City pile on misery for Gunners with win at Eastlands
Saturday, 22 Nov 2008 23:02
Ireland (right) and Robinho (centre) were on target for Mark Hughes' side
Arsenal's week went from bad to worse after Manchester City beat the Gunners 3-0 at Eastlands thanks to strikes from Stephen Ireland, Robinho and Daniel Sturridge.
City opened the scoring on the stroke of half time as Ireland benefited from confusion in the Arsenal defence before smashing into the top corner.
Shaun Wright-Phillips set up Robinho for a simple second goal on the hour-mark before Sturridge scored a penalty to complete the win.
Arsenal had already been rocked by the William Gallas affair which saw manager Arsene Wenger omit the defender from his match-day squad.
However, the Gunners' defeat was their second successive loss and means they have only taken four points from their last five games.
Arsenal looked a shadow of the side that had beaten Manchester United two week's ago and were missing Cesc Fabregas, Theo Walcott and Emanuel Adebayor along with Gallas.
Neither side threatened early on but the game jumped into life when Ireland broke the deadlock.
His goal came after Mikael Silvestre and Gael Clichy both went for the same ball. As the pair avoided a near-miss Silvestre's off-balance clearance went straight to Ireland who powered a shot into the top corner.
Robinho finished Arsenal off with a sublime piece of showmanship. Wright-Phillips scampered down the wing and crossed for the Brazilian who calmly dinked the ball over the on-rushing Manuel Almunia.
Robinho almost made it 3-0 ten minutes from full time when Denilson carelessly gave the ball away on the half-way line. The Brazilian streaked clear and rounded the goalkeeper only to see Johan Djourou clear his shot off the line.
With time running out Sturridge was unnecessarily bundled over by Djourou on the by-line to give away a penalty. The youngster waived away Elano to take the kick himself and sent Almunia the wrong way to put an exclamation point on Arsenal's bad day.
The Gunners' fourth place in the league now looks increasingly under threat from Aston Villa.