Anti Football or Shrewd Tactics/Boring Boring City

[brite blu sky]

What is for sure is that we cannot start a thread on this forum moaning like little girls about teams who come and park the bus at Eastlands ala Brum the other month.

Seriously have to agree with this.

How long have most of the Arsenal team been together?

They wouldn't have beaten us with 15 players tonight.

[Goaters 103]

What are we supposed to do, go there and be open and get beaten which you will do 9 times out of 10 at The Emirates?

At the end of the year if we finish top 3 nobody will give a toss how the points were gathered; can anybody remember people last May picking over scrawny draws Spurs got over the 09/10 season? Nope.

City go there all open, and Mancini gets slated for being naive and "under pressure" to get that top 4 spot. Instead he sends out a team to do a job, it gets a point at one of the 3 toughest places to go, and he still gets criticised. The point was worthwhile as it was one gained, and stopped Arsenal leapfrogging us, end of.

[Dipstick]

I don't normally rant but I thought that was disgraceful and embarrassing. Feigning injuries, absolutely no attempt to win and couldn't even win our share of 50-50s against the biggest bunch of wusses in the league.

[brite blu sky]

I don't normally rant but I thought that was disgraceful and embarrassing. Feigning injuries, absolutely no attempt to win and couldn't even win our share of 50-50s against the biggest bunch of wusses in the league.

Right-o

I thought we contained them quite well, they were obvioulsy up for it, but we seemed to almost take it a bit too easy to begin with.. then i kind of realised we were just doing enough and conserving energy.. so the longer it went on, especially in the second half, Arseanl just ran out of steam. They ran about more and got nowhere except tired. Thought it was quite funny in the end.

cheers

[The Original Special One]

Outstanding defensive performance; as a former defender myself and somebody who always insists that Franz Beckenbauer deserves to be considered with Pele and Maradona as to who was the greatest footballer of all time, I have to say that I was positively 'purring' at tonight's outstanding defensive performance, which compares favourably with Mourinho's Inter's shutout of Barca.

I don't blame James Milner or Micah Richards, because it was hard for them, with their limited recent game time, to get fully up to speed to give the kind of performance their abilities demand, and Mancini might be culpable to that extent, but otherwise this was an outstanding performance by two teams playing to their strengths and one of the best games I've seen all season.

[andyblue]

What is for sure is that we cannot start a thread on this forum moaning like little girls about teams who come and park the bus at Eastlands ala Brum the other month.

Who on earth would do that? I don't understand this crap about "it's not fair - they parked the bus in front of the goal". I've been watching football for 35 years and I've never complained about an opposing team doing that. Surely it's part of the game?

[Original Dub]

Its quite simple - lately we have shown we can steam roll teams by getting in their faces, but when we feel like a point is enough against the most in form attacking side at present, we pulled it off and kept 2nd position in the league... so job well done on that.

That said, it was one of the most negative performances I have ever see from City and I hope we only do it when its absolutely neccessary.

Remember, last season in the same fixture we played very similarly and it was the WRONG thing to do, because Arsenal were depleted and not in half as good form as they are right now... and IMO our negativity in that game was a major factor in us not achieving Champs League.

Bit different this time round. I reckon this time round, the psychology involved in keeping 2nd place halfway through the league was more important than these PARTICULAR 3 points.

[JonnyAsh]

If we had lost 5-3 everyone would have been saying what a great game of football, apart from us. We are no longer fancy dans, we can turn it on, but also we can show we have a hard centre.
We are not here to entertain the neutrals, but to look after ourselves. I think in futue as this team mature, we wont always play with this method, but this time it worked.

[mcfc1632]

Whats done is done - and a look at the table this morning after the other results went our way clearly justifies the tactics...

All off a sudden our top 4 place looks entrenched and only the scum really have a lead on us with the games in hand issue - we need to now go on a run and hunt these twats down - with the luxury of having daylight between us and the pack

Much more of an issue for me will be the approach at the swamp if we have a fully fit squad - some results going our way and a win there and we are going for the title - adopting the approach of last night if we already seem to be well on track for top 4 and I will be very disappointed

[Blue in the face]

Mancio went there with the attitude of "we cant win, so we,ll hold out for a draw". So, is that going to be what happens when we go to the swamp? Another 97 minutes of nail biting?

