Roberto Mancini is in the firing line after once again sending his team out to play gilded opponents with one rather than three points the main aim.
Just like they did in the November home fixture against Manchester United, City opted to park the most expensive bus in world football in front of their goal and invite fellow title challengers to break them down.
That Arsenal failed was a combination of wasteful finishing, poor fortune – Arsene Wenger’s team hit the woodwork three times in the first half – and resolute City defending. Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Kolo Toure, Pablo Zabaleta and Micah Richards rode their luck in the opening 25 minutes when Arsenal were on fire but rolled their sleeves up to demonstrate that there is as much an art in defensive defiance as swashbuckling attacking.
“I’m responsible for my team, he is responsible for his team and you are responsible for judging the two ways,” sniffed Wenger afterwards, making it crystal clear to his audience which side had claimed the moral victory.
But, come the end of the season when prizes and entry tickets to Europe’s top table are being handed out, will Mancini or City’s Abu Dhabi owners care one jot about the attacking merits of an early January display against Arsenal? Of course they will not.
The end will justify the means if City finish in the top four and enter the Champions League elite for the first time.
Mancini, the cautious Italian pragmatist, knows this and knows his job will not be safe if he fails to deliver on the club’s minimum 2010-11 aim, give or take perceived negative tactics against Arsenal.
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