Arsenal Player Ratings Vs Manchester City

Arsenal entered their clash with big spenders Manchester City, hoping to revitalize their winning ways from earlier in the season. Having recently been defeated 2-1 at the hands of Manchester United, Arsene Wenger knew his team needed a win.

Sadly that was not the case. Poor passing and retention of possession, as well as the absence of Andrei Arshavin, all contributed to a disappointing 4-2 loss to a strong City outfit.

Player Ratings:

Manuel Almunia: 4.5: A disappointing performance against Manchester United was followed by another below par display. He should have dealt with Richards' header, which led to the first goal and poor positioning contributed to the second. However he did pull of the odd strong save.

Bacary Sagna: 5.5: The Frenchmen was as usual consistent and strong in defence but in attack Sagna was horrendous, horrid crosses and he scuffed a good chance early on.

William Gallas: 6: Struggled at times with the likes of Adebayor and Bellamy but was overall relatively good in defence. However, the French defender missed a peach of a chance in the early stages but was a constant threat from corners.

Thomas Vermaelen: 6: Another solid performance. His usual strong consistent heading power was evident and he handled Adebayor relatively well. Deserved a goal with an outstanding long range strike.

Gael Clichy: 5.5: City looked the most dangerous down the left flank and though he handled Wright-Phillips with ease, he was caught out on too many occasions.

Alexandre Song: 6: Diligently attempted to cut down the City attacks and on numerous occasions put his body on the line. Also cut back well when his defenders marched forward. Not to bad.

Denilson: 5: Too often, the Brazilian carelessly give the ball away. He tried hard in defence and did attempt to make his presence evident in attack but sadly he just did not perform.

Cesc Fabregas: 4.5: Where was the maestro's passing? So many passes failing to find his Arsenal teammates. Didn't really work hard enough in attack but, to be fair was recovering from injury.

Abou Diaby: 4.5: Not a decent display. Needs to learn to give and go, his long, strong legs couldn't find a way through the City defence but to be honest, he did not look dangerous.

Nicklas Bendtner: 5: Arsene Wenger seems intent on playing the lanky Dane in the wide role but its obvious he is a central man. Did look dangerous when the ball, rarely, found its way to him, but you felt he would have made a bigger impact through the middle.

Robin van Persie: 7: A number of neat touches early on looked promising but then disappeared for a while before reinstating his presence with a terrific goal. However, he is not a striker who can be alone up front, needed an....Adebayor beside him.

Substitution

Tomas Rosicky: 8: Probably the brightest point for Arsenal, the magician, who had been out for almost two years, made his comeback and gave the footballing world a glimpse of what we had missed. A lovely touch for Arsenal second goal.

Eduardo: 6: Looked promising at times but didn't make a big impact

Emmanuel Eboue:N/A: