Barclays Premier League 2013/14

I'm willing to believe this is a freak result for us, we'll sort those errors out.

City though, title-winning performance, to be unfortunately honest.

4 against Utd and Newcastle, 7 against Norwich, 6 against Arsenal and Spurs. Yet only 2 against fucking Hull

We'll bounce back. After poor results against Villa, Dortmund and United we've responded brilliantly so I have no fears that we will go on some sort of slide now. We lost to a great side and it was a crazy game. It happens in football.

If we beat Chelsea in a week's time we're looking pretty good again.

Seeing the City penalty decision, that is a stonewaller. No doubt about it

Amazing scenes at the Etihad.
you fucking polish cunt

Generally hope Giroud doesn't start against Chelsea, he's been shite for a few games and today was the final straw. Bendtner did more in 15mins than Giroud in 75 and if we don't sign a striker to challenge him we will not win this league. So many shite performances today too though, but other than the spell towards the end when we was clearly fucked we was just as good as City and possibly had the better of the chances and certainly the worst of the decisions.

Really? Looks like he's well on his way down before contact is made.

He only starts to actually go down when he's clipped by the keeper

https://vine.co/v/h2DXPO3LUWp

Mertesacker not happy with Ozil

Looked like the cunt wouldn't shake hands or something, good to see him being treated the same as everyone else too.

'Arsenal Unrest'

Oh come on

Wouldn't go over to the fans apparently

Well you can bet your life that carried on in the changing room, Mert is FURIOUS.

Was gonna say that but as i couldn't make out what end it was i wasn't sure.

Koscielny's knee

CHAMAKH!!!!

Odd goings on at St. James... Sissoko somehow sending the ref flying has to be up with the oddest things of football this year.

Title of that video is just so wrong

That link is dead, so...



No need for the ref to go down as he did

Kind of scared of playing City soon

Would love us to beat Tottenham tomorrow as well but got a funny feeling about it

You do realise that doesn't actually matter right?

As for Arsenal, it's same old same old really; I'd be worried if I was a fan. Yes Özil is making you play some nice stuff against teams you should be beating (and unlike everyone else you've at least been consistent against them) but you're still losing games in identical ways to last season, the season before that and the 10,000 years before that as well.

To add to that, Giroud seems to be coming off the boil, your £42m signing is invisible whenever you play anyone half good and your defence would be seriously compromised if Koscielny is out for any time.

Oh and you somehow managed to do all the hardwork in a very tough Champion's League group before falling at the last hurdle and getting yourself, probably, a ridiculously hard tie.

Call me negative, but I think there's some very major cracks being papered over by some very thin paper.

Diving ref.

Steve Clarke has been sacked.

Harsh.

I'm sure this won't surprise you but I'm going to disagree with pretty much all of this.

With regards to the penalty, it does/ should matter. Contact does not automatically equal a penalty. If a player is falling over before he's been touched, and happens to come into contact with the goalkeeper/ defender on the way down, does that mean it's still a foul? It's irrelevant anyway as the game was lost.

I know that people are very quick to draw comparisons between this side and the ones that have failed in the past, but from having watched them intently over the course of the season I can say with some confidence this is not the same sort of Arsenal side than the ones in years gone by. The results against the Manchester sides have been incredibly frustrating but we've had some rotten luck - the United game came after playing Liverpool and then going away to Dortmund, and this one came three days after we lost in Naples. We can't blame those circumstances for those defeats but they certainly didn't help. We've played big games this season and won - Tottenham, Liverpool, Napoli, Dortmund - and I don't buy this theory that we have some sort of mental block against the big sides. City were just better than us today, and there's no shame in losing to them, whereas the United game was settled by one piece of brilliance by van Persie.

For years people have claimed that there are not enough characters in the dressing room, but now we have plenty - Mertesacker, Arteta, Sagna, Vermaelen and Flamini are all experienced heads who know how to lead and I think having these guys at the club have helped us react to disappointing results this season. After we lost to Villa, we went on a great winning run that took us to the top of the table. After losing to United, we won three on the bounce and after we lost to Dortmund at home we went and beat them at their place. I don't sense this mental fragility in this squad that we had during the days of William Gallas breaking down on the pitch. We could well beat Chelsea next weekend and look in great shape again.

Giroud has been poor recently, I won't argue that. His confidence seems to have dipped and his limitations have been exposed. I really hope Wenger doesn't think Bendtner or Podolski are the answer because we desperately need some more quality up front, and I must admit I watch one with envy when I see guys like Negredo and Aguero tearing it up for our rivals.

Vermaelen is a very capable defender and whilst Koscielny has been immense, Mertesacker has been an absolute rock this season (although some opposition fans tend to underate him) and I am confident that a Mertesacker-Vermaelen pairing can do the job for a few games at least.

Ozil has been very disappointing against both Manchester clubs as well as a few other games, but he has never been one to take hold of games by the scruff of the neck and dominate other sides - he's the sort of player who can do nothing for most of the game and play an exqusite pass to grab an assist out of nowhere. It's also worth remembering that despite the price tag he's still going to need time to properly adapt to a new side, a new country and a new league, and he has perhaps been overused at times this season. He's still been brilliant for the most part so I have no long term worries there.

With regards to the Champions League, I was obviously disappointed to drop down to second but at the same time I think we deserve credit for getting out of that group at the expense of a side as good as Napoli. With regards to us now facing a giant of the game, we'd only have to do so in the quarters if we got that far so it doesn't bother me too much - if we win then it'd be a great night for us to remember and if we lose we go out to a great side and focus on the league. This season, for me, is all about the league and at this moment in time we hold no realistic expectation of challenging for the Champions League.

Never a penalty with that Zaba handball.

Good finish by Walcott for the second though, Henry-esque.

The Silva goal was pretty neat too.

Tbf Arsenal were a little unlucky. Man City were good. Very good. But Arsenal with a bit more luck could have made the score line more respectable.

This is how I feel about it - the officials were awful today. Still, City deserved to win and we made enough mistakes without the referee's interference to lose the game.

The offside calls were pretty close, could have gone your way and could have been a different score line. Some terrible defending too, but your defence has been pretty solid this season.

Arsenal could have scored more had decisions gone their way but the way City were playing they would have just gone and scored more i think.

Bit harsh aye, quite surprised by that.