***city v arsenal official match thread***

[Im_Spartacus]

Ted we've disagreed about Navas before and probably will again but even you have to admit he was shocking today. Never passed his man or beat the first defender with a cross or corner. Jovetic made the defenders think a bit. Overall the whole team from Hart to Aguero were shocking today. Possible pass marks to Fernandinho.

Navas is an incredibly frustrating player. Gets himself into some nice positions but then seems to give the ball away cheaply far too often or wastes his pace by cutting inside too early - but he gets a free pass because the law of averages suggests some of his crosses sneak through and so he has a reasonable record of assists.

[gmercer1]

Ted we've disagreed about Navas before and probably will again but even you have to admit he was shocking today. Never passed his man or beat the first defender with a cross or corner. Jovetic made the defenders think a bit. Overall the whole team from Hart to Aguero were shocking today. Possible pass marks to Fernandinho.

Navas is an incredibly frustrating player. Gets himself into some nice positions but then seems to give the ball away cheaply far too often or wastes his pace by cutting inside too early - but he gets a free pass because the law of averages suggests some of his crosses sneak through and so he has a reasonable record of assists.

I agree with this

[zuricity]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

[Ted Hughes]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

The one where all the danger came from stuff that Navas & Jovetic did & pretty much nothing whatsoever from anyhing anyone else did.

[zuricity]

So we were poor, Arse were better than usual in the sense that they s at in and gave us virtually no space in the last 3rd.

Individually we were not great but maybe not as shite as some passionate folk on here would make out.The big issue going forward was missing Yaya and Nasri that put a massive onus on Silva and Aguero. Because of how Arse played it was very hard for Silva to get into the game and he missed the 2 players who combine so well with him. Then we have Aguero who got little service and because he isn't close to match fit yet was anonymous.

So we look for something from wider areas.Navas had plenty of the ball and loads of crossing chances but just doesn't have much quality when it comes to crossing in tight games with lots of players defending. I know over a season he gets assists but I do wonder how many are in the key games at key times. For certain he didn't get it right today.

On the other side I thought Clichy had a good game and was at it all through.The trouble is he isn't the best crosser or contributor in the attacking 3rd and we missed that again.Fernandinho did quite a lot of good things but too many bad ones but he is so far off a Yaya even at his best. Fernando similarly did some good defensive stuff ( my god he was awful for their 2nd goal) but he offers nothing creatively.

Vinnie sadly was awful in that first half.Rusty maybe but naive as hell at times which is scary. MdM was ok bar some silly moments giving the ball away and Zaba was ok ( bar that moment when he lost Sanchez.)without being great.Joe didn't really do much right. Let 2 goals in , not his fault and parried one soft shot back str8 out and get lucky with it.

It is a weak argument to suggest that Silva needs Yaya and or Samir. He should be able to adapt and he went missing today against an Average team.

[zuricity]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

The one where all the danger came from stuff that Navas & Jovetic did & pretty much nothing whatsoever from anyhing anyone else did.

oh please ! Jovetic dangerous ? Absolute garbage today . He was brought on at half time to make an impact and did sweet fa.

[Ted Hughes]

Ted we've disagreed about Navas before and probably will again but even you have to admit he was shocking today. Never passed his man or beat the first defender with a cross or corner. Jovetic made the defenders think a bit. Overall the whole team from Hart to Aguero were shocking today. Possible pass marks to Fernandinho.

Navas is an incredibly frustrating player. Gets himself into some nice positions but then seems to give the ball away cheaply far too often or wastes his pace by cutting inside too early - but he gets a free pass because the law of averages suggests some of his crosses sneak through and so he has a reasonable record of assists.

Navas did an absolutely great job for the team, worked his bollocks off covering then was one of the only options in attack & put in several balls which should have seen players on the end scoring. Of course his percentage of crosses in could have been better, but he still created most of the problems for Arsenal as well as doing some crucial defending.

As soon as he went off, the game was over.

[Ted Hughes]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

The one where all the danger came from stuff that Navas & Jovetic did & pretty much nothing whatsoever from anyhing anyone else did.

oh please ! Jovetic dangerous ? Absolute garbage today . He was brought on at half time to make an impact and did sweet fa.

City were playing well when Jovetic came on & looked like scoring. Then it stopped when the other substitutions were made.

[Beefymcfc]

I see Clichy went back at his ”normal” form.

When he had to fight with Kolarov for the place in the team this season, he was splendid.

I actually thought Clichy was our best player today. The issues occur when the likes of Demi & Nando just pass the ball back to the oppo and then run out of position.

[london blue 2]

My two cents. Just finished watching the recording.

