Written by Mean Lean on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 15:00

Last night's game reminds me a little of our Carling cup final defeat to Chelsea back in 2008. The youthful underdog taking the game to the rich experienced mercenaries and the wrong team lost. To be fair, Manchester City were there to be broken down and we couldn't manage to do so.

Emmanuel Frimpong was fantastic in midfield. He was tenacious and determined and did not give his opponents a seconds rest. He dominated a midfield which contained Nigel de Jong and Owen Hargreaves. He must be an absolute nightmare to play against. Francis Coquelin was also superb, his distribution with either foot is of top quality.

It was our forward players that were not able to make the difference on the night. Park looked tidy without really threatening. Chamakh looked to have more belief in himself on the ball, he looked more relaxed with the ball to feet. In one move he run at the defender and flicked the ball around him and ran around the other side. A move that we have seen Theo Walcott do at Norwich. We even witnessed Chamakh attempt several step-overs at times but Chamakh is not a player that can break you down on his own, he needs service and he needs support and unfortunately he didn't get enough of either.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is receiving plenty of plaudits today but I thought he found it difficult to get into the game in areas which counted. He struck a superb left footed effort in the first half which looked effortless but Mancini made sure that Zabaleta was rarely left one on one with the talented Chamberlain.

Adam Johnson who played from the right caused us problems. He is much quicker than I thought he was. I am surprised that Johnson was not used more often to have a go at Miquel who had a good game overall.

Squillaci and Koscielny were solid and were rarely under any real pressure. Laurent Koscielny in particular was fantastic, especially when Aguero came on after only 32 minutes. That is what we have come to expect from him.

Park should have scored after a good low cross from Coquelin but he scuffed his shot. That was our best chance of the game and we couldn't make it count. If that went in then it would have forced City to have more of a go at us.

I love Yossi Benayoun's work and energy and I would love to see more of him alongside more established players but he was not able to make the difference.

Edin Dzeko who I thought was Manchester City's best player on the night won the race to the ball with Koscielny and Benayoun after an Arsenal corner kick was cleared at the near post. Dzeko's ball to Johnson was good and Johnson's flick to Aguero was weighted to perfection. The Argentine done the rest. Given the limited chances created in the game until that point, I thought it would be very unlikely that we would get the goal back.

Gervinho came on and worked some great positions even when doubled marked but he just doesn't have the shooting technique right now. While someone like Nasri has, it showed last night how much more dangerous Gervinho is than Nasri who tends to check in and out before just playing it safe instead of Gervinho's direct style.

We couldn't find it a way through and we are out. It feels strange to lose to anyone at home in the Carling cup but the players should take a great deal of confidence and pride from the performance.

Manchester City are said to have a squad with two teams that could finish in the top four and we more than matched them with players like Chamberlain, Coquelin, Frimpong, and Miquel all under 20 years of age.

We have a good squad of players and they will show that the more they play.

COYG

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Comments (7)

• 30-Nov-2011 15:22 | | jonno
  

  its not that johnsons that quick...its more that iqnasi miquel is slow....in terms of speed johnson doesnt match up to the likes of lennon or shaun wright-phillips let alone walcott...i f johnson were up against gibbs or santos he would have found it more difficult...however this isnt to say he is not a good player...because i think he is quite good

• 30-Nov-2011 15:27 | | Anonymous
  

  miquel isn't a left back eider, he's relly a center back

• 30-Nov-2011 15:54 | | dkgooner  - No tears
  

  Can't say I'm bothered about going out of this one - it's a good competition for giving the fringe players the chance to show what they can do but when City's reserve squad cost them about 150 million, it's a bit of a joke. I heard one of the commentators say that they also have 23 players out on loan.
  When you look at the economics, that was a fantastic performance by the Arsenal lads. I agree that Coquelin and Frimpong stood out, Miquel did a good job playing out of position and the whole team was very solid. Think you're a bit hard on Alex, ML - he was the only one who to my mind looked like producing that something extra up front that might have made the difference. As for Chamakh, well, his attitude may be better then Bendtner's, but I still think the wrong player is on loan at Sunderland. If we can get some money for him in January, it will be a nice bit of business and no great loss.
  Where was Afobe last night - is he still not recovered?
  The best thing is that most of the first team get a week's break before taking 3 points at Wigan at the weekend. I have a feeling it may be hard to find a decent stream for that one.

• 30-Nov-2011 16:03 | | shodam
  

  A good performance by the young gunners but the final third cost us the match by not finding the back of the net. I think wenger needs a couple of new legs at the emirate coming january who can fill van persie's void any time he need to rest

• 30-Nov-2011 16:05 | | shodam
  

  A good performance by the young gunners but the final third cost us the match by not finding the back of the net. I think wenger needs a couple of new legs at the emirate coming january who can fill van persie's void any time he need to rest.

• 30-Nov-2011 18:24 | | David
  

  Well said, considering Miquel is not a left-back he gave an excellent account of him! Haha, funny line over Santos, had be played Johnson would have had a field day as the Brazilian would rarely have been in the left-back position to try and mark him - at least Miquel made the City winger work for the opportunities he created!

• 01-Dec-2011 05:35 | | luis zelaya
  

  i imagine the joy some of our players might feel, like ramsey or song, by being rested on this occasion, something that used to happen to them, but now they have graduated from that point. also for some of those taking their chance, frimpong coquelin were fantastic to see imposing themselves. consider this "b" city team are easiliy on par with chelsea or man u, or even our first eleven, certainly more expensive, and you have to admire some of the young talent we have, we were the better side most of the game, at the very least equals, but that's football. proud of the boys, mostly positives taken from the game, the only negative is i wish we would have been faced against such difficult opposition a bit later, so these boys would have had more chances to show what they can do.

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