Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes that yesterday's impressive 3-0 win away to ten-man Manchester City will ignite a realistic title challenge for his side. Speaking afterwards, he was understandably delighted with the fighting nature of the performance at the City of Manchester Stadium.
"It was important to get a win in a big place to strengthen belief and continue our march forward," said the 61 year-old.
"I think that collectively, we completely dominated the game and I hope it will translate into confident performances in later fixtures."
The home side had Dedryck Boyata sent off five minutes in after his clumsy challenge clearly denied striker Marouane Chamakh a goal-scoring opportunity and from then on, Roberto Mancini's charges were always underdogs.
A crisp passing movement mid-way through the first period saw Andrey Arshavin put Samir Nasri clear on the right and the Frenchman beat Joe Hart at the near post to net his fourth league effort of the season.
In a feisty contest, there was still time before the interval for Mark Clattenburg to hand out five bookings and for Hart to save a penalty from Cesc Fabregas.
City started brightly in the second half, and the Gunners' goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was called upon to make some impressive saves, as the Pole looked to stake a claim for the starting berth even when Manuel Almunia returns from injury.
Having weathered the storm, two more typically well put together attacks saw Alex Song and substitute Nicklas Bendtner put some flattering gloss on the scoreline late on.
Following the win, that sees Arsenal move up to second in the Premier League table on goal difference, their boss continued to praise the concentration of his team.
"It looked to me from the bench that it was a sending off and the referee had no option," Wenger, who last week admitted to harbouring an interest in Bolton's Gary Cahill, went on. After the sending off it became electric and we got some yellow cards quite quickly. It was very important that we did not get a second yellow."
"I asked the players at half-time to focus on playing football and not just defending our advantage."
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Benedikt Hoewedes has joined the growing list of German defenders linked with a move to Arsenal. According to widespread sources in England, Germany, Italy and Spain, the Gunners are interested in signing the Schalke centre-half, and could soon table a bid on the order of €9.1 million.