Mike dean man of the match
Attack needs to SHOOT
Aguero is not ready
MDM or kompany were always going to make a mistake
Manual turned into van gaal at two nil down. Panic and throw all attackers on

Frustrating and predictable.

Chelsea should be fun...

[Beefymcfc]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

The one where all the danger came from stuff that Navas & Jovetic did & pretty much nothing whatsoever from anyhing anyone else did.

oh please ! Jovetic dangerous ? Absolute garbage today . He was brought on at half time to make an impact and did sweet fa.

City were playing well when Jovetic came on & looked like scoring. Then it stopped when the other substitutions were made.

The problem with Jovetic in our team is that nobody knows what he's going to do. He looks busy and industrious whereas the truth is he's running around like a chicken without a head.

Can't believe Pellers thought he could change the game, he's been gash.

And I'm a Jovetic fan.

[Im_Spartacus]

Ted we've disagreed about Navas before and probably will again but even you have to admit he was shocking today. Never passed his man or beat the first defender with a cross or corner. Jovetic made the defenders think a bit. Overall the whole team from Hart to Aguero were shocking today. Possible pass marks to Fernandinho.

Navas is an incredibly frustrating player. Gets himself into some nice positions but then seems to give the ball away cheaply far too often or wastes his pace by cutting inside too early - but he gets a free pass because the law of averages suggests some of his crosses sneak through and so he has a reasonable record of assists.

Navas did an absolutely great job for the team, worked his bollocks off covering then was one of the only options in attack & put in several balls which should have seen players on the end scoring. Of course his percentage of crosses in could have been better, but he still created most of the problems for Arsenal as well as doing some crucial defending.

As soon as he went off, the game was over.

I'm not necessarily on about just today, he's bloody frustrating in general.

I think as a team player he's fantastic tracking back, he always does the yards and puts a shift in. His quality at the business end though is very questionable though, and mostly around his decision making. He almost always seems to make the wrong decision and doesn't seem to use his key attribute of pace to give himself clear space to tease out a decent cross

[london blue 2]

Also. How many fucking corners do we need to create one fucking chance. Gash

[zuricity]

Bizarre to read people criticising Jovetic & Navas. Take those two out, & Arsenal could have played Henry at the back.

What game were you watching ? both were absolute gash.

The one where all the danger came from stuff that Navas & Jovetic did & pretty much nothing whatsoever from anyhing anyone else did.

oh please ! Jovetic dangerous ? Absolute garbage today . He was brought on at half time to make an impact and did sweet fa.

City were playing well when Jovetic came on & looked like scoring. Then it stopped when the other substitutions were made.

Jovetic came on at half time .Just before half time we were awful. We had five minutes of pressure and Jovetic was not controlling anything.

Playing well my foot! We were struggling and Jovetic just exacerbates the problem .

[blues2win]

Pellegrini says we had plenty of possession and recovered the ball well when we lost it but that we didn't have the creativity to use it. A poor decision for the penalty and a dreadful bit of marking by Fernando to let Giroud score( but why was he marking him?). Still we all know we were poor and deserved nothing from the game. Sickening.

[Ted Hughes]

Well imo we were utterly useless 1st half & looked dangerous when he came on. I think we might have turned it around if Lampard hadn't been brought on. Should have left it alone then brought on Dzeko at the death if needed, with Navas still on the pitch.

[london blue 2]

Well imo we were utterly useless 1st half & looked dangerous when he came on. I think we might have turned it around if Lampard hadn't been brought on. Should have left it alone then brought on Dzeko at the death if needed, with Navas still on the pitch.

Agreed

[Moonchesteri]

Well imo we were utterly useless 1st half & looked dangerous when he came on. I think we might have turned it around if Lampard hadn't been brought on. Should have left it alone then brought on Dzeko at the death if needed, with Navas still on the pitch.

this I agree with.

[South Stand Balti]

My main concern before the game was the lack of Yaya. I have said it many times before and will say again he is the best player I have ever seen. 1 point out of 6 without him though the loss of Nasri and unfit Kompany and Aguero does nt help. We do need another central midfielder who can control a game though. MP must be wondering who the fuck sanctioned the buying of Fernando as a central mid and Mangala as a CH. If we are to progress we must spend £45m better than that.

[blues2win]

Bizarre to take off Navas and bring on Dzeko to be fair. You'd think it was worth putting in some balls to see whether Dzeko could poach one. As Doug says we are pretty clueless at breaking down well organised defences. I suspect Pellegrini didn't expect Arsenal to play like this. Wenger on the other hand didn't trust his team to win a goal fest and set up for counter attack which worked well for them. Will Chelsea have the nerve to play like that at home? I doubt it so there will be opportunities to score against them. That said we'll have to defend really well and a lot better than we did today.