Arsenal 2-2 Manchester City: good, but not good enough

Evening everyone.

So, we drew with City. Was it a point gained or two lost? I'm leaning towards the former option, looking through the prism of the last ten minutes, but the simple fact remains: Arsenal has only taken 6 points out of 4 games. There were both positives and negatives to our performance today, so I'll just break the review down in parts, as I usually do.

The set-up

Rainbow laces campaign aside, I thought our squad was pretty unexpected. Both Gibbs and Arteta started the game on the bench, in favour of Monreal and Flamini respectively, Ozil started on the left once again and Cazorla remained an unused sub throughout. In a positive twist of events, Wilshere played right from the off under our shiny new buy Welbeck.

City's team also held a couple of surprises. Sabaleta, Milner and Lampard all started, while Toure was nowhere in sight. Injury, probably. Aguero spearheaded the attack, with Jovetic out.

The first half

Arsenal started brightly, retaining possession of the ball and should have gone ahead in the 12th minute. Welbeck was sent clean through following a defender's mistake, but his clever chipped effort hit the inside of the post and rebounded into play. I had a bad feeling we would pay for such wastefulness and, unfortunately, I was right.

After some hassle in midfield, Navas picked up the ball on the flank, ran half the field and clipped a low pass towards Aguero. The Argentine, unmarked for some peculiar reason, had the simplest of jobs.

We could have been 2-0 down minutes later, but, luckily, Silva's effort was brilliantly saved by Szczesny. 1-0 down after 45 minutes.

The second half

Arsene made no changes during the break and, much as was wrapping my head around this decision, I couldn't find fault with it. Who should AW have subbed? A lively and threatening Ramsey, even though the Welshman was a bit erratic? Flamini, our only holding midfielder, after the Frenchman was preferred to Arteta? Ozil, who was far from his best, but still produced moments of magic?

Once again we could have conceded on a counter. Silva's pass found Clichy, but his chipped effort went just wide. Thankfully, cause Szczesny was well and truly beaten. At this point I started having my doubts about Arsenal relishing even a point from the game, but then Wilshere made his grand entrance.

After Jack interchanged passes with Ozil and, subsequently, Ramsey, he found space in the box, swept the defender aside and sent the ball into the far corner. 1-1.

We started pouring men forward, sensing City's weakness and Debucht should have put us in front, only for his effort to skid wide.

And then, suddenly, we were 2-1 up. Some scuffle near the box resulted in a headed pass from Wilshere and Sanchez was on hand to smash home a beautiful volley. The Chilean ripped his shirt off in celebration, but our joy was premature, unfortunately.

Just minutes after the goal, Debuchy was stretched off the pitch. The Frenchman landed on his ankle and sprained it, as a result. He left the field to a standing ovation and Chambers came on.

Despite his brilliant form, Calum was unable to prevent an equaliser seven minutes from time. Silva crossed from a corner, Demichelis met the cross with a powerful header and the ball went in. This was the case of Szczesny doing too much, as Flamini was ready to clear his lines, but you cannot blame Wojciech for being too much of a goalkeeper. It's his job to save shots, it's in his blood to react to such efforts.

City could have nicked a win in the dying minutes, twice hitting the post and even scoring from an offside position, but ultimately we've escaped with a point and it's a point well-deserved.

The aftermath

"I think we produced a game of top quality. It was a game of top quality between two very good teams, played at tremendous pace, especially in the first half. We were unlucky to be 1-0 down in the first half and we did something remarkable to come back and be in a leading position. The only frustrating thing for me is that we didn't manage to keep the lead and gave a cheap goal away. That's where we have room for improvement because it was a very encouraging game but the way we conceded the second goal nearly killed our game."

Arsene Wenger's take on our performance and I agree with it completely. We had an outstanding attacking display, the best we had this season, but fell short of winning the game. Our three most damaging trends resurfaced: conceding from a first shot on target, conceding from a counter and conceding from a set-piece. This is really something we have to work on.

on Welbeck’s performance

"He did well. I believe that he needs to develop his link play with our players but that is a bit normal. It’s sad that he couldn’t take his chance but overall every time he had an opportunity to find some space he looked dangerous. There are some things to work on with him to integrate him well into our game but I’m happy with his first game."

I'm in two minds about his performance, actually. He was unlucky not to score, but faded away as we tried to find our rhythm. Reappeared again in the second half, nearly made it to Sanchez's low cross and had some nice touches, but nothing extraordinary. Maybe he was valuable in an other, less pronounced sense. Like we don't always know how well Arteta fared, but can rarely find flaws to his game. He's the cog that makes Arsenal tick. Maybe it's the same with Welbeck.

Finally, on Debuchy's injury

"Debuchy has a badly sprained ankle. How long will he be out? I don't know, but it doesn't look good. People told me they need a bit more time to assess how long he will be out but it's a bad ankle sprain."

It's reported Debuchy will spend 4-6 weeks on the sidelines and it's bad news. Leaving aside the fact that it's our fifth ankle injury this season (Gibbs, Arteta, Ozil, Giroud and now Debuchy), we're down to five senior defenders. One more than we need, right?

That creates a dilemma for me, as to who should play on the right. Playing Chambers is risky, as he's our only CB back-up. However, playing Bellerin can prove riskier still, as he may just not be ready to play on that level on a regular basis. We'll ponder this as the Dortmund game draws nearer.

Phew, that's it for today. Don't beat yourself up because we drew - the Invincibles drew 12 games in 2003-2004. I'm sure 9 draws and 25 wins will do the trick for us.

Until later

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City preview: on all cylinders

Morning everyone.

Overview

Today we face Manchester City at the Emirates and a win will go a long way towards setting the right mood for the tough fixtures ahead.

