By Andy Strouthous
October 26 2004

Its becoming a tradition that Arsenal full backs score in this fixture. Fortunately this time it was at the right end. Which was more than fortunate as this proved to be a tight game. At times the City goal seemed to have a charmed life, and perhaps on another day we will have a hatful. Freddy had his special falling over boots on that take him at speed into the box, and then, yes you guessed it. Campbell brought confidence to the defence, and Lehman had a very sound game.

City's confidence was riding high, it was probably their willingness to push forward and have a go that kept the score low, their defence made its usual mistakes, but a combination of James, and not quite accurate shooting, kept Arsenal's tally down. Arsenal played, in patches, some lovely football, but the longer it stayed at 0-1 City's confidence grew. Thus it was a bit hair raising in the last 20 minutes, with SWP getting up to some lively tricks, and Anelka rifling in a few, but Lehman was not to be beaten from a distance. Arsenal well deserved the result and will play worse and get more goals in future matches.

I do not know what it will do for Cygan's confidence, he must be feeling pissed off, he could feel he is the one who gets it in the neck, even when Wenger blames the whole defence. It's important he is not left out of games for too long or he will become a fringe player. I don't agree with the "freak" comments, he lacks pace but we should still be able to organise the defence better when he plays. It will not be good to lose him. He is a good squad player who often plays better in Europe than in Premiership. He also has better ball control and distribution than Campbell, perhaps they should be grafted on one and other.

Were Arsenal playing with one eye on Wednesday, it didn't seem like it, but Wenger substituted Reyes early and kept Bergkamp on - so perhaps he did

Perhaps the pleasing thing was that the defence kept its 3rd clean sheet this season, and our average concession rate is now less than a goal a game.

Meanwhile George Graham must be in Heaven as 1-0 has become the fashion again, with One nils to Chelski and Manure as well. Middlesbrough and Spuds were far too timid and gave too much respect to the opposition. It was like watching paint dry as Chelksi struggled to score for over 80 mins. Just when it looked like Middlesboro could get into the game Mclaren made substitutions that made them even more ineffective, and sure enough the goal followed.