Arsenal Vs. Manchester City, 2012 Premier League: Balotelli At It Again?

Remember that Mario Balotelli challenge that nearly took Alex Song's leg off? Or at least, remember reading about it? It looks like the Italian striker has the exact same thing to Bacary Sagna - the ball bounces, the striker goes in studs up, and the Arsenal right back yells out and goes down in a heap. Only he was barely touched, so that's probably a dive. Not that I don't endorse trying to get Balotelli sent off at this point, because he deserved to be earlier...

Anyway, Arsenal manage to win a free kick thanks to a Gareth Barry slide tackle on Kieran Gibbs, which forces Joe Hart to scramble clear before some scary moments in the centre of the box for City. They're relieved thanks to some typical Arsenal over-elaboration.

A couple of seconds later and Wojciech Szczesny, who's basically been a bystander today, comes to Arsenal's rescue after a lovely through ball from Vincent Kompany splits the Gunners' centre backs and looks poised to send Balotelli clear through on goal. Szczesny spots the danger and races out of his box juuuust ahead of the striker, and somehow doesn't get spiked in the knee in so doing. Excellent work. Still 0-0.