Arsenal reax

Amy Lawrence, The Observer

With City fielding three holding midfielders beefing up the orchestra, and Carlos Tevez leading the line as a soloist, neither team were able to be at their most creative. "It was a locked game, basically," concluded Arsène Wenger, who was not that disappointed in the end. "We are 90% there," he said of third place. "And after three defeats you could see the players felt it was absolutely forbidden to lose, so they didn't throw everything forward blindly."

Conrad Leach, Independent on Sunday

Yet, if nothing else, his appearance enlivened a desperately poor game, one where Manchester City were content, from the start, with a point in their quest for fourth place. It was also one where the hosts were not good enough, as Arsène Wenger admitted, to break down a defence that was marshalled by Kolo Touré, another well-received former Gunner.

Patrick Collins, Mail on Sunday

With Villa and Spurs at home and West Ham away, he plainly believes the job is almost done. But the ovation which rang out from the travelling fans will have found no echoes around the rest of the nation. A side so expensively assembled, with entertainment a stated goal, should have been capable of better than dreary pragmatism.

Duncan Castles, Sunday Times

Minus his usual centreforward, Mancini elected to change formations. The priority was to stop Arsenal playing as tackles flew in from all angles, and though City lost Wayne Bridge to a thigh injury midway through the first half, it made little difference to the flow of play. Arsenal tried to work their way through three lines of defence, winning the occasional unconverted set-piece. Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri each had angled shots but both hit side netting. Vieira busied himself in wrestling matches with Diaby and Alex Song, stubbornly refusing to be brought down to the turf by either successor in the Arsenal midfield. In a manoeuvre from training grounds of yore, the Frenchman was poised to shoot on goal only to be stopped by Sol Campbell.

Oliver Brown, Sunday Telegraph

In mitigation, Manchester City seemed to have even less inspiration in the art of finishing fourth. Only Tottenham fans could have drawn any pleasure from this blunt display by City, as the tireless toil of Carlos Tévez proved all in vain. Roberto Mancini looked pensive and pained; he also looked, with his thick scarf belying these balmy days of spring, just a little daft.

Arsenal player ratings

Given Made a few comfortable saves before the sprawling stretch to his left from Abou Diaby which dislocated his shoulder. Our chances of fourth looks less good without him. 7

Zabaleta Returned at right-back ahead of Nedum Onuoha. A very solid performance, not missing a single tackle, before an injury saw him move to left back. The same thing happened in this fixture last season, and he was impeccable again, despite having nowhere near the pace of Theo Walcott. It's telling just how keen Mancini is to have him on the pitch at all times, regardless of position. He's a real lieutenant. 7

Touré Possibly his best game for City; after consitent improvent for the last month or so. He stuck with Robin van Persie's mercurial movement in the early passages, making a few heroic blocks when it mattered. Had a more comfortable second half but organised the back four well, particularly when Given went off. 7

Kompany Very composed today: no panics, and his reading of the game and touch in possession were both exceptional. Deserves not to be supplanted by a summer purchase. Not sure he can be sure of that though. 7

Bridge In this game last year he lasted seventeen minutes before going off with a groin injury. This time it was 27 minutes before his knee gave way. Played well enough while on the pitch. 6

Vieira A shadow of the man who bossed Arsenal midfields for so long. He was second to every 50/50 ball and lacked the combatism of his long term successor, Alex Song. Made one surge into the box but it had none of the brutal authority of his glory days. All this meant that Mancini could remove him for Adebayor without compromising the team too much. 4

de Jong The heart of our defensive wall, he had some important tackles to make and unlike Vieira was first to everything. Impressive stuff. 7

Barry Did well in the first half breaking up play in front of the back four. Could not quite find Bellamy and Johnson in advanced positions, as is so important to our 4-5-1 counter-attacking system. Got forward more in the second half and had our best opportunity when advanced down the left, but failed to find a final ball. 6

