Robert Exley
(Previous Flashbacks for Man City at home can be found here and here, while yesterday’s edition can be found here)
Arsenal’s first visit to Maine Road of the new millennium came in early April 2001, though after two promotions on the bounce City would lay second bottom of the Premiership table and five points adrift of safety. Arsenal in contrast were in second position, though sixteen points behind run away leaders Man United.
City’s misery continued however as goals for Sylvain Wiltord, Nwankwo Kanu and two for Freddie Ljungberg gave Arsenal a 4-0 win. One week on City’s fight to stay in the Premiership was dealt a further blow by Arsenal, who lost 0-3 at home to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough. As it panned out Man City would finish in eighteenth position and eight points from safety, returning to the second tier after just one season back in the Premiership. Man City however returned as second tier Champions in 2001/02 under Kevin Keegan. The 2002/03 season was also to be City’s last year of playing at Maine Road as the following term they were to move to the stadium used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester.
Arsenal’s last visit to Maine Road came in February 2003. The Gunners stormed into a four goal lead within twenty minutes with goals for Dennis Bergkamp, Robert Pires, Thierry Henry and Sol Campbell. Into the second half, Arsenal made it five with a goal from Patrick Vieira. With three minutes to go City pulled one back with a goal from former Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka, the game finishing 5-1 to the Gunners. Man City finished their final season at Maine Road in ninth place, which had been their highest for a decade. The last goal for City scored at Maine Road, which came in a 3-0 win over Sunderland, would be by the late Marc Vivien Foe, who sadly passed away just two months later at the age of twenty eight, during the Confederates Cup Semi Final between Cameroon and Colombia, as a result of Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Arsenal’s first visit to what was then the City of Manchester Stadium, and has now come to be known as the Etihad Stadium, came at the end of August 2003. City took the lead through a comedy own goal from Lauren after ten minutes. Just after half time however, Arsenal equalised with a goal from Sylvain Wiltord and eighteen minutes from time Freddie Ljungberg pounced on a mistake by David Seaman – now lining up for Man City after switching during the summer – to give the Gunners a 2-1 win, to preserve an unbeaten run which would extend throughout the whole of 2003/04 and into the next season when Arsenal faced Man City away again in September 2004. The Gunners stretched their run to forty seven unbeaten with a goal for Ashley Cole securing a 1-0 win for Arsenal.
Arsenal lost their record unbeaten run just three days before the Gunners’ next away trip to Manchester City in the third round of the League Cup at the end of October 2004. Playing a mostly second string side, making his first competitive start for Arsenal was Robin Van Persie who broke the deadlock twelve minutes from time. In the final minute of the game another debutant - Daniel Karbassiyoon – scored to put Arsenal two up. Karbassiyoon left Arsenal at the end of the season and retired from playing football due to knee problems in 2007. Today he is employed by Arsenal as a North American scout and is credited with finding Joel Campbell and Gideon Zelalam. Man City pulled one back late on with a Robbie Fowler free kick, but Arsenal progressed to the next round with a 2-1 win.
Things seemed quite optimistic for Arsenal at the end of October 2004, however by the time of Arsenal’s next away trip to Manchester’s Eastlands in May 2006 came the emergence of an all too familiar pattern in recent years. With just two games left to play Arsenal lay in fifth place in the Premiership table, four points behind Tottenham and scrapping it out for fourth place to retain their position in the Champions League. Freddie Ljungberg gave Arsenal the lead on the half hour, though David Sommeil equalised eight minutes later. Two goals for Jose Antonio Reyes in the last twelve minutes however gave Arsenal a 3-1 win and pushed the Gunners to within a point of Tottenham with one game to go (as I’m sure you’ll remember, a Thierry Henry hat-trick on Highbury’s farewell and a dodgy Lasagne at the Marriot Hotel in Canary Wharf meant Arsenal finished above Spurs again in the table and kept the Gunners within the Champions League for another term).
Arsenal’s visit to Manchester City for the 2006/07 season came just two games in. A Joey Barton penalty after forty one minutes inflicted a 0-1 defeat on Arsenal, in what would be Man City’s first win over the Gunners in all competitions for nearly fifteen years. The next time Arsenal journeyed to Eastlands in February 2008 would be a turning point in many ways. Arsenal were riding high in the Premiership having lost only one game and only kept off of the top spot of the Premiership by Manchester United on goal difference. A goal for Eduardo and two for Emmanuel Adebayor gave Arsenal a 3-1 win and a two point lead at the top of the Premiership after Manchester United drew away at Spurs later that day.
A 1-2 defeat for Manchester United the following week to Manchester City at Old Trafford (with both sides playing in traditional colours to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Munich Air Crash) meant that an Arsenal victory at home to Blackburn the following week gave the Gunners a five point lead at the top of the table. However in the next fixture followed the St. Andrews debacle and a run of just three wins from the next eleven games, which meant that Arsenal’s title hopes for 2007/08 were squandered. The February 2008 meeting between Manchester City and Arsenal would also be noteworthy as being the final fixture between the two sides before the arrival of Sheikh Mansour in September 2008 (City’s final fixture in 2007/08 actually ended in an 1-8 defeat at Middiesbrough!).
