And with that, I’m off. It’s been joyful. Bye!
Two more Mesut Özil assists helped Arsenal to victory over a Manchester City side who only woke up in the final quarter-hour and couldn’t quite recover
Updated
Mon 21 Dec 2015 17.05 EST
First published on Mon 21 Dec 2015 14.00 EST
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“We know our quality. If we play our game we can win the league,” adds Özil as he collects the man of the match award.
Here’s your super soaraway match report:
Arsenal have a great chance now to win the league. They must still, however, visit Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Manchester City, so their second half-season looks a little tougher than their first. “I am happy to help the team,” says Özil. “On the pitch my team-mates help me, and I can play my game. So I try to help the team. I tried to give my best, and yeah, we won the game.”
So, in summary, the grass was a little short at kick-off but over the first half-hour it grew just the right amount, allowing Arsenal to dominate exchanges until it got a little overlong towards the end. Oh for a fourth mow! The Gunners are now favourites for the title, with William Hill making them 11-10, and City 15-8.
Final score: Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City
90+5 mins: It’s over! And City’s 15 minutes of excellence is nearly – but not quite – good enough to make up for their 75 minutes of impotence.
90+5 mins: And another one. No hurry. Tick tock.
90+4 mins: Arsenal win a throw-in on the left, in City’s half. And then another one. The clock ticks.
90+2 mins: Everything’s going down City’s right, where Sagna-Touré-Navas are controlling the traffic. Sterling, out on the left, has done very little since coming on.
90+1 mins: The referee wants four minutes of stoppage time, and Giroud wastes the first of them pretending to be hurt.
90 mins: City are hammering on the door now. Battering at it. Sterling passes to Otamendi, who pulls out of the challenge as Giroud slides in. As a result of which, Giroud wins the ball. A natural penalty-area predator would probably have got his toe to that and won a penalty.
89 mins: Arsenal reinforce their defence with Chambers, who replaces Walcott.
87 mins: Arsenal have 11 men back now. Touré plays a one-two with De Bruyne, whose return ball is just fractionally out, and the Ivorian stretches and turns the ball behind.
Great finish!
— R.Lukaku Bolingoli10 (@RomeluLukaku9) December 21, 2015
86 mins: City are knocking on the door. Here’s Touré opening it:
Unreal finish by Yaya. pic.twitter.com/iGUdHhRU5f
— City Watch (@City_Watch) December 21, 2015
84 mins: And then Bony flicks the ball into the path of the onrushing De Bruyne, and only a lovely flick of the boot from Mertesacker denies the Belgian a near-certain goal. Suddenly, anything is possible!
83 mins: And moments after the kick-off Ramsey is played through, but his attempted curling cross-goal chip floats wide.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City (Touré, 82 mins)
Arsenal ignore Touré on the edge of the area – which, on the basis of this match, was a reasonable enough risk to take – and get punished for it, as he lets the ball roll across his body before sidefooting it with his left foot perfectly into the top corner. Lovely finish.
81 mins: Ramsey makes a fine run into the area, but Oxlade-Chamberlain is not Özil, and his chipped pass flies out of play. “in regards to Colin Livingstone’s comment – Lovren, or maybe Skrtel,” ripostes Paul Quigley.
80 mins: While down the other end, Walcott has a low shot from just outside the area that Hart dives on.
79 mins: Chance for City! Fernandinho spears the ball through to Navas, who looked fractionally offside, but instead of taking a clear shot he attempts a difficult pass to the covered Bony.
76 mins: Özil is off, which means Arsenal are now officially banned from further scoring. Oxlade-Chamberlain comes on.
75 mins: City win a corner, from which Bony heads goalwards. It’ll go down as an effort on target, but there’s little power in the header and Cech gobbles it up. “I wonder what name you might pick for a centre back that can mangle a pass, mangle a tackle or mangle almost any aspect of being a centre back?” wonders Colin Livingstone.
73 mins: David Silva is off and Jesús Navas is on. Also, Gibbs came on for Campbell a few moments ago.
72 mins: … and from the looks of City’s performance he’s not alone. From the first glimpse of any kind of adversity they have stunk the house out tonight. Yaya Touré does something, which makes a change, taking the ball into the area before diving miserably. The referee doesn’t book him, kindly.
71 mins: “I’m confused Simon. Is Aguero injured or did he leave early for Christmas holiday?” I don’t think he’s any more injured than he was a couple of hours ago – he was never expected to complete this game, and obviously felt he’d had enough.
69 mins: Arsenal don’t score again! Giroud chips a lovely pass to Ramsey, just inside the area, who chests it down but has two defenders crowding around his left foot. He checks back onto his right, and really should at that stage have spotted Walcott all alone a few yards away, but he was thinking only of goal by then, and shot wide.
68 mins: In the first half Arsenal rarely looked like scoring and nevertheless did, twice. In the second half they have been in a perpetual state of almost-scoring, and haven’t, yet.
65 mins: Bony is on now. And in this minute City celebrate the 400th (minute) anniversary of their last away league goal. Many happy returns!
63 mins: Otamendi’s diving tackle stops Campbell getting free in the area. He’s having to defend for two at the moment, because Mangala’s occupying some strange state in between existing and not existing.
@Simon_Burnton Ah, autocorrect... May have been going for 'ham-fistery' there...
— Panini Cheapskates (@CheapPanini) December 21, 2015
62 mins: City are down to 10 men – Agüero has left the field, even before Bony is ready to replace him. He’s got his anorak on and is sitting down, and Bony’s still pulling his socks up.
60 mins: How did Arsenal not score this? They break at pace and it ends with five on three as City’s midfield just can’t really be bothered getting back – they’re literally all standing around 20 yards away, watching – Campbell pokes through to Ramsey, but the midfielder’s first touch is bad and Hart is able to block the shot.