’s first visit to Highbury upon their top flight return, with Arsenal taking all three points with a 1-0 win secured by a Paul Davis goal. City finished the season in fifteenth position but did get through to a Wembley final, losing 4-5 to Chelsea in the inaugural Full Members Cup Final (in essence, a Mickey Mouse Cup conceived to fill the void left by the post-Heysel ban on English clubs in European competition). Man City failed to improve on their first season back in the top flight and in 1986/87 were eliminated from the League Cup in the third round at Highbury as Arsenal ran out 3-1 winners with goals from Paul Davis, David Rocastle and a Martin Hayes penalty. Man City returned in the League a month later, this time Arsenal secured the points with a 3-0 win with goals from Tony Adams, Viv Anderson and Niall Quinn. Man City finished the season second from bottom, once again demoted to the second tier.
In 1987 Man City hired Mel Machin as manager, who oversaw a young side who won the FA Youth Cup a year earlier against neighbours Man United with players such as Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell, Paul Moulden, Paul Lake, David White and captained by Steve Redmond. Machin was bold enough to proclaim his young City side as the ‘Team of the nineties’, though ultimately had about as much success as Crystal Palace’s ‘Team of the eighties’ a decade earlier. They failed to escape the second tier in their first season, finishing ninth, however unearthed a prolific striker in Paul Stewart who was one goal off the second tier golden boot though moved to Tottenham in the close season. The close season of 1988 also saw Arsenal meet Manchester City in Brisbane in Australia in the Super 6 Soccer tournament to celebrate Australia’s bicentennial year, a game which Arsenal won 2-0.
The following season would see Man City promoted as runners up to Chelsea in the second tier (Chelsea in the second tier? Imagine that!), their place secured by a 1-1 draw away at Bradford with a goal from Trevor Morley. The jubilant City away end was adorned with inflatable bananas, which for anyone born Post-1990 was something of a bizarre fad across the country for the 1988/89 season (except at Highbury where they were actually banned!). Allegedly the fad started at Maine Road on the opening game of the previous season against Plymouth Argyle in August 1987. A Manchester City fan called Frank Newton borrowed the five foot yellow inflatable from a toy collector friend and brought it to Maine Road. With the City fans unable to pronounce the name of winger Imre Varadi, they instead began chanting ‘Imre Banana’ and hence the fad caught on.
One of City’s earliest fixtures on returning to the top flight was the Manchester derby in September, which was a feisty affair on and off the pitch as City a hammered their neighbouring rivals 5-1. Man City’s first game back at Highbury against League Champions Arsenal came a few weeks later. The Gunners achieved a 4-0 victory with a superb headed goal from Paul Merson, a brilliant goal from Michael Thomas and two for Perry Groves – though as explained in his autobiography ‘We All Live In a Perry Groves World’, despite being the only time ‘El Pel’ scored twice in a game during his time in professional football, he would be unable to remember the occasion.
As shown by the clip, Groves would be on the receiving end of a shot hammered in by Lee Dixon. As Groves would explain: ‘after the game, I had a shower and said to Michael Thomas ‘What was the score?’ and he said 4-0 to us. Then I asked him who scored and he said ‘You got two’. They should have knocked me out for every game!’ By December, City sacked Mel Machin and brought back Howard Kendall from exile in Spain with Athletic Bilbao. Kendall signed Niall Quinn from Arsenal on transfer deadline day and secured City’s place in the top tier finishing fourteenth. Kendall however left to return to Everton by the end of the calendar year with Peter Reid taking over as Player Manager in November 1990.
City visited Highbury in April 1991 just a few days after losing 1-3 to Tottenham in the Semi Final at Wembley. Arsenal took a two goal lead through strikes from Kevin Campbell and Paul Merson. City however pulled the game back through a Mark Ward penalty and a David White equaliser making it a 2-2 draw. Despite this, Arsenal pulled their season around to win the title in 1990/91, losing just one League game all season. City returned in the League to a sun-drenched Highbury the following August, taking the lead through a goal from Ian Brightwell, though Alan Smith equalised in the first minute of the second half. Arsenal however took all three points, with Anders Limpar putting away Arsenal’s winner (though out of shot), just a few days after he was sent off against Luton Town for punching Mark Pembridge off the ball, giving Arsenal a 2-1 win.
