WOW, just wow. It is safe to say that I was not expecting that to happen. Pure domination, a 3-0 win against the second best team in the country, if that is not positive signs then I do not know what is. Before we get into the ins and outs of the game. Let’s just talk about the message that sends. To these so called title challengers, Chelsea who finished tenth, Liverpool who have made no business in the window, City were meant to be the best of the bunch, the best other than us and this is what they do? That performance was dominant, strategic, calculated. Overall, a 10/10 performance. This game will send shivers down the spines of the rest of the competition. Now, that is out of the way let’s get into the game.
The league champions started with a relatively strong line up. However, we were missing a few starters, these being Saka, Rice, Saliba and Timber. However, based on how we started you would not have noticed it. The mighty Italian stallion Ricardo Calafiroi opened the scoring within 24 a shot at the near post, sending Donnarumma the wrong way from a inch perfect ball from our boy Myles Lewis Skelly. The crowd went crazy. As the first half progressed the game was fairly end to end, with chances from both Madueke and Foden cutting in forcing a safe from the opposition keepers. This is the period of the game where Bruno G really starts making an impact on the game, and on the fans as chants of “BRUNO” ring around the principality. The end to end action continues, right up until a in swinging cross from Martin Odegaard, to debutant Christos Tzolis nods it across the goal to Kai Havertz to nod it in from six yards out. and all of a sudden the Arsenal are 2-0 up within half an hour. A few attempts from Man city including a Kovacic long range effort and a Erlind Haaland one on one acts as filler until the end of the half. A unbelievably dominant first half for the champs!
The second half commences as Arsenals new singing Bruno G makes room for rightful player of the season Declan Rice. A remarkable form the Brazilian midfielder. After the dominance of the first half, it is not long until the dominance returns. Debutant Tzolis gets the ball on the left and plays a dangerous ball into the box into the skipper, the skipper takes the ball with composure, dummying the shot to put the city keeper on the ground and then rolling the ball into the net, a pure embarrassment. The game remained pretty tame as we just sat back to see the win out. With Saka getting unlucky missing the target from inside the box. The game died out and finished 3-0 to the mighty Arsenal.
With the performance being outstanding and the main talking point by many. I think the biggest positive coming out of the trip down to Cardiff being the subs we bought on. Arsenal were winning 2-0 and bought on Declan Rice and then when it was 3-0 Arsenal bough on Saka, Eze, Hincapie, Zubimendi and Gyokeres. That speaks volumes. If we have and use that squad depth efficiently, I think we will have no issue challenging on all fronts. Next stop, the Emirates for Coventry City.