City Penalty Sinks Arsenal

Congratulations to Stuart Pearce and his Manchester City side on an improbable victory against Arsenal, achieved through a combination of good teamwork, dogged resistance in the face of the opposition’s technical superiority, and the benevolence of referee Uriah Rennie, who granted City a penalty after ignoring a foul on Fabregas seconds earlier and controversially denied the visitors a spot kick on two occasions when they might reasonably have expected one.

No-one could deny that Arsenal created, and missed, a hatful of chances. They rattled the post twice and the crossbar once. Thierry Henry, uncharacteristically, missed on three occasions when clean through and on another day Rosicky, Fabregas, Van Persie, Hleb, Eboue and Gilberto might also have been on the score sheet. But after the week he has had, Stuart Pearce deserves a bit of luck and so do his players – whereas Arsenal just deserved a better referee.