In 1992/93 Arsenal met Manchester City for the first time in the newly formed Premiership, live on Sky’s Monday Night Football in Late September. The North Bank had been demolished the previous May and replaced by a Mural. Nearly a month into the season, Arsenal finally scored at the new ‘Mural End’ with a goal from Ian Wright, with Arsenal winning 1-0. This match would also be famed for the half time performance of The Shamen performing their number one hit ‘Ebeneezer Goode’. Allegedly, the band received abuse because the peroxide blonde lead singer Mr C was a Spurs fan, although more than likely it was a contemporary reaction against the enforced razzamatazz of Sky Sports at the time. The Shamen however took badly to the barracking and failed to complete their set, with Mr C reacting by delivering a V-sign to the crowd (oddly enough absolutely nothing of this incident exists on YouTube or any of the internet’s other video sharing sites).
When Man City visited Highbury in mid-October 1993, the game ended in a 0-0 draw. This would be the second of what would be four consecutive 0-0 draws involving Arsenal throughout the calendar month of October, as the George Graham bore-fest of one-nil to the Arsenal suddenly descended into even worse - nil-nil to the Arsenal! The Gunners kicked off what was to become George Graham’s last season at Arsenal with a 3-0 win with goals from Kevin Campbell, Alan Smith and Ian Wright, in what was a rare goal-fest for the latter days of the George Graham era. In 1995/96 Manchester City would slip out of the Premiership and on their way out Arsenal managed a 3-1 win against them at Highbury with goals from Lee Dixon and two for John Hartson (his first an absolute blinder!). The only thing remotely euphoric at Maine Road in the spring of 1996 would be Oasis’s homecoming gig there at the end of April. Within a few days it would be a case of ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ as City needing a win to stay up against Liverpool, wrongly believed that a draw would have been enough and actually wound down the clock with time wasting antics as the scores were tied. Worse was to follow for City as at the end of 1997/98 they would drop to the third tier for the first time in their history.
Luckily for City, their time in the third tier would only last one year coming back up through the play-offs in 1998/99 beating Tony Pulis’s Gillingham in the final on penalties after being two goals down. It would also be two promotions on the bounce as City finished as runners up in the second tier in 1999/2000. City’s return to Highbury in October 2000 however, Arsenal would enjoy an emphatic 5-0 win with goals from Ashley Cole, Dennis Bergkamp, Sylvain Wiltord and two goals for Thierry Henry. Man City would drop back down to the second tier after one season, however would return in 2001/02 as second tier champions.
In 2002/03 Man City visited Highbury in September, Arsenal though would seal all three points with a 2-1 win secured by goals from Sylvain Wiltord and Thierry Henry, while former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka would be on target for Man City. One season on, in Arsenal’s invincible year, the Gunners would triumph by the same score line in early February with a Michael Tarnat own goal and scorcher from Thierry Henry. Nicolas Anelka would pull the score back to 2-1, but would receive his marching orders for clashing with Ashley Cole while trying to collecting the ball from the back of the net.
In 2004/05, Man City would attain their first point at Highbury for twelve years in early January after Shaun Wright-Phillips opened the scoring against his stepdad’s old side. Freddie Ljungberg however would equalise, resulting in a 1-1 draw.
Man City’s final visit to Highbury in October 2005 would be noteworthy as a tale of two penalties, both taken by Robert Pires. The first put away in the way it should be putting Arsenal 1-0 ahead, the second a calamitous attempt at emulating Jesper Olsen and Johan Cruyff’s famous two-man penalty, leaving Arsenal as red as the shirts they usually wear (unlike the redcurrent number worn here to commemorate Highbury’s last season). Man City’s first visit to Arsenal’s new stadium in mid-April 2007 was a more straight forward affair with a 3-1 triumph for the Gunners. Man City would visit Arsenal again the following August, with Arsenal finally putting it away with a Cesc Fabregas strike ten minutes from time to give Arsenal a 1-0 win.
By the next time Man City visited Arsenal in early April 2009, the club had been bought out by Sheikh Mansoor the previous September. Arsenal would triumph 2-0 with two goals from Emmanuel Adebayor. In the same month Arsenal’s youth side met Man City in the Semi Final of the FA Youth Cup, with the Gunners winning the home leg 4-1 with goals from Kyle Bartley, a Jack Wilshire penalty and two for Sanchez Watt (who future Gooners raised on tales of Alexis might unfairly refer to as Sanchez who?)
