Match Review: Mancity 6 vs Arsenal 3 (Nightmare at the Etihad as Gunners are destroyed by rampaging City)

I honestly don't know where or how to start this post..I admit i almost did not want to write a review because of how i felt after witnessing perhaps the most unbelievable defensive capitulation ever by an Arsenal team. Yes City are a great side especially at home, and some of the football they exhibited in that game was quite brilliant but i cannot help but feel the manner of defeat was spectacularly a case of pushing down the self-destruct button. I accept that their 1st and 2nd goals could have been conceded by any team but the 3rd, 5th and 6th ones were for the life of me Gift wrapped,signed and delivered by some monumentally shambolic passing and ball retention even in our own half. @Orbinho on twitter provided half time stats that read...Possession: Mancity =55% Arsenal=45%  Pass Accuracy: Mancity 85%  Arsenal 83%...Shots Mancity= 12 Arsenal=4. From the data shown, it can be deduced that it was a close contest in the first half only that Mancity were only slightly having the upperhand. At the break, we hoped the second half would be better, but they went  3-1 up and suddenly we faced a mountian to climb. Then came the rather dubious offsides from the ref, followed by a 15 minute show of suicidal  ball retention and poor organization that just made watching difficult in the extreme for me...talking about it is making me Mad, so Here's my player rating:

Szcezney:---------7      Cannot be blamed for any of the goals scored against us...He was letdown by some really amateurish defending and poor overall team play.

Monreal-----------5     He is a good player, but suffered a lot today. His wing was the chief outlet for their incursions and in many one-on-one situations  he didn't show strength and fight like we would have expected.

Mertasacker-------6      Lost his partnership with  Koscielny earlier but still managed to marshall our box and keep the scoreline to errr...nevermind

Koscielny-----------6    Lasted until couple of minutes before half time, before being replaced with an injury.Was guilty for the first goal by Aguero due to lapse in concentration,the back line looked jittery after he left though. Hope his injury isn't long term .

Sagna----------------5   He did all he could to shut out city, but the general malaise the team was facing started to get into his play. His series of poor passing began to creep in and we got punished for the 5th as direct result.

Ramsey--------------7  Worked his socks off for the shirt, running and dispossessing but others could not replicate his effort. Dispossessed Toure for our first goal and provided the assist for our 2nd. Just about our best player.

Flamini--------------5  Completely overran by Toure and Fernandinho. Bad day for him, did not see him stamp his authority in the game.


Ozil-----------------5  Quiet and was not in influential enough to make us potent upfront..all though it has to be said a good pass from him to Giroud was wasted by the french man at 3-2


Wilshere------------6  Cannot understand why Jack is being played left,when Cazorla is available. Granted Carzola is so off form right now..but Jack is ineffective on the wings and it must be discontinued. His highlight was a great shot at 3-1 that the City keeper managed to save well. His finger gesture to City fans was not cool, needs to behave himself better than that.

Walcott-------------7 A threat in the box, dangerous and took his goals well. Getting back to his best and not a second too soon as Giroud has entered a real funk lately.


Giroud--------------4  poor poor  game. He was simply overwhelmed, wasteful in possession and had one ridiculous moment when played through in the box, managed to fumble a simple pass across to Walcott.

SUBS

Gnabry---------------5  Wrong game to have been introduced to be fair to him.  What we needed at the time he was brought in was someone who could keep the ball like Rosicky.  Our fate was sealed with this sub.

Vermaelen------------6  Has been itching to play all season long and came in for the injured Koscielny. Didn't look too bad, but a bit of match rustiness saw him ball watching as  the cross came in and Silva fired home for their 4th goal. A more agile Vermaelen i presume would've read the situation better


Bendtner-------------6 Looked miles better than Giroud when he came on, and i found myself asking if it wouldn't have been better to have started him. Scored a legitimate goal ruled out incorrectly for offside. I believe its inconsistency that is this guy's problem. If the boss senses he can be more trusted to deliver, He would get the more bigger games as he has better ''BIG GAME''mentality than the french man in my opinion.

So our poor run of form continues. The chelsea game has now received even more pressure attached to it. They sit 2nd now 2points behind us,and if they beat us (God forbid) at the Emirates they will go Top. We must learn our lessons from this game as i think a lot of our weaknesses were on show today. We have a big problem with big games and i think its psychological. We have not been able to play composed football like we know we can whenever we meet the big guys. It was the same at Old Trafford, then Chelsea at the Capitalone cup,Now Mancity..Whatever the problem is, it needs the manager to sort it out fast.