IF ARSENAL were struggling to afford Shaun Wright-Phillips before he dealt their title bid a major blow, they would surely be unable to prise him away from Manchester City now.
But while the England winger's potential transfer value continues to soar with each superb display, it was the damage to Arsenal's championship chances which proved even more costly.
Only an inspirational overhead kick by Thierry Henry which set up Freddie Ljungberg for a late equaliser prevented Wright-Phillips' 30-yard drive from handing City their first Highbury win since 1975.
However, in truth, the damage was already done. For with Chelsea again winning, Arsenal's failure to keep pace with the leaders meant that the gap at the top has widened to a worrying seven points.
Only in a frantic late surge, with Robin van Persie striking the bar, did an inexperienced Arsenal side even threaten to pull off an unlikely comeback.
For not only was Wright-Phillips superb throughout, being watched by his stepfather, the Arsenal scoring legend Ian Wright, but so too were many of his team-mates.
Joey Barton may have let himself down at his club's Christmas party, but he never stopped battling in midfield.
And the central defensive duo of Richard Dunne and Sylvain Distin were simply inspired as they held Arsenal at bay for so long.
Moreover, City were without leading scorer Nicolas Anelka, who was said to have a back injury, even if his absence did not induce Kevin Keegan into a safety-first policy.
Many other sides may have arrived at Highbury with a five-man midfield, but that is an alien concept to the City boss, who paired Jon Macken with Robbie Fowler.
Indeed, with just 35 seconds gone, Fowler's powerful header was acrobatically saved by Manuel Almunia at full-stretch and that set the tone for the first half.
Arsenal, who were forced to field an inexperienced line-up, threatened on the break, with 20-year-old Justin Hoyte shooting straight at David James on a rare forward surge.
However, City were otherwise working tirelessly to close Arsenal down in midfield, giving the home side little time to settle on the ball and few openings for Henry.
The Gunners were struggling to find their normal rhythm, even if there was still little warning of what was to come when Patrick Vieira was harried off the ball by Barton some 30 yards out.
The ball fell to Wright-Phillips and the exciting winger instantly let fly with an exquisite drive which flew into the top corner, giving Almunia no time in which to react.
If it was not for Sven-Goran Eriksson's unwavering faith in David Beckham, it would surely not be long before Wright-Phillips displaced the England captain from the national team.
However, Wright-Phillips was not finished there and promptly set Fowler through minutes later only for Hoyte to save the day with a last-ditch tackle.
Arsenal finally responded, with Vieira rising to meet Robert Pires' corner, but the ball flashed inches past the post as the Frenchman held his head in his hands.
Almost inevitably, Arsenal increased their pressure after the restart, with Distin deflecting Cole's low cross just past his own upright.
Cole's own header was also well saved by James, although Arsenal were struggling to make any real impression on City's superb central defensive partnership.
City's own attacking threats were reduced, with Macken failing to keep his shot on target at full-stretch after a mis-hit clearance by Almunia.
But Wenger needed to make a change, introducing Jermaine Pennant for Fabregas with 25 minutes left and moving Pires into central midfield as Ljungberg switched flanks.
Arsenal duly came again, with Pires producing a dipping half-volley, which James tipped over the bar.
With 15 minutes left, they were finally level, with Henry catching the entire City defence unawares with his moment of magic.
Ben Thatcher looked to be playing Ljungberg onside as Henry's overhead kick cross reached the Swede and his header beat James from eight yards out.
However, the winner agonisingly eluded them as van Persie rifled a free-kick against the crossbar soon afterwards, with Ljungberg unable to control the rebound.
Arsenal huffed and puffed in the final stages, but victory eluded them. City took the credit at Highbury but the real spoils of the night were being enjoyed across London at Stamford Bridge.
What did you think of City's performance? Have your say.
Tweet
Comments
Login or Register to comment
CTID - Dunnie was the Monster - Shaunie and Robbie the inspiration!! We are City and we'll laugh and cry in equal measure for as long as we are City.....
SWP is our answer to the centre mid-filed play maker scorer issue. He has scored 3 fantastic goals this Christmas from centre mid-field. his distribution is excellent, and his dribbling sublime. Midfield should be Another, Bosvelt, SWP, Flood.
Well done the lads tonight. shame about Macken not clearing the lines quick enough, to make their goal offside, but an excellent point never the less.
We mustn't sell Distin or Anelka. We are better than Newcastle. We should stablelize and try and sort the left midfield position out, as I think we can improve on Sibs.
Well done the lads. CTID
Superb!
Pity donkey Macken didn't move back a bit quicker!
Did you hear Hanson quote B#25-B#30m price tag for our SWP ? (cheap as chips!)
A brilliant TEAM performance from CITY who deserved to win.
Arsenal,s goal was clearly off side.
Well done you BLUES!
We played a blinder tonight, Dunnie is brilliant and Onuaho needs to stay in the team. James was lucky a number of times, as was Barton. SWP at what price.....our future.
Go blues!
EVERYONE PLAYED WITH AN INNER STRENGTH APART FROM MACKEN, DISTIN AND SIBIERSKI WHO WERE V.POOR!
Proud of you City. Great performance, we showed Arsenal that we came to play. Should have won the game, but once again, Arsenal got the benefit of the offside. Bring on Crystal Palace, 3 more pts on Sat. Come on the Blues!
