Manchester City v Arsenal – Player ratings

In a game where two of England’s finest clashed, no one really knew what to predict. I myself thought it would be a difficult game in which Arsenal would scrape a 1-1 draw; a draw at home is never really ideal for the standards we have to live up to now, little did we all know it would go so badly. City’s fourteen match unbeaten run in all competitions finally came to an end, too. A run in which we hadn’t seen City lose since bonfire night in the disappointing game vs CSKA, whilst Arsenal continued some good form off the back of two comfortable wins vs Hull and Stoke. As hard as it is to accept, Arsenal probably deserved nothing less than three points today. They defended superbly and their organisation was what won them the game. Not to mention a glistening performance from the little Spaniard Santi Cazorla, who looked threatening every time he had the ball. Although both their goals could have been avoided and were against the run of play, they stuck to their game plan and executed it perfectly. In the end, it was clear they wanted it more. Now onto our problems. Shocking. Embarrassing. Lacklustre. Just a few words to describe the performances of almost all the City players this afternoon – here’s how I would rate them individually:

Joe Hart: 6 – Hart didn’t have much to do today, so it would be harsh to give him any lower than a six. Not many keepers save penalties that are put into the corner of the net so there’s no complaints with the first goal. However, albeit Giroud’s header was mainly due to poor marking and an unsuccessful offside trap, I feel Hart could’ve tried harder to reach the ball – it wasn’t exactly a pinpoint bullet header. Hart didn’t make any world class saves today, probably because he didn’t have to. Neither goal was his fault but he didn’t really have a stand out performance, therefore I think six is fair.

Pablo Zabaleta: 5 – Our adopted Mancunian wasn’t his usual self today, he had the task of keeping one of the league’s most talented and quickest players in Alexis Sanchez quiet but he just wasn’t at the races (no pun intended). He was slow when he had to track back, and when he did overlap Navas he didn’t seem to do anything productive at all. One of the key features of our style of play is the attacking threat our full backs possess. We can usually count on Pablo to be there on the wing when Navas has no more options and maybe grab an assist or two, but he just didn’t perform today.

Source: mcfc.com

Vincent Kompany: 4 – There, I said it. I never thought I’d see the day where I gave our usually flawless captain a 4 but today he was incredibly off the pace. Although Monreal made the most out of it and probably leaped before contact, the penalty Kompany gave away was so unnecessary. Some would say it wasn’t a penalty at all and I think it’d be a valid argument, however there was absolutely no need to try and obstruct Monreal in any way. It was extremely clumsy and uncharacteristic of one of the most professional players in world football. Apart from the penalty and booking he received, he wasn’t to blame for much else and if he didn’t give away a penalty or get that yellow card I wouldn’t have given him such a harsh rating. For the record, he’s still the best centre back in the league.

Martin Demichelis: 3 – I recall saying last week that after a run of faultless games that Demichelis was world class. I don’t believe in jinxes but he couldn’t have been any further away from world class today. His distribution was poor, and he clumsily gave the ball away quite a few times in dangerous positions where if Arsenal had a quicker striker than Giroud we could have been in big trouble. Demichelis’ best traits are his experience and composure, his ball retention for a defender is superb but he made far too many mistakes today. Another player who wasn’t quite their usual self.

Gael Clichy: 7 – Clichy was in fine form whilst Kolarov was injured, and was then slowly moved out of the side when Kolarov returned for a mysterious reason I will never know. Luckily, Manuel saw sense after Kolarov’s horrific display in the FA cup fixture against Sheffield Wednesday and Clichy got a well warranted start. I thought he was actually quite good today, he was one of very few City players who looked like they wanted to win, and caused the occasional problem down Arsenal’s right side. If Arsenal’s young right-back Hector Bellerin didn’t have such an outstanding game, I think Clichy’s driving runs and clever overlaps could’ve lead to some real goalscoring opportunities. Credit to Bellerin for playing so well against one of very few City players that put in a good shift today. Final thought on the Frenchman: he MUST start against Chelsea in two weeks.

