Sergio Aguero came off the bench to power Manchester City into the semi-finals of a meaningless Carling Cup with a 1-0 win at the Emirates Stadium over a deflated Arsenal side. iSporter Sahil Bhalla reports
As the game progressed on, a result seemed more and more unlikely. Six minutes from the end though, Adam Johnson released Sergio Aguero and the Argentine showed what he was worth by shooting low past Lukasz Fabianski to settle the tie and propel Manchester City into the semi-finals.
Manchester City, now have the task of securing passing into the latter stages of the Champions League next month after his depth once again paid dividends.
Before the game, there was a tribute to the late Wales manager Gary Speed, with the away fans spontaneously singing his name followed by applause.
Samir Nasri, on his first return to the Emirates since a £24 million summer transfer, was booed. Chants of “you only left for the money” started to ring out around the Emirates Stadium after the former Gunner’s midfielder’s first touch was heavily booed.
Even with a resounding number of back-up players for Arsenal, they looked far from conceding the tie. Even some of the City figures galvanized them. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, undoubtedly Arsenal’s best player of the day hit a shot from distance that had to be tipped over the bar impressively by Man City’s second choice goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon after just 7 minutes. The supposed handicap in experience merely emphasized the freshness in the youth of the squad.
“We were naïve,” said Wenger. “It was a corner for us and a goal for them. We took it too quickly and I knew we were in trouble. We lost a game when we looked the winner. I don’t believe in luck. We had to stop this counter-attack. That’s the job – you have to stop that.”
The problem was that even with Marouane Chamakh and Ju-Young Park, on the chance given to show that Arsenal does have options beyond Robin van Persie, only reinforced a view that Wenger is overly reliant on his captain. This is not to say that Arsenal is a one-man squad as our defense has been more resilient than in the past three years.
Arsenal had begun in in a 4-4-2 formation that allowed Chamakh and Park to establish them well in the team. This was not the usual formation played by Wenger but the Carling Cup is meant to give youngsters a shot and for formation trials.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain retains an outside chance of forcing his way into the Euro 2012 squad and he made the most of his latest chance by producing a wonderful moment of skill to deceive Pablo Zabaleta and for a corner. Zabaleta was beat all afternoon. Both Frimpong and Coquelin were clever enough to repeatedly work balls down Arsenal’s right flank where Oxlade-Chamberlain would constantly beat Zabaleta.
Arsenal lacked in the offense and that’s where it shows. There were less chances coming from the Arsenal side that seemed to seriously be missing Robin Van Persie on the day. Gervinho was brought on in the latter stages but it wasn’t enough. In the end, it was Aguero, who produced the decisive moment after having a relatively quiet night.
Manchester City qualifies for the semi-finals of the meaningless Carling Cup and Arsenal have one less trophy to worry about. Will this help Arsenal in the long run? Will the extra game or two coming their way in the near future affect Manchester City? Only time will tell.
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