Fabregas Strikes Late To Sink Manchester City

In an exciting encounter at the Emirates this afternoon, Arsenal left it until late on to beat Manchester City 1-0, although the visitors looked strong again.

Manchester City’s perfect run was finally halted today at the Emirates Stadium as they went down against Arsenal. The only goal of the game came late in the second half when Fabregas shot a powerful drive from close range over the City keeper Schmeichel. Prior to the kickoff Arsenal suffered another injury blow when Swiss defender Phillipe Senderos picked up an ankle knock during the warm up. This forced Arsene Wegner to start with the returning Gilberto as centre-back alongside Kolo Toure.

Eighteen minutes into the game the home side were forced to make another change as Bacary Sagna, who was injured in a collision with team-mate Mathieu Flamini, was replaced by Denilson.

In spite of this Arsenal then dominated most of the first half but failed to find the crucial breakthrough. City’s best chance of the half came for Bulgarian winger Martin Petrov whose powerful shot whistled past Manuel Almunia’s post.

City came out in the second half with a lot more purpose. Some inspired defending by captain Richard Dunn and man-of-the-moment Micah Richards kept Aresnal at bay whereas their attackers enjoyed some decent possession upfront.

Another big moment in the game came when just ahead of the hour mark Arsenal were awarded a penalty as Richards was rightly adjudged to have brought down Aliaksandre Hleb in the area. Van Persie stepped up to take the spot kick but his poor placed shot was brilliantly saved by Kasper Schmeichel.

Minutes later the young City keeper denied Arsenal again when he tipped over a long range effort from Fabregas. With fifteen minutes remaining, both managers made changes as Eduardo was introduced for Manu Adabyor for Arsenal whereas Eriksson brought on Rolando Bianchi for Emile Mpenza for the visitors.

With ten minutes remaining on the clock, Arsenal’s relentless efforts were finally rewarded. Fabregas scored from a tight angle to give Arsenal a deserved lead.

City tried to hit back but it was too little and too late from Eriksson’s side as Arsenal held onto the lead to claim their second victory of the season.