Pride in Defeat

It was the second time Arsenal lost to Manchester City by the 1-0 scoreline.

Once again we gave them a good run for their millions of pound spent compared to us.

It was a defeat no Gooners should feel ashamed of. Given a few touches here and there we could have brought three points back to London. In the end, we lost to a scrappy goal by David Silva who had the intelligence to anticipate that the ball might come his way.

Wos Szczesny who already performed heroically to keep the score level going to the interval could not handle Mario 'Why Me' Ballotelli stiff shot. Kun Aguero could not connect properly with the loose ball but Silva was there to ensure there was no clean sheet for the Polish custodian.

Robin van Persie led by example but on a number of occasions the officials decisions went against his side. His wonderful chip over Joe Hart was ruled out for offside and Phil Dowd ruled it was a case of 'ball to hand' when a home defender's hand connected with the ball inside the penalty area.

Thomas Vermaelen also came close but could not direct his attempts to a more damaging areas in Hart's goal.

However, the injury suffered by Johan Djourou forced a change which saw Ignasi Miquel coming on. As for me, the young Spanish defender did well overall but the introductions of Andrey Arshavin and Marouone Chamakh were seen as a bit baffling when the more confident Youssi Benayoun and Thomas Rosicky could have done more damage.

There should have been a change of approach when Chamakh took on the field with a more direct attack with him as the target-man could see the tall Moroccan bringing others into attack. But of course, Arsene being Arsene the height and good holding play of Chamakh were wasted with ball to feet approach.

The lack of full-backs also saw Arsenal could not fully attack through the wide area for fear that they could be caught on a quick counter-attack like what happened at the Emirates in the Carling Cup quarter-final.

It was our fifth defeat in the Premier League and one could completely derail our title ambition. But the season is still long and every Gooner should have the optimism that we could still challenge the rest of the contenders for the crown we last won as the 'Invincibles' which City would not be able to emulate after their defeat last week.

I was rather hoping for an early anniversary present from the Gunners but it was just not meant to be.

COYG!

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