Arsenal reax

Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph

Tevez was a dribbling dervish through the middle. Wright-Phillips was a zephyr down the right, showing pace and verve. But the catalyst was Craig Bellamy, embodying Hughes’ call to get at Arsenal again and again. If there was one sadness on the night, barring Wenger’s undignified refusal to shake Hughes’ hand, it was the fact that Bellamy did not get the goal his endless endeavour deserved.

The Welshman was everywhere, creating Weiss’ goal, coaxing his team-mates to keep a high tempo, even bawling out the physio, Lee Nobes, when the ice for his knee did not arrive quickly enough. Probably too cold as well. City look so much sharper and up for the challenge with Bellamy in their midst.

Ian Herbert, The Independent

Whatever the controversies and sub-plots of the night, City delivered, with Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Craig Bellamy dazzling in the extreme. Their goals, taken with a first for the club by Vladimir Weiss, one of the young breed who some had feared might be elbowed out by the City juggernaut, will live in City lore for many a long year.

James Ducker, The Times

It was simply impossible to overstate how desperate everyone associated with City was to win, from the marketing men who did their best to rouse the crowd by dimming the lights before kick-off and projecting a blue moon on to one of the stands as the supporters belted out the club’s anthem, to the players, to Hughes and his staff to the owners. Khaldoon al-Mubarak watched from the directors’ box, the first time the City chairman has seen back-to-back City games in the flesh. Read into that what you will, but after the drudgery he was forced to sit through against Hull, Sheikh Mansour’s right-hand man will have been struck by the energy and exuberance of the team. You almost shared City’s hunger.

Ian Ladyman, Daily Mail

For all their recent and obvious flaws in the Barclays Premier League, where they have drawn seven successive games and are seventh in the table, City were superb, playing the type of football and scoring the kind of goals that the club's owners have spent £200million to see.

Kevin McCarra, The Guardian

The emphasis put on the occasion by City's manager had its risks. A disappointment for his best line-up would have been no preparation at all for confronting Chelsea at this ground in the league on Saturday. As it is, there should be a reward in replenished self-belief now. City will believe that their wait for a league victory may be approaching its end.

Whatever else is said about the side, no one could have depicted them last night as well-heeled footballers whose main ambition is to keep on collecting their wages. The home crowd certainly did not confine itself to a token interest. If City lacked anything in the first half it was the precision needed to lay on a really inviting chance.