‘Cesc Snaps Sven’s Perfect Start’
Arsenal 1 – 0 Manchester City – 25th August 2007 – Emirates Stadium – Premier League
Midfielder Cesc Fabregas continued Arsenal’s unbeaten start to the campaign with a late strike which gave his side a victory and ended Sven Goran Eriksson’s 100% star as a Premiership manager. The Swede’s team, who led the League going into the afternoon clash, were by no means out classed but despite missing a penalty through Robin Van Persie, Arsenal were able to become the first team to beat Kasper Schmeichel in his debut season for Manchester City.
As usual for home fixtures, Gunners were dominant in possession and created numerous goal scoring opportunities throughout. In truth the victory margin should have been greater than a single but Kasper Schmeichel performed admirably throughout as he looked to protect his record of clean sheets. Along with the blocking of Van Persie’s second half spot kick he also made crucial saves to keep his side in the game during the first half.
Arsenal’s team contained two major changes from the one which drew at Blackburn in their last Premier League outing. They lost Philippe Senderos in the warm up to an ankle injury meaning Gilberto Silva slotted back into central defence on his return to the team. Injury also kept Jens Lehmann from keeping goal so regular number two, Almunia, deputised. Manchester City, who were buoyed by a win at Bristol City in the Carling Cup kept faith with much of the team who had also beaten Manchester United at home the weekend previous. Emile Mpenza started in place of Rolando Bianchi and scorer of the winning goal in the derby Geovanni also started from the bench.
The Gunners started extremely brightly creating a chance through Van Persie earlier on but had more injury problems to deal with inside the first twenty minutes as Sagna limped off following an accidental collision with Flamini. The Frenchman slotted in at right back but the distinct lack of cohesion between the Arsenal backline allowed City to create the better of the chances before half time. Elano fired into the arms of Almunia when presented with an excellent opportunity on the right hand side and Petrov also drilled a shot just wide before the break when he perhaps should have worked the goalkeeper into making another save.
The rude awakening from Man City stirred the home side into action after the break. Van Persie sent a free kick just over the top of the bar before a rising drive from the same player shaved the crossbar. Fabregas broke down the right on the hour but an Arsenal player was incapable of getting onto the end of it to give Arsenal the lead. Despite spending much time without the ball, City still posed a threat and looked fairly stable at the back allowing them to hit Arsenal on the break when their attacks crumbled. Through Petrov, City should have perhaps scored when the Bulgarian exchanged passes with Elano before unleashing a left foot shot which just missed the far post.
The weight of possession and domination soon began to mount on City and Arsenal won a penalty on 65 minutes when Richards blocked off Hleb as the Belarusian bursting into the box. Having netted in his last game against Fulham, Van Persie stepped up confidently but this time he was thwarted by the young goalkeeper. The spot kick was in truth poor but still needed to be blocked by the Dane who did so despite diving the wrong way.
Frustration amongst the supporters soon began to grow as Arsenal continued to waste chance after chance. The legs of Schmeichel once more kept out a Van Persie shot before Fabregas tried his luck but was repelled by a quick reaction save from the goalkeeper. Manchester City soon began sitting deep as Arsenal camped in their opponents half in search of the breakthrough.
The opening goal finally came for the home side ten minutes from the end when Fabregas collected a pass from Hleb in the area and smashed the ball past Schmeichel at his near post. The drive was powerful and high giving the goalkeeper no chance and reducing the tension which had been built up at the Emirates. Their confidence now sky high after scoring late in a game once again, Arsenal began to knock the ball around in comfort and almost found a second goal on a couple of occasions. Pouring forward Rosicky saw his shot saved by Schmeichel, the rebound of which was sent wide by Hleb.
There was still a sigh of relief for Arsenal to breathe at the other end as the goalkeeper almost wrote more headlines for himself when he joined the attack in the final moments and forced a brilliant save from Almunia off a powerful header.
Arsenal’s team contained two major changes from the one which drew at Blackburn in their last Premier League outing. They lost Philippe Senderos in the warm up to an ankle injury meaning Gilberto Silva slotted back into central defence on his return to the team. Injury also kept Jens Lehmann from keeping goal so regular number two, Almunia, deputised. Manchester City, who were buoyed by a win at Bristol City in the Carling Cup kept faith with much of the team who had also beaten Manchester United at home the weekend previous. Emile Mpenza started in place of Rolando Bianchi and scorer of the winning goal in the derby Geovanni also started from the bench.
The Gunners started extremely brightly creating a chance through Van Persie earlier on but had more injury problems to deal with inside the first twenty minutes as Sagna limped off following an accidental collision with Flamini. The Frenchman slotted in at right back but the distinct lack of cohesion between the Arsenal backline allowed City to create the better of the chances before half time. Elano fired into the arms of Almunia when presented with an excellent opportunity on the right hand side and Petrov also drilled a shot just wide before the break when he perhaps should have worked the goalkeeper into making another save.
The rude awakening from Man City stirred the home side into action after the break. Van Persie sent a free kick just over the top of the bar before a rising drive from the same player shaved the crossbar. Fabregas broke down the right on the hour but an Arsenal player was incapable of getting onto the end of it to give Arsenal the lead. Despite spending much time without the ball, City still posed a threat and looked fairly stable at the back allowing them to hit Arsenal on the break when their attacks crumbled. Through Petrov, City should have perhaps scored when the Bulgarian exchanged passes with Elano before unleashing a left foot shot which just missed the far post.
The weight of possession and domination soon began to mount on City and Arsenal won a penalty on 65 minutes when Richards blocked off Hleb as the Belarusian bursting into the box. Having netted in his last game against Fulham, Van Persie stepped up confidently but this time he was thwarted by the young goalkeeper. The spot kick was in truth poor but still needed to be blocked by the Dane who did so despite diving the wrong way.
Frustration amongst the supporters soon began to grow as Arsenal continued to waste chance after chance. The legs of Schmeichel once more kept out a Van Persie shot before Fabregas tried his luck but was repelled by a quick reaction save from the goalkeeper. Manchester City soon began sitting deep as Arsenal camped in their opponents half in search of the breakthrough.
The opening goal finally came for the home side ten minutes from the end when Fabregas collected a pass from Hleb in the area and smashed the ball past Schmeichel at his near post. The drive was powerful and high giving the goalkeeper no chance and reducing the tension which had been built up at the Emirates. Their confidence now sky high after scoring late in a game once again, Arsenal began to knock the ball around in comfort and almost found a second goal on a couple of occasions. Pouring forward Rosicky saw his shot saved by Schmeichel, the rebound of which was sent wide by Hleb.
There was still a sigh of relief for Arsenal to breathe at the other end as the goalkeeper almost wrote more headlines for himself when he joined the attack in the final moments and forced a brilliant save from Almunia off a powerful header.