We come into this game with only three absentees: Giroud, Walcott and Gnabry. With Olivier the situation is clear: we'll be unable to rely on the Frenchman until New Year. Gnabry's injury is a murky one, but he's not exactly in the first-team picture right now, so, while I wish him speedy recovery, it's not like he'd even be considered for the bench. Walcott is up-and-running, training with the squad and stuff, though he's still a couple of weeks away from being fully fit. Everyone else is available. With that bit in mind, I'll try to guess how we line up for this game, just as I always do.

The back five

Although Ospina is fit and available for selection, Szczesny should start. The Pole have made no blunders during the first five games, saved the team on several occasions and, despite his distribution sometimes bordering on risky (to put it mildly) he's our number 1 at the moment. And rightly so.

In defence, I suspect Gibbs will return at the expense of Monreal (the Spaniard had a good run of games, but may be required as back-up elsewhere). Debuchy, Mert and Kos also have to start. The Frenchman was the only one with a question mark over his head, but he seems to have fully recovered from that nasty concussion and should get the nod. As much as I like Chambers (who, by the way, was voted player of the month), our defense looks much more assured with the usual Mertescielny axis of awesome.

Midfield

Here we have EVERYONE available. I'm not kidding, Arteta and Ozil are both back and I won't be surprised if both are handed starts. Arteta is the captain, so he should play by default, while Ozil is simply one of the best playmakers in the world and definitely the best at Arsenal. Main question is, whether the German will be deployed in his preferred position.

I, for one, think think we should go back to 4-2-3-1, which implies two anchoring midfielders: a sitter and a runner. Arteta and Ramsey at the base (remember how good they were in 2012-2013?), Ozil under the striker. No need to shuffle the German out wide, when we have more capable players to feature there.

However, it'd be interesting to see, whether Arsene wants to experiment a bit and finally give Chambers a run-out in that holding role. I'm leaning towards no for an answer on that one, simply because it's risky to play all your CB's at once. Though we can probably call Hayden for help if needs must (he's had a brilliant U21s game on Thursday) I wouldn't want to go that far down the pecking order.

Also, I want Wilshere to slot in somewhere. Maybe Arteta can be dropped? I've argued his case on numerous occasions, but I always said we may need to come up with something in big games. Maybe Ramsey is not fully fit, despite taking full part in a training session? I hate the idea, but I'd love to see Jack on the pitch. The Englishman was very good, he needs to be playing regularly, so if Arsene can find him a place in the starting 11, that'd be great.

Attack

Danny Welbeck

"Oh Danny boy, the old summer is calling". Can I call him Danny boy from time to time? Yes? No? I will anyway, the temptation is just too hard to resist.

Anyway, all eyes were trained on our shiny new striker during training sessions and most of the questions during the Thursday's press-conference touched on the Englishman. I'll present you the most interesting snippets, however, I strongly advise you to watch the said conference in full, so that you can form your own opinion.

“I'm very pleased [to have signed him] because we lost Olivier Giroud. To find a striker who is a young English international and has the pace to play up front, that is not an easy task.

“He's a team player. I see him more through the middle than on the flanks but what is very good for us is he can play in all three positions - and sometimes behind the striker if needed - so he's very versatile as well."

Arsene's words. Though our manager was pretty coy on the subject of starting Welbeck today, I suspect that's exactly what'll happen.

AW also said he initially wanted to sign Welbeck on loan with a buy-out clause. However, he then stated it was only because the Englishman was AVAILABLE on loan early on deadline day. As soon as Danny was up for grabs permanently, Arsene went ahead and signed the striker.

On the subject of being in Rome, something that displeased most Arsenal fans:

“If I had not travelled that day, Welbeck would not be here. I'll explain that a bit later but the coincidence made that because I was on my way. If I had stayed at home, Welbeck would not be here today. That's the truth.

“We are in 2014 and you can always be in touch with everybody even when you travel. The advantage of that day was I had to get up at six o'clock in the morning and I was available the whole day.”

I'm not into conspiracy theories, so I am not reading too much into it. Arsene got up early, was available all day and thus had the time to pull off the deal. That's it for me. If you want to hear the story in full, listen to the Arsecast Extra.

Flanks

Back to the preview, however. I expect Welbeck to be handed his first start in an Arsenal shirt, but the flanks present a more interesting dilemma. I'm all for Sanchez on the right with the Ox on the left, though Arsene seems reluctant to use the Englishman there. Cazorla should start wide, therefore, but you never know. Santi was great down the middle, so, once again, the manager may not want to tamper with the formation too much.

Bottom line is, we have a lot of options up front. We haven't had that luxury in a long, long time and I don't expect further additions there for at least a couple of years. Sure, Poldi may leave, in which case I'll be all for signing up Reus, but that's about it.

The verdict

We definitely have the strongest squad in years, with almost everyone up-and-running. We've thrashed City at Wembley and I see no reason why we can't do it again. We've become a better team in that month, while they have lost Jovetic and Fernando. Kompany is back, but he's just one guy. On home turf we really should be looking at a win, regardless of who we face.

So c'mon you Gunners.

Finally, a couple of side notes. The rainbow laces campaign is in full swing, with Arsenal players ready to show their support, blah blah blah, something something. Honestly, I'm not much into such things, but you can always read Tim Stillman thoughts on the subject.

Also, some tip Sagna to start against us, despite Sabaleta being fit. I don't know whether the fans will opt to boo Arsenal's former right-back and I'm unable to influence their decision, but I personally don't think it's the welcome the Frenchman deserves. He's given Arsenal his best years and stuck with us through the hard times, so I see no need to jeer him.

That's it for today, back Sunday or Monday with a review.

Until then

Follow me on Twitter (@AlexBaguzin)