Arsenal failed to make their dominance count, and City's decision to sit back and contain the wounded Gunners drastically reduced the tempo of the match.
Right from the onset it was clear all City wanted was to frustrate the Gunners by curtailing their activities within Shay Given/Nielsen's penalty area whenever they could. Although, there were a few decent chances - the mere fact that we didn't convert any means our hopes of playing in the Champions League for the umpteenth time might still be hanging in the balance. Even though, the Gunners have the edge over Spurs and City, they can't afford not to win at least one of their remaining two matches.
Arsene Wenger believes City came to North London to draw. The Arsenal manager told Arsenal.com: "It was an afternoon I am not used to because we created very few chances and Man City didn't create anything. They were highly focussed on defending well.
"They didn't give us any space and we could not find the opener. For as long as we couldn't do that it was a locked game basically. There were very few chances. It was two teams who played well defensively, had very good discipline but created very few chances," the Frenchman said.
Meanwhile, Roberto Mancini [Manchester City's coach] has denied that his/City's gameplan was to draw at the Emirates: "We do not play to draw, never, but in the first half Arsenal were better than us and had more possession," he said.
"We defended very well and were better in the second half, so the draw was a fair result.
"We have three more games, and they will be crucial games, to decide the season," The Italian concluded.
