Arsenal 0-2 Man City (Asia Tour)

Arsenal suffered defeat in their friendly against Manchester City in Beijing earlier today. The game was fairly even, but City took their chances whereas the Gunners did not. Andre Santos, Theo Walcott and Carl Jenkinson all came close to scoring at least once, but it was City that took the lead through Pablo Zabaleta in the 41st minute. 3 minutes later, Yaya Toure made it 2-0, making it difficult to see Arsenal coming back. Two sloppy moments defensively, where Arsenal were caught out at the back, gave City their victory.

Unsurprisingly, Wenger made subs at the break and throughout the second half. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of those subs and his shot hit both posts before bouncing out. It was a friendly and a good test for Arsenal. Arsenal carried on creating chances, but failed to take any. They could have lost by more after getting caught on the break a few times, but City failed to take those chances. I have to say that Chuks Aneke, scorer against Malaysia in Tuesday’s friendly, really caught the eye today and impressed. I hope that he gets some first-team chances this year, perhaps in the domestic cups if Wenger decides to not take them seriously again.

The players may be missing a big show tonight in London for the Olympics’ opening ceremony, but they got a taste of England in China today, with heavy rain making playing conditions almost impossible. The rain really came down heavily in the second half, but having got through most of the game, I think the officials were willing to play those last 10 minutes or so, where under Premier League circumstances, they would probably have had to of abandoned it.

The most important thing is getting fitness levels up of course and Arsenal did that. It’s now onto Hong Kong for the game against Kitchee before they come back to England and prepare for their final friendly in Germany against Cologne.