The stand out fixture of match day twenty two was the clash between title contenders Manchester City and Arsenal who have title winning and top four ambitions of their own. Many fans were awaiting the chance to see Sergio Aguero and Alexis Sanchez go toe to toe as two of the best players in the Barclays Premier League. However there was a surprise in store as Santi Cazorla stole the show with an A* performance much like at the start of his Arsenal career.
The game began with early dominance from Manchester City but they struggled to create any clear cut chances within the first twenty minutes and they paid the price when a fast break from Arsenal resulted in a one-two between Nacho Monreal and Oliver Giroud on the corner of the City box. This lead to the Spaniard being brought down by Vincent Kompany and referee Mike Dean did not hesitate in pointing to the spot. This would prove as a crucial point in the game but it was hard to disagree with the referee’s decision. Cazorla stepped up to hit the penalty to Joe Hart’s left putting Arsenal 1-0 up when it seemed they were going to concede under City’s pressure. Man of the match Cazorla then delivered a free kick into the box for Giroud after capitalising on Fernando’s lapse in concentration and the Frenchman nodded past Hart from six yards to put Arsenal 2-0 up with only 20 minutes to go.
This was only a small part of Cazorla’s game as he showed a large amount of grit and determination as he had the unenviable job of marking David Silva who was expected to be City’s creative mastermind in midfield with the absence of Yaya Toure. This was not allowed to happen throughout the entire 90 minutes as Cazorla worked tirelessly to prevent Silva from finding space between the Arsenal defence and midfield where he often can have a massive impact on the game and is normally the reason for City’s chances being created.
It was very enjoyable to watch Cazorla combine great defensive work with flair in attack as he dribbled the ball out from the back and take on the Manchester City players with a very high success rate. His performance summed up what many experts feel Arsenal had been missing in the last few years when coming up against top 4 sides and it was clear to see as that he was the difference between the two sides and was well deserving of being awarded Man of the Match.
This result was a massive one for Arsenal as they moved up to fifth spot and are now only one point behind Manchester United in fourth. In contrast Manchester City lost ground on title rivals Chelsea who have moved 5 points clear at the top of the table leaving the sky blues a lot of ground to make up.
Images via FourFourTwo Statszone