Manchester City’s first major Post-Sheikh signing had been Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Robinho, who had been poached from under the noses of Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea. Their first win after the takeover was a 6-0 victory over a Portsmouth side in steep decline. Robinho would also play a part in Arsenal’s first post-Sheikh visit to Man City. The Gunners’ run of form going into this game would be two defeats in three, interrupted by a 2-1 home win over Man United. Goals for Stephen Ireland, Robinho and a Daniel Sturridge penalty inflicted a 0-3 defeat on Arsenal – where prior to the game they had only won one game in the previous twenty three against the Gunners.
Incredibly, under their first full season of petrodollar funding, Man City actually finished in tenth position – one place lower than the previous season, which placed manager Mark Hughes under pressure. The summer of 2009 however saw the poaching of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal. The Gunners first visit to the Etihad after the controversial exit of the latter came in early September 2009. City took a first half lead with a goal from Micah Richards, though Robin Van Persie equalised for Arsenal on the hour mark. There then followed three goals for City in ten minutes as Craig Bellamy put City ahead, Emmanuel Adebayor scored with a header before shamefully running the entire length of the pitch to goad the Arsenal fans (the reaction to which left a steward injured), while Shaun Wright-Phillips made it four. Tomas Rosicky pulled a late goal back for Arsenal, however City inflicted a 2-4 defeat on the Gunners.
Arsenal would return to the Etihad three months later in the fifth round of the League Cup. The Gunners suffered a third defeat in a row away to City, eliminated from the Cup with a 0-3 defeat with goals for Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Vladimir Weiss. Mark Hughes’s reign as manager at the Etihad Stadium however would end just weeks after this victory for City, with Roberto Mancini taking over at the helm. Manchester City however missed out on Champions League football as a result of a 0-1 defeat to Spurs who achieved the fourth placed spot, for so far their only season in the Champions League.
After three straight defeats at the Etihad, Arsenal finally got revenge in late October 2010 with a 3-0 win, with goals for Samir Nasri, Alex Song and Nicklas Bendtner after Dedryk Boyata would be sent off for a Professional foul after five minutes. In 2010/11 however, City would finally qualify for the Champions League finishing above Arsenal in third place after a final run in of five wins out of six, where Arsenal in contrast won just one game in the final six fixtures. The 2011/12 season however saw Man City mount their first title challenge under the reign of the Sheikh. By the time of Arsenal’s visit to the Etihad Stadium a week prior to Christmas, City were top of the Premiership table. Their run would continue after inflicting a 0-1 defeat on Arsenal with a goal for David Silva.
Roberto Mancini delivered the League title to the Blue half of Manchester City on the final day of the 2011/12 season and would play Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in China on the same day as the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games back in London in July 2012. City inflicted a 0-2 defeat on the Gunners, while Arsenal’s visit to the reigning Premiership Champions came the following September after four games played, with both sides unbeaten and a record of two wins and two draws each. City took the lead just before half time with a goal from Joleon Lescott. Arsenal however preserved their unbeaten run with an equaliser from Laurent Koscielny eight minutes, the game ending in a 1-1 draw. Arsenal’s unbeaten run however would only last one further game, after losing 1-2 at home to Chelsea the following week.
After Mancini finished 2012/13 trophy-less the Sheikh would sack the Italian and replace him with Manuel Pellegrini. Just one week before the start of the season, Arsenal managed a 3-1 win over City in a pre-season friendly in Helsinki. Arsenal’s next visit to the Etihad came eleven days before Christmas 2013, this time the Gunners topped the League table by five points, while City were a point further behind in fourth place. Arsenal’s title hopes however were rocked with a 3-6 defeat which cut down the Gunners lead at the top of the table to just two points. In 2013/14 Arsenal spent as much as 128 days at the top of the Premiership table, Man City in contrast spent just eleven and yet won the Premiership title - only really maintaining the top spot for the final three games of the season.
City’s defence of the Premiership title in 2014/15 however had been underwhelming and just ahead of Arsenal’s fixture at the Etihad in mid-January were standing five points behind the leaders Chelsea. Arsenal had been in sixth position, though won five of their previous seven games. The Gunners pulled off an unexpected 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium with a Santi Carzorla penalty after twenty four minutes, followed by a second from Olivier Giroud on sixty seven minutes. After that boost of confidence, Arsenal put together a run of twelve wins out of fourteen to put them level on points with second place Manchester City, but just two goals behind on goal difference.
However just one win from the last four games – which included underwhelming performances at home, such as a 0-1 loss to Swansea and a 0-0 draw to Sunderland, saw Arsenal finish comfortably third, though the 4-0 FA Cup Final thumping of Aston Villa would overshadow a mediocre final few games to Arsenal’s League season.
And so on to Sunday. Prior to City’s 2-4 defeat away at St. Mary’s last weekend, I feared our visit to the Etihad would end in a drubbing for Arsenal. And of course, a lot depends on how City come out of their Semi Final trip to Madrid (this written ahead of that match).
It’s surprising however that despite Arsenal’s poor performances of late, they haven’t actually lost in the Premiership since the start of March which was eight games ago. Surely only a failure to beat Aston Villa at home – a side who have lost their last eleven straight games – can keep Arsenal out of a Champions League qualification place this season.
With the Premiership title having been wrapped up by Leicester City - and the fact that by the time Arsenal take to the pitch on Sunday a win for Spurs over Southampton could make finishing above them impossible – the pressure on Wenger’s men should be pretty minimal. Arsenal’s record against Manchester City of late also hasn’t been too bad (unbeaten in the last five meetings, three of which were victories), therefore who knows - Arsenal might be a good bet to pull off a futile gesture of three points in the penultimate game at the Etihad this Sunday.
