An early red card gave Manchester City an easy route to a lead over Arsenal, but the Gunners couldn't capitalize when Vincent Kompany picked up a red card of his own. Mike Dean's sending off of the star City defender should have been an opportunity for Arsenal to get back into the game, but they were worse against 10 men than they were against 11, and City cruised to an easy 2-0 win.
Arsenal vs. Manchester City: Final score 0-2 as both teams see red
Mike Dean got two tough decisions spot on, sending off Laurent Koscielny and Vincent Kompany in a 2-0 Manchester City victory.
Laurent Koscielny was sent off in the 9th minute for a rugby tackle on Edin Dzeko inside the box. Dzeko went down easily, but it was a clear foul and denial of a goal-scoring opportunity. Fortunately for Arsenal, Dzeko took a very poor penalty, and Wojciech Szczesny was able to make a save.
That was the highlight of the day for the Gunners, and things quickly degenerated from there. James Milner scored City's first goal off a free kick and brilliant through ball by Carlos Tevez that caught Thomas Vermaelen napping. Dzeko scored the second on a cross by Pablo Zabaleta that took a deflection and was knocked away by Szczesny, but only as far as Dzeko.
A wholly uneventful second half should have been sparked to life when Mike Dean sent off Kompany in the 75th minute, but no such thing happened. Arsenal actually countered well against 11 men, but did almost nothing against 10 and never looked like coming back into the match.
See More:
