Clinical Nasri does for City

We may look back, in years to come, on Lukasz Fabianski's first minute save from David Silva as not just a turning point in the Pole's fortunes at Arsenal, but as a huge turning point in our season and beyond. I know that seems like a rather "big" statement to make, but had we gone a goal down and gone on to lose the match, it would have been difficult for even Arsène Wenger to keep faith with a team that had lost 3 of its opening nine league fixtures. As it is, we now sit just 5 points off Chelsea, with difficult away trips to Eastlands, Stamford Bridge and Anfield behind us- so we can leave the "what ifs" to Roberto Mancini.

It may also prove, in time, that Fabianski save has no greater significance beyond the fact that it prevented Manchester City taking an early lead, but that's fine. You could still argue that that save, combined with Dedrick Boyata's 4th minute dismissal for his last man foul on Chamakh, put through by Fabregas, almost guaranteed the points would be heading back to north London with most of the game still to play. But that's a little simplistic, we've already proved this season, and had it proven to us, that a numerical advantage doesn't guarantee that you'll be taking the points home with you.

Incidentally, the significance of Boyata's dismissal is about the only point available for argument, the legitimacy of the dismissal bears none. Chamakh was clear on goal and the tackle was rash. He didn't get the ball, so he had to go. After the game, Mancini appeared to suggest that this hadn't been the case at Newcastle a couple of weeks back, but whether that is the case or not, is irrelevant. Here, Clattenberg, in a change from last season's fixture, correctly applied the letter of the law. Not that it did him any favours as home team and crowd then combined to make his life as difficult as possible in an attempt to even up the numbers- Denilson, Song, Fabregas and Djourou all carded by half-time- 4 cards for 7 fouls. Which seems harsh, bearing in mind the amount of fouls Kompany had to make to get his name into Clattenberg's notebook and the fact that De Jong (again!) escaped censure at all.

We didn't seem able to cope with the temperature of the game, but when we finally did manage to put some football together, it resulted in a brilliant opening goal. Nasri took possession of the ball just outside the City box and waited, Arshavin pulled off Yaya Touré into a pocket of space and received Nasri's pass, playing it straight back to the oncoming Frenchman who had left Gareth Barry for dead. One on one, in the form Nasri is in, there was only going to be one winner, even against the England keeper and he slammed the ball into the roof of the net.

To City's credit, they weren't cowed by going behind and were still causing us some nervous moments, Djourou consistently being exposed by Gaël Clichy's wanderlust and Carlos Tevez's bull in a china shop pace. On one occasion we were even treated to the site of Arshavin making a crucial tackle in the left back position! Five minutes before the break, a golden chance to put the game away arrived when Kompany took out Cesc just inside the corner of the penalty area for a clear penalty. I can't remember the last time Cesc missed one, but this time his penalty wasn't particularly well struck, his nerves betraying the significance of the kick, Hart went the right way and saved well. Nonetheless, we made it to half-time, with the goal lead intact and, crucially, all eleven players still on the pitch. It was difficult to imagine that, without substitutions, we'd complete the 90 with a full complement. But equally, it was difficult to imagine that with 15 minutes to talk to his players, Arsène wouldn't stress the importance of not getting drawn into silliness.

I guess something else that went our way was the injury Tevez suffered just before half-time. He reappeared for the second half, but clearly wasn't right. Which meant Adebayor replaced him early in the second half. He had chances too, notably from one cross swung into the box, but where he might have expected Almunia to just stand and watch him score, Fabianski came out, got his hands up and did enough to put him off. And this, having made a brilliant fingertip save from Silva just after the restart. He looks like he's beginning to enjoy himself and I'm delighted for him.

Once Tevez was gone, the City storm began to blow out as Arsenal's midfield took control of proceedings, but the game still felt like it was in the balance until Alex Song smashed a terrific strike into the top corner of Hart's goal with twenty minutes to go. Rosicky replaced Arshavin and Arsenal set about seeing it out, but still trying for the third goal. It didn't come until Walcott and Bendtner replaced Cesc (who had taken a right kicking) and Chamakh. Interestingly, Bendtner went wide left and Theo through the middle. It was Bendtner who got the goal, Nasri doing well to keep the ball in out on the left, before sending Bendtner, just onside, away. Advancing on goal and with all the time in the world to pick his spot, Bendtner curled his 50th career goal past Hart and into the far corner. Dreamland for the travelling Gooners behind that goal.

There was still time for Fabianski to repel a Boateng drive and, the real icing on the cake, make a point blank save from Adebayor. Ok, so he was offside as usual, but he didn't know that. It seemed obvious to me, and judging from Twitter, that the man of the match award would be between Nasri (is he becoming the player we all hoped Arshavin would be?) and Fabianski, but Sky awarded it to a nonplussed Fabregas, who said,

"How can I be the man of the match? I missed a penalty!"

Such honesty and a desire for perfection are just two of the reasons I love this guy. I think the way Rooney and United have handled their affairs in the last week shows how lucky we are to have this young man at the club. Whilst I would have said that Nasri was comfortably our best outfield player, even without the goal and assist, it would be churlish to ignore the first matchwinning performance we've seen from a goalkeepeer since... well, who can remember? So I'm glad that Arse.com have righted Sky's (or Ruud Gullit's) wrong and given Fabianski deserved recognition- a first clean sheet away from home for ten months is reason enough I think!

To me, it doesn't matter how it was achieved, whether City had ten players or not. Nobody cares when we outplay Chelsea for 80 minutes and fall victim to two lapses of concentration. You could see in the opening half of the match that we were nervous, Cesc's penalty a big red indicator, but I loved the way we took control of the game in the second half and killed it off. So we know now that we can win these big games, even away from home, and how to do it. If we can't take confidence from that, then we might as well go home. As well as the guys I have already mentioned, I think Chamakh, Song and Denilson deserve tremendous credit for their performances. Arsène's going to have a few selection headaches in the weeks ahead.

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