Fernandinho: 6 – In the opening twenty minutes of the game, Fernandinho looked very lively. He was spraying passes in between the lines and down the channels, and even went on a Yaya-esque run until he was hacked down by Koscielny in what was a bookable offence. However after a pretty impressive start to the game, his passes just didn’t seem to find the right man and his positional awareness seemed to disappear – leaving gaps in the middle for the likes of Ramsey and Cazorla (who both had very good games) to exploit our defence. After such a good start to the game it’d be harsh to give him any lower than a six, however he offered next to nothing and gave the ball away quite often in the second half particular, before he was substituted in the 62^nd minute.

Fernando: 5 – Another disappointing performance to talk about. Last week I said Fernando was a bargain and what he does on the pitch goes unnoticed by many. Although I still firmly believe he’s criminally underrated, nothing seemed to go his way today. Misplaced passes were a plenty as he actually had identical flaws with Fernandinho. His passes, just like Fernandinho’s, didn’t really find their man and he also lacked positional awareness at times. However, Fernando’s inch perfect crunching tackle on Alexis was worth an extra mark or two.

Jesus Navas: 3 – If you know anything about me, you’d know I don’t really hide the agenda I have against Jesus Navas. I’m all for ‘credit where credit is due’ and when Navas has a good game I’ll be the first to say it, but it’s hard to put into words just how useless he was today. I’m not one to use statistics in a football debate but Navas’ from today were worth noting:

18 failed crosses
0 take-ons completed
1 key pass
74% pass accuracy

Yes, that’s 18 FAILED CROSSES. 18. I know Arsenal have towering defenders with the likes of Mertesacker and Koscielny, but Navas’ crosses didn’t even get past the first man. Navas can be such a frustrating player at times and he proved why today. Because of his blistering pace, he always seems to have acres of space out on the right wing. And when a player has space, you expect them to do something productive. So when Navas doesn’t produce, it’s incredibly annoying. For me, he was definitely the worst attacking player on the pitch today, and it probably should have been him that was substituted at half time.

David Silva: 6 – By no means disappointing, but by no means anywhere near what our little magician is capable of. Arsenal did very well to nullify his threat, and kept him quiet for the majority of the game. He went on an impressive, weaving run in the second half and found the pass after it, but that was probably the highlight of his performance. He did all he could in a game where opposing players were instructed to keep him out the game, an average performance from Spanish Dave overall.

James Milner: 5 – Didn’t do much wrong today, but didn’t do much right. I wouldn’t blame him if he was disappointed after being subbed off after half time. There wasn’t much for him to do and he didn’t actually see a lot of the ball, which was disappointing as Milner always seems to turn up for the big games. For me, he should start ahead of Navas but with the stalling contract talks and struggle to start most games, I can honestly see him departing this month.

Sergio Aguero: 5 – Similar to Silva, it was pretty clear that Arsene Wenger had specifically concentrated on instructing his players to stop Kun. Every big team in England knows Aguero will hurt them if you let him, and taking his impressive goal scoring record against the top teams into account, Arsenal’s defence did a very good job of keeping him quiet. It’s important to remember he’s just come back from injury, though. Rustiness is normal but I think everyone knows the quicker he’s back to his best the better. For me, he’s our best player and third in the world behind only Messi and Ronaldo based on his scintillating form before his injury vs Everton last month.

Substitutes:

Frank Lampard: 6 – When he came on, he didn’t seem to step a foot wrong. He managed to draw a few fouls and his distribution was excellent. Amidst all the disappointing individual performances, he was pulling off some superb long range passes and keeping possession very well. For the time he was on the pitch, I’d say he was our best player and would have got higher than a 6 if he got some more minutes. Let’s see what the man of the moment can do in our next premier league game in one of his familiar hunting grounds…

Stevan Jovetic: 5 – Jovetic managed to get another 45 minutes under his belt after quite a long run in the starting line-up, he wasn’t bad. Didn’t really have much to do but he wasn’t scared to take a man on and every time he had the ball he wanted to make something happen. Whether if it comes off or not, it’s good to see how positive he is with the ball.

Edin Dzeko: 4 – I’ve not given him a 4 because he had a bad game or did things wrong, but I genuinely don’t remember him even touching the ball, he had very little to do all game and had less touches of the ball than any other City player. He’s just come back from injury, and although it’s not expected of him to perform as well as Kun, he too needs time to settle back in after a lengthy period of not playing.