At the time of City’s visit to Ashburton Grove in April 2009 their only major Post-Mansoor signing had been the Brazilian Robinho who was signed from Real Madrid the previous September. In the close season, the Sky Blues poached Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal. The following season however, the best they could manage on visiting North London’s finest in late April 2010 would be a a 0-0 draw. The following season, City’s visit in January 2011 would bring the exactly same score line – another goal-less draw. An end of season collapse from Arsenal however meant that City overtook Arsenal to finish in third place. They would also end their thirty four year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup by beating Stoke City 1-0 at Wembley. As much a highlight as the match itself would be Mario Ballotelli’s post-match interview, where he asked if he could say the word ‘sh*t’ on air to describe his form that season, having already said the word.
Despite winning the FA Cup, their glory would actually be over-shadowed on the day by Manchester United securing their record nineteenth League title just seconds before the FA Cup kicked off, which no doubt made City more determined to secure the title the following season. In the off-season City again poached two Arsenal stars, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri. The latter left under a cloud, even criticising the ‘quiet’ Arsenal fans in comparison to that of his new club. Unfortunately for him he would return to Arsenal on League Cup Quarter Final night, where the ‘tenner-a-ticket’ crowd made far more noise than the usual Saturday Premiership spectators and primarily aimed it in his direction. Such was the level of abuse and chants of ‘you’re just a f***ing reserve’ that it obviously effected his game and when City made a substitution midway through the second half, Nasri went to walk off the pitch before realising it wasn’t he who was being substituted and he had to endure more of the same.
In the event, a second string Arsenal side would give a good account of themselves, but conceded a Sergio Aguero goal late on and went on to lose 0-1. Arsenal would also lose by the same score line a few weeks later at Eastlands, just prior to which I had commented on this site on the change of ‘‘raison d’être’ which ‘Champions Elect’ City and their fans were experiencing. By the time of Man City’s next visit to Arsenal on Easter Sunday in 2012 however, their Championship bandwagon was beginning to derail.
Arsenal dominated the game, hitting the woodwork on more than one occasion. After 270 minutes of action against Man City that season, Arsenal finally got their reward with an excellent Mikel Arteta strike from outside of the box three minutes from time to give Arsenal a 1-0 victory. City’s misery was compounded by the sending off of Mario Balotelli, injury to Yaya Toure and the fact that they were eight points adrift of Man United with just six games left. One of those games had been at home to Man United, where City pulled off a 1-0 win over the Reds at the Etihad Stadium. On the final day of the season, City topped the Premiership table over Man United on goal difference and were to meet relegation candidates QPR at home.
Despite having initially taken the lead in the first half, by the 90th minute City found themselves 1-2 down, before grabbing two injury time goals to secure their first title since 1968 with a 3-2 win grabbed at the death with a goal by Sergio Ageuro(oooo!). On hearing the news at the Stadium of Light where Man United were playing out their final fixture, Sunderland fans decided to perform Man City’s famed ‘Poznan’ celebration on mass. Meanwhile back at the Ethiad, Jubilant City fans indulged in a good old fashioned pitch invasion, while Niall Quinn proclaimed this to be the greatest finish to a season in ‘Premiership’ history (probably remembering that he was a registered as an Arsenal player and celebrating on the pitch post-match in his Arsenal blazer when the greatest ever finish in pre-Premiership history occurred at Anfield in 1989).
The following season as reigning Champions, Manchester City came to Ashburton Grove and secured their first away win over Arsenal in the League since 1975, inflicting a 0-2 defeat on Arsenal with goals from James Milner and Edin Dzeko. At the end of the game, the linesman John Brooks instructed the City players to applaud their away fans for paying £62 to watch the game (though didn’t instruct the Arsenal players to do likewise for their fans who often pay that on a regular basis!). Bizarrely though, Brooks found himself dropped from officiating an FA Cup tie as a result of this. The title however would head across town to Old Trafford for the last time under the retiring Sir Alex Ferguson in 2012/13, with City finishing eleven points behind their rivals. City would also face humiliation in the FA Cup Final, losing 0-1 to relegated Wigan Athletic.