Never a dull moment, almost makes you feel sorry for the fans of teams who win all the time. The high's seem that much higher when you have experienced the lows that we have. I've been a city fan for over 40 year's and would'nt swap them for anything, O.K. I'm boozed but what a great team effort.Ctid....
Pity that Citeh can't play teams who set out to play footie from the first whistle and try to thrash us every game! Let's see if Palace want to play with us and them the Baggies at their place.
Keep with what we've got and make the likes of the Sinclair's and Reyna's work their way back into the first team and earn their place.
I could quite easily live with this little squad team for the rest of the season.
Where is FRED THE RED now? SWP was magnificent last night at Highbury watch out Oldham. Please keep it up City you did us proud.
good result but disapointing to see that we conceded with 15 minuetes to go. can someone tell me is jordan injured or has thatcher just walked straight back in the side. good to see the three young guns all featured at some stage. young onuha looks like a future international, move over danny mills. despretly need a left winger. maybe young ahmad el rich could come in. he is young and an attacking left winger and would cost nothing.
shows we dont need the elk, but i'm still not convinced macken is prem league material. the team spirit was in evidence again, on this form we should finish top 6 or 7 .
swp, when on form like this is unstoppable, makes you proud to be a blue. WELL DONE LADS.
I sensed it. Ofcourse a very very good result indeed. I was unfortunately only able to see the highlights. On that evidents it looked like a deserved point with SWP (ofcourse) and RD/SD outstanding.
Bit of luck in the end, but that's what you get and deserve if you play that well.
The night was spoiled a tiny bit as ManYoe dropped points as well, although even I could have seen that Spurs goal go in watching from my window and looking in the direction of Manchester.
All the news reports are saying that Arsenal dropped two points in their chase of Chelsea, but in reality it is City who dropped 2 points to an inferior Arsenal on the night. That just goes to show that with a few key players out, Arsenal are not so tough to beat. Nor are any team in the Premiership if City play with self belief as do Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Man U at the moment. This self belief is the key to success. With a bit more of this City can get into Europe next year. Told you so !
Outstanding defensive display by City,especially Dunne,Distin and Onuha.SOme good attacking spells also.The only lightweight again was Sib,we definately need a left sided midfielder.SWP ansd Fowler worked their socks off.It was a shame that Macken played the Arsenal goal onside.CTID
Great match to watch. Dunne, Distin were standout. Commentators on TV were raving about both. Could have used Elk's speed. Don't sell anyone of the starting 11!
AN ABSOLUTLY FANTASTIC TEAM PERFORMANCE!!From james in goal,distin and dunne tremendous at the back young nedum showed great composure and we built from there. Fowler lead from the front covering every blade of grass - Much improved and really looks like he wants it now!!........
Rumours of Anelka going to liverpool today. Will be a bad loss in my opinion. Will be V hard to replace with player of same ability.
Fantastic result, we almost whacked them in their own backyard!! Credit to KK for putting a team out to have a go at them, but our defence was the outstanding factor. (besides Sweep's goal of course!) Lets hope that we get a decent return on the sale of Nico, because we still need a playmaker in the centre of the park. More proof that Nico upsets the team when he plays, this season. Oldham next, should be a formality.......
Great game. City should've won. I'm sure the Arsenal goal was offside and City just didn't let them settle. The midfield, besdies Sibierski were really good and didn't waste too many balls. Dunne was magnificent in defence. Oh for a speedy striker if Anelka is not available. Saw Palace play Villa off the park on the box, so we may have a cracker when the two meet shortly and I'll be there to watch from the stands instead of from 12,000 miles away!
Good result. A point i didn't expect us to get, but then its always disappointing when we hold on for so long and then concede an equaliser. Definitely a plus though. Jordan was injured against WBA, went off at half-time. Presume he's still feeling the effects? Thatcher can't have displaced him that easily, not after the performances he was putting in for us.
A very good result and overall an excellent performace particularly as I thought we played with ten men-Sibierski was non existent and tackles like a powder puff (how could they give him 7 out of 10). Thought Dunnie and Onuha were great but we do need a clever leftsided player. Not sure that Thatcher should keep his place when Jordan is fit. Fowler at long last seems to be justifying his price tag and what acracker from SWO. Thought Joey was starting to labour after around 60 mins but read that he was carrying a leg.
Well done the Blues but still doesn't chnage my opinion about KKK.
We mustn't sell anyone if we can help it - we're on the up and up! Touchwood SWP has priced himself out of the market.....
City were fantastic! All credit to City and KK for going for an out and out win here, which they would have got if Macken hadn't been camped out on the goal line, making Ljungberg's goal onside. Listening to the match on GMR, Macken's name was hardly mentioned, apart from when he was caught offside on more than one occasion. Not good enough. BWP should be given a chance - he would certainly be more exciting to watch.
Good result as I am sure the manager had got the game down as an empatic home win on his coupon.
Pity we couldn't hang on but I put this down to a complete lack of tactical awareness by the manager and his team.
If Joey Barton was carrying an injury why not get him off.KK left Stephen Jordan on far too long last week at the CoM stadium.
Also with 30 minutes to go why persist with John Macken when he could have beefed up the midfield and frustrated the life out of Arsenal.
I've now realised what a massive mistake it was in letting Paulo Wanchope go.
City displayed immense bouncebackability time and time again throughout periods of dramatic unrest taking no gambles at the back and they exposed faults in the Arsenal team who were below parr. They penetrated the arsenal back four and determination, sheer fighting spirit and unquestionable unity was vital.