Cant say I'm looking forward to it. I've no nails left ffs.

With our aspirations we have to beat the "traditional" top four teams if we are to become one ourselves and eventually champions.

[CitizenYank]

If we had won by 2 goals it would have been: City is Championship contender.

If we had lost then they would have lost by 2 they would have disemboweled us.

We hold them and we are putting the league to sleep.

Typical....

[PeterParker]

Maybe the approach was right, even though we could hear our heart beat when the ball hit the post in 3 ocassions. Saddly, but you can't go and atack Arsenal on Emirates from the first minute and win (only if you are Barcelona). If Clattenburg wasen't a wanker in tha last game, today after the Arsenal double we could had 4 points, not one. Personaly i loved the faces of the "galactic" Arsenal when our defence made them desperate every time they attacked.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

Plainly embarrassing. We played like we were Wolves or Wigan, desperately hanging on from the first minute on, with not the slightest chance of getting more than 'nil'.
But we are meant to be a title chasing side, not some desperate Birmingham type outfit.
That has put me off going to the Swamp this season. Watching us clutching the ropes from start to finish would be just too much.
Seems Mancini will always shit himself when the big games come. That performance was entirely predictable.
Shite.
That said, I'd have taken a point before hand. But wanting to get in their half once or twice might have been nice.

[s1ty m]

We are made of steel, clearly. We can attack when we choose, defend when we choose. It's up to us. Wenger can stick it. I really started to enjoy watching us shut them down; second half, Arsenal ended up utterly clueless and only a few sides will do that to them.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

We are made of steel, clearly. We can attack when we choose, defend when we choose. It's up to us. Wenger can stick it. I really started to enjoy watching us shut them down; second half, Arsenal ended up utterly clueless and only a few sides will do that to them.

We chose to do that and thought better of attacking? Wow that really is scary.
Had Arsenal scored there was not a hope in hell that we could have equalised.

[lets all have a disco]

If we had played in that vein against the rags in the Carling cup last year,we'd have been in a final at Wembley.

Just saying like.

[Renato_CTID]

Good result, strong character from all of us on the pitch but very poor performances from all attacking midfielders.
Boring boring City? I don't care! Maybe Mancini too often uses defensive tactics instead to be more couragious. But what should have been the final score if David Silva was fit?

[Beeks]

Had Arsenal scored there was not a hope in hell that we could have equalised.

Stands to reason that if Arsenal had scored we would have changed our tactics...Mancinis plan was to stop them from scoring and to hit them on the break with a sucker punch...He accomplished the first but unfortunately not the second.

[blues-clues]

It was an immense performance defensively. Attacking options and opportunities were limited by the facts we had key players out and that Jo had a crap game, he usually does when he cannot get any space and Arsenal were always quick to close us down. If we had got that result against them at home we would now be 5 points ahead of them. Mancini's plan is clear, title winners are usually the team who concede fewest, sort the defence first and then go from there. Arsenal have lost at home against weaker teams when they have not been up for it but last night they were well motivated and close to full strength a point was a much better result for us than it was for them.

The best teams will always face a more defensive set up from the opposition when they play at home, it goes some way to explaining our record this season. The very best teams can break those teams down despite their set up. Clearly Arsenal were just not good enough to break down the best defence in the premier league.

[Im_Spartacus]

We are made of steel, clearly. We can attack when we choose, defend when we choose. It's up to us. Wenger can stick it. I really started to enjoy watching us shut them down; second half, Arsenal ended up utterly clueless and only a few sides will do that to them.

We chose to do that and thought better of attacking? Wow that really is scary.
Had Arsenal scored there was not a hope in hell that we could have equalised.

Thats exactly what happened at Chelsea last year away and look how that ended up.

All it takes is a mistake from the opposition and we have the players to punish them