Arsenal vs Manchester City - Emirates Stadium, London - Tuesday 17th April 2007

After the awful and extremely worrying defeat against West Ham, came the vital, much needed and altogether much more encouraging victory over Bolton. This set us a long way towards securing 4th place, the loss of which would be a total and utter disaster for the club. Victory tonight against Man City would pretty much complete the job, barring a strange end to the season at least. With Man City having a mixed time of things lately, and with winning and scoring becoming familiar things for Arsenal once again, it was eminently achieveable.

Everything started quite strangely in the first half - Arsenal scored first. Most unusual. However, Man City equalised, so we went in at half time level, which was a bit more normal (actually a bit better than some recent home games). In all honesty, the first half wasn't all that much to write home about - some good chances, some good posession, but nothing too remarkable all in all. This was of course the first evening game since the clocks went forward, so many around me were just enjoying the warm weather, rather than paying too much attention to the game.

The second half was familiarly frustrating - many chances created and missed, and a few scary moments at the other end, where we almost conceded on a couple of occasions. Then, with around 20 minutes to go, Cesc Febregas scored the winner, a fantastic volley from outside the box, that would have deserved to win any game. It was one of those ferocious shots that you could tell was sailing in from the moment it left his boot. He went mental (as he did after his goal in the Bolton game), and the sense of relief was obvious in the crowd.

Clearly, though, with a defence as shaky as Arsenal's at the moment, that did not make the game safe, or calm nerves completely. It took a third goal on 80 minutes to do that - Baptista scored it, giving him a goal which his performance did not really deserve, pedestrian as he was after coming on as a substitute midway through the second half.

The person that was similarly unlucky not to score was Adebayor - again. He works tirelessly for the team up front, often on his own, and his hard work really deserved a goal again. He hasn't scored in the League since December, and it is fair to say he really needs a goal right now, to get his confidence back. At some points you could see him getting frustrated when things just weren’t falling for him – given his performances and hard work in holding the fort up front on his own, lets hope the goals come along soon for him – against Spurs on Saturday would be a most excellent place to start.