City stacked their defence, with Carlos Tevez their sole marauder up front, and did not record a single shot on goal. The result was a 0-0 draw with an Arsenal side who struck the woodwork three times but could not make the final breakthrough.
Manchester City, who have spared no expense in building a side designed to win the Premier League, displayed a parsimony on the pitch diametrically opposed to their off-field extravagance at the Emirates on Wednesday.
City stacked their defence, with Carlos Tevez their sole marauder up front, and did not record a single shot on goal. The result was a 0-0 draw with an Arsenal side who struck the woodwork three times but could not make the final breakthrough.
Remarkably both managers pronounced themselves satisfied with a night's work that kept City in second place behind Manchester United and one spot ahead of Arsenal.
City manager Roberto Mancini made no apology for his team's lack of ambition.
"When you play Arsenal here it's the same as when you play Barcelona, you have to play very well, you have to defend," he told a news conference.
"If a team play well you have to defend. Arsenal played very well in the first half and we had to defend."
City defender and man-of-the-match Kolo Toure was equally unrepentant. "Strikers win matches, defenders win leagues," he said.
Although both sides lost ground on United, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger saw no reason to amend his belief that his current side are capable of winning the league for the first time in seven years.
"I think we had the performance but not the result," he said. "I take a lot of encouragement from tonight's game.
"We should come out with even more belief in our ability. We have shown that we have what it takes to succeed.
"The regret I have tonight is that we didn't take our early chances. That would have changed the game. They came here to get a nil-nil and they got what they wanted.
"I believe that if we had have scored the first goal it would have changed tremendously. We faced long, long periods in the game when we played against 10 men and I have never seen Tevez so deep."
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