Johnson Another big game, another poor performance. It's a big step coming up from the Championship so it is understandable but he does look out of his depth against the top sides. He was anonymous as he was against Chelsea, Liverpool and United - never getting on the ball, never running at the full-back. Wright-Phillips must be frustrated. 4

Tévez Isolated when leading the line in the first half, he could never get in the game. Better in the second half when Adebayor came on and he could drop back into his second striker role. He saw much more of the ball but nothing quite came off for him. 5

Bellamy Fantastic defensive work. He spent so much time stationed just in front of the left back, which was crucial against Bacary Sagna. Not afraid to come into the middle to help out when necessary, as proven by his battle with Alex Song. Not too influential in the final third but a good performance. 7

Subs:

Richards Came back into the side at right back ahead of Onuoha. Competent defensively - with the exception of brainless free-kick conceded for shirt pulling late on, and was well involved in the game going foward. 6

Adebayor The man at the centre of the storm was wisely benched but came on to good effect early in the second half. He held the ball up well, giving us some attacking impetus, even if he didn't create or score anything. Managed to avoid inciting near-riots or trying to blind an opponent which I suppose is to be applauded. 7

Nielsen A fairly daunting City debut for the Faroese keeper. Dealt competently with everything thrown at him. Could make himself a City legend in the next three games. 6

Arsenal preview

Things look less good than they did ten days ago. Last Wednesday we were four points ahead of a Spurs side who had just lost a draining, demoralising FA Cup semi to Portsmouth and who faced consecutive home games against Arsenal and Chelsea. From somewhere they conjured up their two best performances of the season and won both games 2-1, while we lost yet another stoppage time defeat to Manchester United. Now we're two points behind, with inferior goal difference and our chances of doing it look less than 50%. Not the best time, then, for Arsenal away - a fixture in which we have an abject record. We've been to Emirates three times and lost all three, conceding six and scoring one - and that was DaMarcus Beasley.

Nevertheless, I'm more confident than I ought to be about this game. Our away form is pretty good: three wins and two draws from our last five, for reasons I've pointed to here. In short, we can park the bus relatively well and have real pace and incision on the break. With that in mind, I favour the replication of the gameplan from Chelsea away. This means dropping Emmanuel Adebayor, which could actually do us a favour in terms of taking away one of the few motivations of the Arsenal fans and players at this stage in the season. I'd line up a front three of Craig Bellamy, Carlos Tévez and Shaun Wright-Phillips, on the basis that Adam Johnson has played three games against 'Big Four' sides this so far for us and has contributed nothing of note in any of them. There are three candidates for the extra spot in midfield - Stephen Ireland, Pablo Zabaleta and Arsenal legend Patrick Vieira. I'd go for Vieira and put Zabaleta at right-back ahead of Nedum Onuoha.

Why 4-3-3? Because I don't think we can afford to go 4-4-2, as thrilling as it would be to see Adebayor charging at Sol Campbell and Mickaël Silvestre. Arsenal always dominate possession but without a three man shield in front of our back four I think Samir Nasri would pick us off. Obviously we're compromising on goal threat to an extent, but Arsenal's vulnerability on the break at home has been well-proven by Everton and Manchester United this season already. I'd still feel confident if we can get Tévez and Bellamy at full pelt with only Campbell, Silvestre and the laughable Lukasz Fabianski between them and the net.

It's for that reason that I back us grab more goals and points than people are expecting. It might only be a 1-1 but it's not impossible against an Arsenal side that are deprived of both motivation and key players. Last Saturday was a huge blow, but under Mancini we have a remarkable record of winning after major disappointments. After our dismal loss at Goodison Park we beat United in the League Cup semi first leg. After losing the second leg in stoppage time we beat Pompey at home. After losing disastrously at the KC Stadium we beat Bolton. After going out of the FA Cup at Stoke we won at Stamford Bridge. And after that soul-sapping home defeat to Everton we beat Wigan. People like to say that this is a side entirely lacking in spirit, and I've been guilty of this too. But we're stronger in adversity than people think, and I think the memory of last Saturday could just work for us. So I'm forecasting 1-1, and ground made up on Spurs.